Sermon Epiphany 5, year A, 2025

Another Sunday when the readings and parish reality are really well aligned.  It’s AGM time and with that comes a lot of discussions about leadership and volunteering.  We also continue to be in the season of epiphany…(the experience of a revelation of or from God.)  Finally, the readings are focused on God’s magnificence and how God has called people to ministry. It’s amazing how these all work together, it’s like someone knew what they were doing. 

So today, we get a couple of ‘call stories’, the call of Isaiah and the call of Simon.  I like the call stories, actually I find them interesting…especially how the vast majority of call stories in the bible could be renamed ‘ineffective objection stories’. 

No one called in the bible seems to appreciate that God sees something special in them, and that is seen in the standard pattern of the traditional call story. Firstly, there is an introduction to the Most Holy God and the calling of the lucky mortal.  This is quickly followed by said mortal giving a number of protests.  I am too sinful, too young, too flawed.  My spirituality is not strong enough, my culture is not faithful enough.  I am simply not enough.  Finally, God brushes aside any objections by reminding the chosen that through God anything is possible.

Iin Isaiah we get one of the most awe inspiring call stories, the call of Isaiah himself.  Today, we read of his vision and his reaction.  

 

’I saw the Lord sitting on a throne,…and the hem of his robe filled the temple.  Seraphs were in attendance (don’t think cherub, think more…flaming, 6 winged, serpent-like creature) and they cried Holy loud enough that the building shook and filled with smoke’.  And Isaiah replied “Woe is me! I am lost!”  seems a fair response.

 

And you know what I can’t blame him.  We often feel this way…woefully inadequate when faced with the task that God puts before us. 

 

Look at the gospel reading today.  Simon and his crew, who were fishermen as were their fathers before them, had been working hard all night.  They had caught nothing…put in a full shift and nothing to show for it.  Tired and disappointed, they were cleaning their equipment to go home and tell their families that they had nothing to show for their nights work.

It’s a day many of us have faced. Not a day when you feel your best.  One of those days when you feel like all your hard work has been for nothing. 

Then Jesus comes along and tells Simon to try again.  Sure.  Simon has already fished all night and Simon has a life time of knowledge on when and how to fish, and still caught nothing…but fine you can hear him sigh, if I must… you can hear his feeling of inadequacy…his doubt.

And they caught fish, a lot of fish and Simon fell to his knees and said…”go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” I am not worthy…I didn’t really believe…I didn’t have enough faith.  I didn’t think anything would happen. Or as Isaiah puts it “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips;”

And he’s not wrong.   We are none of us worthy through our own merit to serve God.  None of us are everything that God needs, none are heroes like those in the bible.  OR rather, all of us ARE like the heroes of the bible.

Because none of the biblical heroes were truly heroes, they are all flawed, imperfect, obscure and unimportant.  That is, they are on their own merit.  So too, is the world that they live in.

The lands that Simon and the disciples lived in were occupied territory, governed by a corrupt and self serving government.  When God called Isaiah he was being sent to a people who ‘listen but don’t comprehend.  Who look but don’t understand.  Who minds are dull and who walk about with their eyes closed and their fingers in their ears.’   Reading through Isaiah, you’d see that the culture and leadership was far more concerned with their own interests then with Gods.

Yet, God called Isaiah and Christ called Simon, James, John and many others.   God called and God gave them what they needed.  Isaiah is one of the well known and quoted of the Hebrew prophets.  The apostles….well, our presence is testament to their effective ministry.  Because God chose and went with them.  Equipping them for the ministries that were needed in each of their times and places.

We live in difficult times, reading the news is enough to cause an anxiety attack…the decline of the church is an ongoing point of discussion…and it is hard to find decent leadership.  We with Isaiah call out “how long, O Lord”!  how long will this minefield be our mission field?  How long will life be a struggle?  How long am I expected to work and work to no good end?

In Isaiah, we hear God answer …Until the rotten tree is felled, and the stump itself is burnt to ash, and from that fertile ash a seed will sprout and a new time will begin.  Until the baren sea produces fish once more.  So, feel the burn of the coal on your lips and be cleansed.  Feel the ache of your shoulders as you cast your net once more and be filled.

“Here am I, send me!”  “Do not be afraid”.  God doesn’t ask for fully trained and perfect ministers (and I mean all, not just robed)…God equips and forms us to be faithful ministers.  Using what gifts he has given us in ways we never would have imagined.  “You may have been fishermen?  Now you will catch people.” 

You’ve heard the old saying it’s called ‘fishin’ not catchin’”, well now they are catching in new and never imagined ways.



We are not called because we are perfect, we are called because we are here.  The fact that you are present in faith, (point at camera….you too!) is all God needs to call you to ministry in your place and in your time.  All you need to do is consent, not knowing all the answers…in fact, rarely do we get a job description at all, all we have to do is agree to start and God will lead.

That is what we are doing as baptised Christians in this broken world.  That is what we are doing in this time of church changes.  We are all walking forward, hand in hand with God not knowing where we are going, but trusting that we are being led well.

The waters are deep and the world around us has too many people with fingers in their ears and eyes determinedly shut.  However, paradise doesn’t need repair and what is known doesn’t need exploring.  The healthy don’t need healing and the loving don’t need reconciliation.  It is a broken world that needs God’s hands and feet, his tears and love, his care and support, healing and reconciliation.  

Christ came to this world vulnerable and in need, dependant on others just as we are.  In doing so, He made our human experience sacred.  By his death, as shame filled and ignominious as it was, he made our mortality sacramental and through his resurrection he transformed what is broken to something whole and holy.

Christ can transform each of us, from what we see our selves as…to what Christ needs each of us to be.  Ministers of Christ, a holy priesthood of all believers, doctors to this broken world. 

 

“When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.”

There are many fish in the sea, many possibilities for ministry, many roles to which we can be called and many ways for us all to work together to God’s glory.

There is a lot going on right now.  In the church, in the world, in St. Andrew’s and we each are called to take a certain part.  Not to all parts…but to be a God gifted, God equipt, Christ following part of a whole.  Sin filled.  Doubtful.  Pessimistic.  Fearful.  Inadequate and fully and truly blessed, gifted and equip by God.  Prophet and fisher.

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; *

                        before the gods I will sing your praise.

I will bow down toward your holy temple and praise your name, *

                        because of your love and faithfulness; …

When I called, you answered me; *

                        you increased my strength within me. …

The Lord will make good his purpose for me; *

                        O Lord, your love endures for ever; …

amen