5th Sunday after Epiphany, February 4, 2007 “Series C”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, during this season of Epiphany, we seek to understand how your word and grace are manifest to be present in Jesus the Christ. Yet to behold the manifestation of your glory can be a frightening and awesome experience, that can change our lives. Yet through the power of your Holy Spirit, open our hearts to your presence, assure us of your love and forgiveness, and give us the courage to follow you as our Lord’s disciples. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
I really like Luke’s version of our Lord’s call of Simon Peter, James and John to be his disciples, much better than the way Matthew and Mark describe it. In Matthew and Mark, we are told that right at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus is walking by the shore of Lake Galilee, spots these fishermen cleaning or mending their nets. Jesus simply says to them “Follow me,” and they immediately drop everything and fall in line behind Jesus as he continues to stroll down the beach. It just doesn’t seem plausible.
But according to Luke, Jesus has already been about his ministry for some time, and has developed quite a reputation. He has been preaching in the synagogues around the area, and has performed many miracles of healing, so that a large crowd has begun to follow him. So as Jesus was walking beside the lake of Gennesaret, he spotted two boats, got into one asked Simon Peter if he would put out a short distance from the shore, where Jesus sat and taught the crowd. Of course, the implication is that Simon Peter would also have heard Jesus’ message.
When Jesus had finished, he suggested to Simon that he put out into the deep, and let down his nets for a catch. Of course, Simon was quick to point out that he and his partners had fished all night, and had not caught a single fish. Yet, he agreed. And so Simon and Jesus, who was still in the boat, went out to deeper water and let down the nets. And they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.
In desperation, Simon called out to James and John, his partners, who came in their boat to help haul in the catch. And they filled both boats, to the point that they were beginning to sink. These three fishermen were simply amazed at the amount of fish that they had caught. It was surely an epiphany, a manifestation that Jesus more than simply a great teacher and preacher.
Listen to the way John S. McClure explains this event in his commentary on our text. “It is easy to miss the frightful excess and chaos of catching so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. According to the narrative, the catch was so large that both of their boats began to sink. Something strange and mysterious was happening, and Simon Peter was observant enough not to miss it. Like Isaiah who calls out ‘Woe is me!’ he falls down at Jesus’ knees saying, ‘Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!’
Jesus then acknowledges that this is fearful for Peter, James and John. And so, looking at Peter he attempts to calm his fears: ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ This event was powerful enough for these three men, when they got to shore, to leave everything and follow him. No ordinary event! No ordinary prophet! No ordinary mission – to catch people!” End Quote. [New Proclamation, Year C, 2003-2994, Fortress Press]
This leads me to believe that the real Epiphany in this text is not just the authority and ability of Jesus to teach and preach with conviction. Nor is it his success as a fisherman, to know where the fish are at a particular time of day. The real epiphany is that through these two events, Peter, James and John came to realize that in Jesus, the presence of God was at work to bring God’s kingdom into their lives.
And this can be an extremely humbling, even frightening experience. Any time that God’s Spirit leads us to see God’s glory, to come to realize that we owe our very existence to God, leads to humility. I remember a class on experiential theology that I took at seminary, in which a guest teacher led us through an exercise in which we were challenged to explore some of the oldest Biblical concepts of creation.
We were asked to meditate on the account in Genesis two, in which God is described as forming human life from clay, like an artist. We were split into pairs, and while soft classical music was played, our partner acted as a sculptor, who molded and shaped our body. It really sounded kinky to me.
But as I lay there on the floor, meditating on that text, listening to the tones of the music, and feeling my partner’s hands kneading my body, I began to realize that my existence extended beyond my birth as a child of my mother and father. I came to realize that all life originated from God’s creative hands.
And even though I do not embrace this description in Genesis of how God created life, I came to understand this text as an expression of truth. It was an epiphany. God created me, through my parents. God gave me, life. And then I began to think about how I have been using the life that God gave me. And that thought was humbling and frightening. For through that experience, I came to realize a different understanding of sin.
William H Willimon, in his commentary on our lessons for this morning, put it this way: “Let’s be clear; Isaiah’s ‘Woe is me!’ and Peter’s ‘Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ have little to do with our conventional definitions of sin. The sin being confessed here, does not have to do with the occasional peccadillo, what Mommy told you not to do, but rather the gaping chasm between who you are and who God is. We have counselors, therapists, and Dr. Ruth to help you handle sin as misdeed. But what if our sin, with a capital ‘S,’ our real uncleanness, is not what we did in the backseat of a Chevy in high school, but the gap between ourselves and God?…
There are at least two ways to be terrified of God. Either you can be afraid of God because God is so harsh and cruel that you dare not slip up for fear of punishment, or God may be so wonderfully loving that you despair of all the ways you have betrayed that love in your own way of life. God’s love is the searing light that penetrates our human façade. End Quote. [Pulpit Resource, Logos Publications, 1997]
Today, we have come to worship God, and his revelation of his redeeming word and grace that comes to us through Jesus the Christ. We have come looking for God to be manifest to us through the proclamation of his word and in receiving his grace through the sacrament of Communion. And following our worship, we will meet as a congregation to set the goals and agenda for the coming year of our ministry as our Lord’s disciples.
But before we adjourn to our meeting, I hope that each of us come to understand the significance of this lesson, and realize what it means to come into our Lord’s presence, as he is manifest and revealed before us, each and every Sunday, in this time of worship. For in reality, through our worship, God’s Spirit leads us to stand with Jesus and Simon, James and John, in their sinking boats, and in spite of our fears, to hear his words, “Fear not, follow me. For I have something for you to do.”
The truth is, none of us are ever worthy to be our Lord’s disciples. As God’s Spirit opens our hearts to perceive his presence and redeeming grace in Jesus the Christ, we can only confess, as Simon Peter did, “Lord, I am a sinful person.” And yet, Jesus invites us to follow him, to serve him, and to receive his saving grace.
Many of you may not remember June Anderle, who is now with our Lord in his heavenly kingdom. But I will never forget her. She used to sit just a few pews back from this pulpit, and every time that I would speak about God’s great love for us, she would break down in tears.
At first, I thought that she was upset with my sermon. But as I found the courage to ask her about her weeping, she explained to me that it was just too hard for her to comprehend, that God could love her so much, that he would send his own Son, Jesus the Christ, to give his life so that she might be forgiven.
And knowing June, I can’t believe that she was just fixated by actions of the past. Rather, I believe that she came to understand that there was this chasm, this huge void in her life, between the realization of who and what God was, and her tremendous debt of gratitude for the love God had expressed to her. And through her tears, she has given me an Epiphany, a revelation of what it means to stand in the presence of God.
Today, we are in God’s presence. God is here to manifest his redeeming grace in Jesus the Christ. And it is not his fishing skills that we marvel at, but his amazing love, which led him to give his life on a cross for our sins, that he might truly manifest God’s grace for our lives. And as we come to receive our Lord’s body and blood, to enter into his presence among us, let us do so, as people who acknowledge our sinfulness, yet as people whom Christ calls to “fear not,” and follow him.
Amen.
