What Bait Should You Use?

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter… ©

I think that the lection for this coming Sunday, January 25, Mark 1:14-20, about “fishing for men,” has been one of the most fruitful Bible stories for humor, although it is now translated, properly, as fishing for “people” instead of men. The more inclusive translation does cut down considerably on humorous possibilities.

I was once talking about this scripture during the “time with children” in our main Sunday morning worship service. This being a camping and fishing sort of congregation, [at least that is what they told me they were doing when they were not in church], one of the kids asked, “If you’re fishing for men, what would you use for bait?”

I, of course, did what one should never do with children. I turned it back to them. “What do you think you would use for bait?” I asked the kids. Corey Schuleter spoke up, very loudly. “If you’re fishing for men, you’d use women for bait.”

Corey’s parents took him camping for several weeks after that.

John Robert McFarland

johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

The “place of winter” mentioned in the title line is Iron Mountain, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula [The UP], where life is defined by winter even in the summer! [This phrase is explained in the post for March 20, 2014.]

I used to keep a careful index of all the things I told in this blog so that I would not repeat. That has become unwieldy. Now I just trust to memory. Sorry about that.

I have also started an author blog, about writing, in preparation for the publication, by Black Opal Books, of my novel, VETS, about four handicapped and homeless Iraqistan veterans who are accused of murdering a VA doctor, n 2015. http://johnrobertmcfarland-author.blogspot.com/

I tweet as yooper1721.