So today, together with every other congregation in this diocese, we begin to cast the net, for today, the diocesan programme for mission, entitled 'Casting the Net', is launched. In churches large and small: from St Ninian's Cathedral in Perth with its team of clergy to All Saints, Kinloch Rannoch which has no resident priest; from St Angus, Lochearnhead to St Mary's Kirriemuir; from Holy Trinity, Dunfermline to St Adamnan's, Kilmaveonaig.
And here in St Andrews, in this church of All Saints, which has its roots in mission, which was founded as a mission church in the fishing quarter of this ancient pilgrimage town, here too, we begin to cast the net. What is 'Casting the Net', and what might it mean for this community of faith? The truth is, it can mean different things in different places. It is not a rigid exercise: Complete Stage 1 and continue to Stage 2, that kind of thing. It is not, as Bishop David has said, about ticking boxes or making lists.
It is, in language that is familiar to the history of this town, a pilgrimage, a journey, an on-going process; it is something that will develop and change as the days and the months pass. It will not go on forever. To use imagery appropriate to this morning's gospel reading, at some point we will reach the farther shore of the lake and we will no longer need the boat that has brought us across. Then, a new stage in the journey will begin.
So, if it is a pilgrimage, how is it different from the journey we have been on up until now? We could answer that question in this way: 'Casting the Net' gives us an opportunity to stop and survey the landscape around us; it gives us permission to pause a while, take our bearings, check the way marks - and then continue.
One of the ways in which we can check our bearings is by using the Nine Marks of Mission. Each one of us - indeed, every member of every congregation in the diocese - has been given a bookmark bearing the Nine Marks. These Nine Marks of Mission give us the means to think - carefully, prayerfully - about the life of All Saints, about what we do as a congregation in this place, this town, this set of circumstances which is St Andrews in the year of Our Lord 2009.
We will use the Nine Marks of Mission to think about worship, about education, about the needs of our neighbours, about the people who are part of this congregation and about the people who might become part of this congregation. We will think about what we have to offer in terms of our life of faith and service. Who knows where this will lead?
It may lead to some hard work, but nothing that is beyond our capabilities as a group of disciples. Certainly, if we engage with the programme as it evolves, it will transform us. And that, I suppose, is what 'Casting the Net' is really about: transformation.
Transformation is the theme running through all of today's readings - Ezekiel, Acts and John alike. The prophet's vision of the dry bones and the transforming life that is breathed into them by God; the Holy Spirit descending upon the apostles and transforming far more than their ability to communicate the message of God; the efforts of the fishing disciples transformed by listening to what Jesus said to them.
By listening to what Jesus said to them: that's the really important bit. Consider for a moment, what it would be like if, leaving here today, thinking about all you have to do this week, Jesus came to you, spoke to you - and you listened. Consider, given all you know about Jesus and the effect he had on the lives of others, what could happen to you.
Well, you might say, he's never going to appear in my kitchen, or my workplace. Oh yes he is! And he meets us here, in the bread and the wine, in the praise and the prayers. We just need to listen.
Transformation is what it is about and listening to Jesus, listening to God is the key. Everything must be under-girded, cradled in prayer. Nothing will be achieved by our efforts alone. The gospel demonstrated this truth so clearly: a group of them went fishing but that night they caught nothing. And then, just after daybreak, they listened to what Jesus said, they cast the net as he told them, and the result was miraculous.
The miraculous in the ordinary. It is miraculous that the disciples encounter their risen teacher. It is miraculous that they catch so many fish they cannot hold them all. But in the midst of these miracles there is simplicity. In the midst of these wondrous acts there is everyday life. But everyday life where attention is paid to God and the things of God.
And this is where Christ meets us now. He meets us in our everyday life. We need to eat; we need to work. And the risen Christ is there among us. God chose to come among us, and even after the great miracle of the resurrection, God chose to make us breakfast. God meets us; God offers us nourishment; God asks us to play our part.
And this is precisely where 'Casting the Net' fits in to the picture. As attentive, nourished people we are fit for purpose and the purpose is mission: looking out of these walls, engaging with God's people in their everyday lives.
Father Ian is away at the moment, so I couldn't check with him in his role as local authority on quotations from Archbishop Rowan Williams. But I'm pretty sure that the Archbishop of Canterbury said somewhere - and I may have heard it in one of Father Ian's sermons - that mission is 'finding out what God is doing and getting involved.'
'Casting the Net' invites us to get involved in what God is doing, transforming lives, including our own. It begins and ends with prayer and this is where we come to our own fishing nets, now artfully draped in the south aisle. The net is not about trapping the unwary. Rather it about seeing the Church as a network criss-crossing the globe, tiny beacons of light, often in dark places, linked by an invisible thread of love. It is about seeing the Church as a network of love and prayer, cradling this troubled world, praying for the world and all its people. It is about seeing the Church as a haven, a place of welcome for all.
For the time being, we intend using the nets as our prayer board. There are cards and tiny pegs: write a request for prayer and peg it to the net. Read the cards and remember the people and situations mentioned in your own prayers. This is a beginning. Let's see where it leads us. The pilgrimage continues, one step at a time.
Pray for Bishop David; pray for those who have worked hard to bring 'Casting the Net' to this point; pray for the congregations of the diocese; pray for the communities they serve and in which they are set; pray for this land and for all the nations of the world; pray for justice and peace; pray for the troubled and wearied; pray for transformation; be transformed; pray; pray; pray. And remember: with God's spirit within you... you shall live. We shall know God's transforming life, and we shall help others to know it too.
Sermon by: Jonathan Mason