GOD’S WORD FOR US

February 7, 2010

THE FIRST LESSON – Isaiah 6:1-8

A priest in the temple of Jerusalem has an experience of the "holy."  He struggles to find words to describe this awesome moment.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:

    “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;

    the whole earth is full of his glory.”

The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” 

THE RESPONSIVE LESSON:  Psalm 138

The author of Psalm 138 "walks in the midst of trouble."  And yet this is a psalm of praise, for the psalmist trusts that God has answered prayer with "new strength."

I praise you, O God, with all my heart;

before the gods I will sing your praises.

I bow down toward your holy temple

          and praise your name for your love and faithfulness;

for you have exalted your name

and your word above everything.

On the day that I called, you answered me,

          and put new strength in my soul. 

All earth's rulers shall praise you,

when they hear the words of your mouth.

They shall sing of your ways, O God,

          sing that your glory is great.

For though you are high, you care for the lowly.

As for the proud, you humble them from afar. 

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me;

you stretch out your hand against my enemies' rage;

          your powerful hand delivers me.

You will fulfil your purpose for me.

Your love, O God, is eternal.

          Do not leave unfinished the work of your hands. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT LESSON  - Luke 5:1-11

Jesus began his ministry in Galilee and so he found here, his first followers as well as his first metaphors for ministry.

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

Caught by Surprise

          The beach at Capernaum is a busy place.  In a fishing town, that’s the office and the marketplace, the day care centre and the hanging out place.  The beach is where you find the people.  So that’s where Jesus goes,  Maybe it starts as a one on one conversation.  Bystanders overhear the storyteller and you know how a crowd attracts a crowd.  The little group pushes in closer to hear and the next thing you know the keynote speaker is getting pushed right into the water.

           He turns to Simon, one of the fishermen cleaning his nets nearby and asks him for help.  ”Can I use your boat?”  The boat becomes a pulpit.  From that little crowd on the beach in Capernaum will come the core group of a new movement.   

          When the parables are over and the crowd disperses, Jesus turns his attention to the man with the boat.  He says to Simon, “If you put out your nets in deeper water, you’ll catch some fish.”  Simon is dubious.  “After all,” he says, “we fished all night and caught nothing.”  

          When they pull the nets back in, the haul is so large it almost sinks their boat.  Simon falls on his knees, and says “Master, I’m way out of my league here.”  Jesus says to him, “Don’t be afraid Simon, I have a job for you and you will manage just fine.” 

          The reassurance is important because when someone says to us, I have a job for you, we tend to start slowly backing towards the door.

          Anybody here remember the movie Oh, God?   (It was only 30 odd years ago.)  An assistant produce manager named Jerry gets a note granting him an interview with God.  He tries to ignore them but the notes start appearing in his bed and then in the lettuce bin at work.  Finally Jerry meets God who appears in the person of George Burns, one of his great incarnations and Jerry reluctantly accepts the task to spread good news.

          Or there is the more recent Bruce Almighty.  God calls a self-centred television reporter on his cell.  Bruce gets so frustrated that he tosses the cell out his window.  A car runs over it and still it keeps ringing.

          These films rework an old, old story in which someone or something from beyond or within, calls out to you and insists that you listen. We expect to hear this kind of thing in scripture.  That’s how it’s done in the Bible.

          But what would you think if a friend or acquaintance from church was to come up to you during the coffee time today and say to you,

          “I know we’ve got the Nominations Report all ready for the Annual meeting, and I know Malcolm is supposed to step in as the new chair but last night God told me that I am supposed to the be new chair of council.”

          How would you react?  Let’s find her a job somewhere.  A bit sceptical?  We might be suspicious of someone who says without hesitation or ambiguity, “God told me to do this.”

          There’s an old story about an unsuccessful farmer who got a call to be a preacher.  And it turns out that he’s even a worse preacher than he was a farmer.

           One day a member of the church asked him how he got this idea ot be a preacher.  He said,  “I was sitting on my porch one afternoon and I saw the sky commencin’ to get darker.  As I watched the sky, I saw the clouds form into the letters GPC.  I suddenly realized that the letters meant ‘Go Preach Christ.” 

