Fisher Folk Faith - Mark 1:17

Mark 1:17       “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” (NIV)

            For the first nine years of my ministry, I was privileged to serve in a Scottish fishing village called Dunure. It was situated on the West coast of Scotland, overlooking the Firth of Clyde, which is the waterway to the Irish Sea. It’s a picturesque village with an old ruined castle that once owned by the powerful Kennedy clan. Quite recently, Season 3 of the popular Outlander television series has just been filmed down at Dunure harbor.

            The fishermen and their families taught me a lot about faith and ministry. They were very supportive but were also willing to let me know when I made mistakes. Their hard work and determination gave me many insights into courage and endurance; their faith and family ties helped me to understand the strength of being a community in both good and adverse times.

            When Jesus called the fishermen to be His first disciples, I think He knew that their tenacity and loyalty, as well as their candid and honest outlook on life, would bless His ministry and continue His mission long after He was gone. Christ may have given them a new calling to find, fish, and gather people to God’s Kingdom, but their own skills and determination would ensure the future successes of the Christian faith. In fact, we are indebted to those Galilean fishermen for the faith we embrace today, just as I am indebted to the Dunure fisher-folk for teaching me many lessons about life and ministry which I still practice years later.

Point to ponder

Who taught me about the Christian faith? What lessons of theirs do I still practice today?

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, we thank You for the calling of the disciples and especially the fisher-folk who supported and encouraged You throughout Your ministry. We also praise You for the success of their mission to the larger world and the blessings of faith that are now ours today. Grant us opportunities to share our Christian beliefs with other people in our own lives. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Today’s image is one of John’s crayon drawings of Dunure. If you would like to view a larger version, please click this link: Dunure.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. The church website can be read at this link: www.erinpresbyterian.org.

Castle

Scottish audio version here

Isaiah 32:14 The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks, (NIV)

I’ve a beautiful painting hanging over the fireplace in my home. It’s a picture of Dunure Castle, an old medieval fort that sits above a cliff on the west coast of Scotland. At one time, it was owned by the mighty Kennedys of Cassillis. They lorded over the region for several centuries and some of them were despicable despots. In the sixteenth century, Gilbert Kennedy roasted a local minister, Alan Stewart, on a spit in the castle dungeon. Gilbert did this to obtain the deeds of church lands to add to his possessions.

The painting was given to me by the people of Dunure when our family left Scotland to immigrate to America. Whenever I feel homesick, I look at the painting and remind myself of the great times and moments that I shared with the villagers over nine years.

During the summer, many of the village children and parents used to gather in the grounds of the castle on Sunday evenings to play rounders. It’s sort of like baseball only you use hula-hoops for bases and hit a tennis ball with a racket. We would play for hours on the green and it was a great way of blending the families in community activities.

Always in the background, the ruins of Dunure castle would watch over us and I sometimes wondered what the mighty Kennedys would have thought if they could have seen the local minister and villagers trespassing on their grounds. No doubt another Stuart would have been roasted!

The Kennedys built a fortress that they thought would endure forever, but as time went by, it fell apart and was ruined. Sometimes in our own lives we build emotional and spiritual fortresses around ourselves to keep us free from corruption and make us impervious to the world’s woes. Eventually time will have its way and even the strongest of us will grow weak and become frail. That’s when we need the mighty fortress of God to enable us to endure. That’s when we rely upon the Name of Jesus to keep us strong.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we depend upon You to get us through the good and bad times of life. You shield us from sin and help us to overcome our problems. We look to You for guidance and assurance, for safety and security. Be our mighty fortress and the guardian of our souls. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.