Two minutes from Peter’s house was as small RS McColl’s corner shop.  It was a great place for buying penny chews, sweetie cigarettes and gob-stoppers.  Peter was my best friend during primary school; Peter and his younger brother Bruce and myself would often head to RS McColl’s to see if we could spend the last of our pocket money on something totally useless – we usually succeeded!  The summer months were the best however, because in the summer months RS McColl’s always had a supply of bandie nets stacked at the front door.  There was always a sense of excitement and adventure if we thought we could catch a few minnows and things in our bandie nets.

We were fortunate to stay just ten-minute walks from Johnston Gardens where there was a lovely pond and a small river running through.  But we daren’t go fishing there in case the Keepers threw us out.  So we would go right out the back gates of the Gardens, up a wee lane and across to the burn that came from Walker Dam.  We played there a lot!  Just building dams and splashing about not infrequently getting soaked through and covered in mud.  But it was always a special day if we had one or two bandie nets and high hopes of catching some tiddlers.  We never did though.  Not once, not so’s I recall.

Memories of days like that still conjure up Huckleberry Finn dreams of a young lad sitting on the end of a jetty, dabbling his feet in the water, nothing more than a stick for a fishing pole, a worm for bait, and a safety pin for a hook. I doubt if the Huckleberry Finn’s of this world were be any more successful in their fishing exploits than I was with my bandie net!

It takes real expertise to be a good fisherman, whatever kind of fishing you might do.  To know the right spot on the river or the right kind of fly to use, to know when to strike and to have endless, endless patience.

One day, surrounded by crowds that were pressing in upon him, Jesus imposed on the good nature of a local fisherman called Simon who had pulled his boat up on the shoreline while he washed his fishing nets.  As Jesus sat in the boat he taught the crowd who had gathered on the shore.  Maybe the crowds were listening intently but I get the impression that Simon was not too bothered.  Simon had endured a long, hard and fruitless night’s labour.  Not for the first time you understand and very probably not the last time either.  No matter how many generations of experience were vested in him, as the skills of fishing were passed from father to son, there were still times he returned empty handed.  Getting home to bed would not have been a bad idea.  But Simon found himself out on the water once more.  At best he tolerated Jesus making use of his fishing boat perhaps in the hope that some small remuneration would come his way for his troubles, but the sooner he could get back home the better.

Simon knew that Jesus did not come from a fishing family.  He therefore, politely tolerates Jesus suggestion to take the boat further out to the deep water and cast the nets.  “We’ve worked hard all night long”, he says, “ and caught nothing.  But if you say so, I will let down the nets.”  The rest we might say is history!

Simon and his partners are well rewarded for allowing Jesus to use the boat but more than this Simon moves from being disinterested to really quite impressed.  Maybe Simon thinks that Jesus has some pretty keen skills as a fisherman for he achieved with remarkable ease that which Simon could not achieve after trying so hard all night.  All of a sudden Jesus becomes a very credible figure to Simon; Jesus has got Simon’s attention!  If I dare to put this in a fishing kind of image – Jesus is reeling Simon in!

Just what Jesus was teaching the crowds as he sat in the boat is not mentioned in the story.  At best the teachings had only entered into Simon’s subconscious for he wasn’t really listening – that is until now.  Suddenly it all sinks in and Simon is overwhelmed by the presence of the man standing before him.  Simon falls to his knees as much aware of his own sinfulness as he is of the holiness and presence of Jesus before him.

This is the moment when a good fisherman strikes.  And Jesus does – “Don’t be afraid: from now on you will be catching men.”

The Gospel stories of Jesus calling his disciple never cease to amaze me.  They always make it sound so utterly simple, so instantaneous.  Jesus says, “Follow me!” and they do, they just drop everything and go!  But I cannot think that Simon expected his new pathway in life to be all that simple.  Catching men may sound exciting, but if its anything like catching fish then Simon knew that there was a lot of hard work and preparation ahead of him, lots of long hours with nothing to show at the end of it, lots to learn about people and about this man Jesus of Nazareth.  And right enough that’s exactly what the next three years of Simon’s life was like.  He asked all kinds of stupid question, jumped to all kinds of wrong conclusions, sometimes scratched his head in bewilderment at the things Jesus taught, he did the donkeywork of preparing villages for Jesus arriving and only very occasionally had the opportunity thrust upon him to perform the same kind of miracles and healings that Jesus performed – with varying degrees of success.

Three years later things we getting a little scary, Jesus had been arrested, and just as predicted Simon had on three occasions denied that the even knew Jesus.  With Jesus dead and buried, Simon and the other disciples picked up what scraps of life were left and as John’s Gospel tells us they once again sat at the edge of a Lake and decide to go fishing.  Once again they work all night but catch nothing.  Once again Jesus comes to them and once again tells them to cast their nets.  And of course you know what happens – they catch so many fish that they are barely able to pull the nets in!  Talk about a sense of Deja vue!

There is almost a sense of Jesus teasing his disciples to see if they might recognise him in the repetition of that moment where it had all began three years before.  It’s almost like a private joke but you can sense the warmth and affection, which comes through it.  I can picture Jesus standing on the shore, with a rye smile on his face just waiting for the penny to drop as he re-enacts the moment they first met. And when the penny does drop – well the excitement is unbridled.

It is good to go back to the beginning.  There are times when we need to remember where we started out, how it all began and what a perilous journey it has been.  Sometimes we need that sense of excitement to be stirred up within us once more.  For we have each been called to be fishers of men though when the work seems long and hard and fruitless it is easy to grow despondent.  Will you remember the moment when you were first called to Follow Christ because you can never tell when He will take you back there again and renew your calling and re-invigorate your faith and despite your failings and doubts say to you “Don’t be afraid, Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men!”