          His neighbour said, “Brother, I think it meant ‘Go Plant Corn.”     

          There certainly are points in our life when we show up at exactly the right time for the right task.  Our talent fits the job and it feels like the stars are aligned and the Great Mystery beyond is saying, yes.  Some people’s lives seem to be blessed with this sense of remarkable timing. 

          But more often God’s call is simply a case of someone we know asking us for a hand.  Or we see something that needs doing and we make the time to help out.  If people are waiting for an angel to tap them on the shoulder in the middle of the night, then we’d never get any volunteers and very little would get accomplished.  

          However God’s call comes for you, there’s often a nuisance factor.  We may protest that we are not up to the job or jump out of the boat and try to swim alone rather than work with others.  These times when we are most unsure may be the times when we touch the very core of our calling or identity as children of God.                                   

          Much of our day is tied up with the necessary tasks of meeting basic needs.  Shopping, cleaning, balancing our bills. 

          And then we come to a place in our lives when we get pushed out from the safety and security of the shore, a place where the waves are rougher and we sense the precariousness of our lives.

          I head a someone on the radio this week talking about her new passion for Thai cooking.  This door opened for her after she found out she had breast cancer.  She quit her job teaching and after a trip to the far east discovered she absolutely loved Thai cooking.  A whole world opened up for her so that now cooking Thai is her full-time work but more than that it is her passion.

          A colleague told me about a woman in her church who has discovered quilting. She is presenting a quilt to the congregation this morning.  Marie grew up sewing, making clothes but she had never quilted. Fifteen years ago she stopped in to a quilt show in St. John’s Newfoundland and when she walked in the door she realized that she didn’t just want to quilt, she needed to quilt.  Quilting became her passion.  She says, “I just had to say, yes.”

          A friend dies or a parent receives an unexpected and difficult diagnosis.  We may find ourselves in deep water from a job loss or we feel our child’s turmoil.  And as a result of one of these passages, we find ourselves wanting to cook or bake or send a card - or we might want to dig in the garden or paint or sing.  Our calling might emerge when we respond to this time of need.

          Isaiah’s call came in the year that king Uzziah died.  The stability of Uzziah’s reign was over and the threat of the Assyrian empire was just beginning.   Perhaps the circumstances mean he is listening a little more carefully, but he realizes that he is needed and he responds. 

          We may hear God’s call in a shattering time of change like Isaiah or in the routine of daily work like Simon, but when we have been named as a child of God, a disciple of Jesus, a partner of the Spirit, then we should be ready for calls of all kinds. 

          God did not stop calling people after the last book of the Bible was written.

          God does not call men only or only women.

           God does not only call people with a consistent prayer life whose minds never wander.

           God calls regular human people, fallible people, delightful people, frightened people, impatient people, unhappy people, irritating people, articulate and tongue tied people, people at all levels of skill and maturity.

          God calls us

- through letters from friends, newspaper articles,

- movies and radio programs,

- through weakness or pain

- through our anger at life’s upheavals

- and our healthy pride at a hard won accomplishment. 

           I heard of a man who heard God’s call when his doctor came into his room to tell him he did not have cancer.  And of a woman  who when she found she did have a serious illness, heard God say to her, “Do not be afraid.”

          I heard of a woman who heard God’s call when she picked up the wrong bag leaving a bookstore and didn't realize it until she was on her train with nothing else to read.  

          Sometimes those calls ring clear as a bell and sometimes they are a whisper that we can barely make out.  That’s why we need others, to help us listen and interpret those calls, to call us out of ourselves and back to our true selves.

           There is risk involved when we hear and follow God’s call.   We wonder if we are capable of the challenge.  But God’s requests are accompanied by the surprising gift of grace.

 And so we hear what the first disciples heard,    

“Set your fears aside and welcome the new life ahead.” 

May it be so for us.

with thanks to

Annie Dillard, Edward McNulty, Barbara Brown Taylor