No Little Town; No Quiet Night

Posted on December 19, 2019 by jwfisch

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O little town of Bethlehem,

How still we see thee lie;

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep

The silent stars go by.

The little town of Bethlehem is not so little today, and not so still. It’s a place where nights can be full of exploding shells instead of silent stars going by.

“If Jesus were to be born this year, he would not be born in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph would not be allowed to enter from the Israeli checkpoint, and so too the Magi. The shepherds would be stuck inside the walls, unable to leave their little town. Jesus might have been born at the checkpoint like so many Palestinian children while having the Magi and shepherds on both sides of the wall.”

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Posted in Christmas, Religious freedom, Tragedy | Tagged , | 2 Comments

In the company of shepherds

Posted on December 18, 2019 by jwfisch

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And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

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Posted in Christmas, worship | 3 Comments

Two beers and the Holy Spirit?

Posted on December 17, 2019 by jwfisch

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I love Sandie’s comment after yesterday’s Catch. I think we can all relate.

How about “Tidings of comfort and joy?” Do people look forward to your coming; do they blossom in your presence? Or do they look forward to your leaving, and breathe a sigh of thanks and relief when you do? We choose. Lord I’m trying so hard.

How many of you feel like that? I bet we all do at some point. When it comes to family, it seems like there is always someone who will try our patience. Someone who, as a very dear friend of mine said to me recently, “I have to down a couple beers before they get here.”

What do you do about people like that? What can you do? Well you can’t do anything about them; you can only do something about yourself. And like Sandie said, “We choose.” They’re coming anyway.

How many times have we all said, “Lord, I’m trying so hard”? That’s usually when we give up and discover, lo and behold, that the Lord actually loves this person we don’t like, and since He does, maybe He can show us what that looks like. Since the Holy Spirit is going to be there anyway, why not go along with Him and enjoy the party? The Lord died for everyone there; that’s why we can see everyone as worthy through His eyes. Yes, God saw something of great value in the person we find hard to love — enough to die for. 

Besides, how do I know I’m not the one someone else needs a couple of beers and the Holy Spirit to endure?

Posted in Christmas, family, relationships | 4 Comments

Peace and good will

Posted on December 16, 2019 by jwfisch

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I don’t know if it is just a busy year, or the deep-seated cultural malaise that has set in over such political divisiveness and ill will in this country that has sucked some good out of the good cheer of Christmas, but it just doesn’t seem like a normal Christmas around here. How about you? It seems like decorations went up late, and some houses just don’t seem as bright and festive as they usually are this time of year. And then I noticed on the front page of this morning’s paper, a church in Claremont, California that has Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus fenced in separate cages for their nativity as a statement against what they believe is inhumane treatment at the border. Driving by that will put a dark cloud over anyone’s Joy to the World.

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Posted in Christmas, giving, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 3 Comments

‘All aboard!’

Posted on December 13, 2019 by jwfisch

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People, get ready

There’s a train a-coming

You don’t need no ticket

You just get on board

All you need is faith

To hear the diesels humming

Don’t need no ticket

You just thank the Lord

– Curtis Mayfield

Get ready people; something’s coming. Curtis Mayfield knew it. “I must have been in a very deep mood of that type of religious inspiration when I wrote that song,” he said later of the 1965 hit recorded by the Impressions. There were a lot of others caught up in that inspiration in the mid-sixties. It was the first of a string of gospel influences in American pop music that helped ready a generation for a spiritual revolution. Bob Dylan sang about the gospel ship coming in; Creedence added that the end was coming soon; Peter, Paul & Mary told everybody to pray on the very last day; Barry McGuire warned we were on the eve of destruction; and Norman Greenbaum saw the Spirit in the sky. All this was before any Christians showed up with Jesus music.

