[Magdalen] Arrow prayers, please

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

We had a sermon that discussed the fish story as a fish story.

Our rector hates fishing. He used to go fishing with his grandfather, and
this consisted of going in a tiny boat to the middle of a lake and dropping
anchor, putting out a couple of lines, and then his grandfather spent the
day drinking beer and smoking cigars while the lad was incredibly bored
("You know -- in those days, there was no iPhones or social media"). They'd
come in and grandma would ask, "How did your fishing go?"
Grandpa would answer, "Oh, fine! We caught a couple of crappies, a couple
of walleye .... but we let 'em go."

Walking out of the church, I observed, "So, the rector says the disciples
made all that up about the fish, eh?"

Well, they may have made up their fish story (or not), but the willingness
of so many to give their lives for what they believed is overwhelming
evidence for the reality of what is truly important, eh?

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 3:19 PM, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Our preacher shared an interpretation he said he hadn't heard in all
> his decades of sermon preparation: The number relates to the number of
> types of fish known at the time so was meant to express universality.
> I'm fine with the universality (and by extension the disciples...and
> Church...catching people of all nations with the Way and the Gospel)
> but wonder whether 153 was widely known as the number of types of
> fish.
>
> Anyway, I think it's similar to 7 similarly symbolizing universality
> or wholeness.
>
> On Sun, Apr 10, 2016 at 12:47 PM, Charles Wohlers
> <charles.wohlers at verizon.net> wrote:
> > This very topic was mentioned in the sermon this AM at All Saints,
> Whitman
> > (MA). Along with, Why 153 fish? Neither of which were the main topic of
> the
> > sermon, BTW.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Scott R. Knitter
> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
>