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Posted in discipleship, grace, Jesus Movement, kingdom of God, new frontier | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

‘Pulling out of the station’

Posted on December 12, 2019 by jwfisch

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I’m not sure who first said it, but it’s become pretty much of a commonly held belief now that 80 is the new 60. I’ll believe anything that makes me younger. That still seems a little old, but the truth of the matter is that age is in your head. There are 20-year-olds who are older than me and 80-year-olds who are younger.

Here at the Catch, we’re all one age — engaged. Plugged in. Connected. Here at the Catch, we’re all one age — awake.

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Posted in discipleship, grace turned outward, Jesus Movement, Millennials, new frontier | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

A salty dog

Posted on December 11, 2019 by jwfisch

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Salty Dog – a cocktail drink originally with gin, grapefruit juice and salt on the rim.

Salty Dog – a nickname for an ornery sailor who has spent much of his or her life aboard a ship at sea.

“Arrrrr.”

Being the salt of the earth could mean a lot of things. No one is 100% sure about exactly what Jesus meant when He called us the salt of the earth, but I like to think there is some grit involved. Salt is an abrasive. In Jesus’ day it was rubbed into meat to keep it from spoiling (certainly one of the top contenders for what Jesus meant in regards to preserving truth in the world). An older rendering of salty dog came from rubbing salt into a dog’s coat as a flea repellent. And “rubbing salt into a wound” came from ancient Egypt when after flogging someone, they would rub salt into the sounds to inflight more pain, thus the definition, “to make a difficult situation even worse.” Jesus did this often to the Pharisees. He was caustic with them, calling them “snakes,” “blind guides,” and “whitewashed tombs.” Not exactly how you would want to endear yourself to someone.

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Posted in discipleship, walk by faith | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The salt of the earth

Posted on December 10, 2019 by jwfisch

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“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Matthew 5:13

This verse has always puzzled me. I’m going to try to put some pieces together for all of us. 

First, we know Jesus is speaking to His true followers here, as opposed to the religious leaders who are presumed by the people to be the righteous ones. Jesus says that His followers are different. They are poor in spirit; they hunger and thirst for righteousness because they know they don’t have any of their own; they mourn over their own sin; they are meek and humble (the opposite of proud); they are peacemakers; when they are persecuted, they love their enemies, they turn the other cheek and go the extra mile. Jesus started preaching at a time when righteousness had been usurped by the Pharisees, and He was putting it back into the hands of simple folk, because righteousness cannot be achieved, it can only be received, and the ones who receive it are those who ask for it, not those who presume they have it or have earned it. This much we know.

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Posted in discipleship, grace turned outward, Meaning of life, Millennials, new frontier | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Happy Birthday, Peter Herschend

Posted on December 9, 2019 by jwfisch

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by John & Marti Fischer

We are taking this opportunity to acknowledge a man who has single-handedly influenced the Catch more than any other. As our first Chairman of the Board, and working closely with Marti, Peter has left his mark everywhere — on our vision, our mission/purpose, and on what it means to be the Catch Ministry, which is well beyond a daily writing. Working along with the other Board of Directors, he worked diligently to form the vision of the Catch Ministry: to introduce the Gospel of Welcome — Grace Turned Outward — to everyone, everywhere, giving us a distinctive and universal voice of grace being manifested through your and my ‘boots on the ground’ throughout the world. Peter envisioned and stayed to see the Catch Ministry as a real worldwide community of Christian people participating in God’s business by introducing the Gospel of Welcome — Grace Turned Outward — through the gifts God has given. “In the end,” Peter is noted as saying, “a local Christian community could never really reach the whole world with the Gospel’s message. But … the Catch can.” 

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Posted in discipleship, family, Friendship, grace turned outward | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Grace Turned Outward — a dynamic story

Posted on December 6, 2019 by jwfisch

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Susan Burton is a hero. What she has done with her life is extraordinary, although she would deny that. She would simply say, in her own words, that her life is just Grace Turned Outward.

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Posted in grace turned outward, Poverty & homelessness, Tragedy | Tagged , , | 2 Comments