February 6, 2022 – 5th Sunday after Epiphany

Like Isaiah, Peter and Paul, overcoming our resistance to, and responding to, God’s call to us.

Let us pray.  Gracious God, we give you thanks for the gift of your presence in this time and place, and within each one of us gathered here and in the many places that we are gathered this day. Help us now to open our minds, our hearts, our whole lives, to receive the gift of your living word for us this day, and may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.  Amen.

If you look at today’s Scripture readings, it’s pretty hard to miss that they are all about God’s call to us as persons – as individuals.  The First Reading from Isaiah 6 is the call of Isaiah the prophet.  And what’s Isaiah’s initial reaction?  He’s terrified! He feels like he’s the wrong person, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Now this encounter takes place about 750 to 800 years before Christ, so the imagery that is used in that passage that we read today is familiar imagery from the Temple in Jerusalem at that time. These references to seraphs and to gigantic kings with long flowing robes – they’re all based on the Jerusalem Temple as a copy of the real heavenly Temple.

And then, in this encounter with Isaiah, God moves (via a seraph) to rectify Isaiah’s problem. A live coal is taken from the throne, touches his lips, and cleanses him, and the block that Isaiah fears and that would prevent him from even remaining in God’s presence is gone. And with the “block” gone, and hence Isaiah’s own feelings for inadequacy, when God then issues the ‘call’, Isaiah willingly steps up and says, “Here am I, send me.”  It’s quite a dramatic shift from feeling that he’s doomed to be even in God’s presence to volunteering to go for God.

Then, in the second reading, the apostle Paul is recalling the story of Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension; and about how an ever-enlarging circle of people encountered the risen Christ after his resurrection; and then finally his own story: Paul’s, encounter with Christ and his subsequent calling from the Lord. He, too, struggles with the inappropriateness of his calling – to say the least – maybe even the incredulity, or ridiculousness, of him being called to be a disciple and an apostle after he actively tried to destroy the Church!  And his only explanation for what God has done is this: “For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am …” – God’s grace – his only explanation.

Then in the Gospel Reading, we get Luke’s account of Jesus calling his first disciples.  Jesus zeros in on Simon Peter on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (a more familiar name for Lake Gennesaret). And I kind of like to imagine this Galilean lake to be a little bit like Lake Winnipeg – if you think of Winnipeg being Jerusalem – it’s north – probably about the same distance, and there’s commercial fishing on Lake Winnipeg.  And think of Capernaum like Gimli – a little lakeside village.  Now it’s not that Jesus suddenly appears on the shore and Peter is mesmerized by him.  If you look in the previous chapter in Luke, Jesus goes over to Simon’s house after “church” (the synagogue) where he heals Simon’s mother-in-law and joins the family for dinner.  So these two knew each other.  And when it gets too crowded for Jesus to preach and teach on the seashore, he asks to borrow Simon Peter’s boat. Simon has seen Jesus do a few amazing things, but this catch of fish is aimed directly at him! And here’s his reaction. He says, “… he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’” Jesus sets aside Simon Peter’s objections. Jesus knows the person he’s calling – warts and all - and he says back to him, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”  This releases Simon Peter and he responds to Jesus’ invitation to join him in his work and mission and life.

All three of these persons in each of the readings, initially draw back, unable to see themselves in this call from God – unable to handle it – fearful – not feeling they’re “made of the right stuff.” And each time God acts to reassure them and, in a sense, to blow away their doubts, fears or self-judgement of inadequacy. And note in all of these cases, these are regular people – just like us – just like you and me.

And this brings us now to us – you and me – and God’s call on our lives.  First off, the call of God is continuous. It may have a beginning, when you and I first became aware of it, but it doesn’t have an end. We are called to follow Christ – not to join a club, or to accept and wear a name-tag that says ‘Christian’. We are following the lead of a living individual. Our relationship with Christ is dynamic. By way of analogy, think of it this way: for those of us who are married, it is not as though we accepted a ‘married’ badge on the day of our wedding with our spouse’s name on it, and then just kept on living our own separate or individual life. We now live our lives together. We face crises and celebrations together – we are completely part of each other’s lives. And so it is with each of us and Christ.

So what does that ‘call’ look like?  What does it feel like? What happens? Today’s Offertory Hymn, Will You Come and Follow Me, gives us an excellent template for each one of us to explore God’s call to us.  I want to invite you to turn to p. 11 in your Service booklet and have a look at it. The first verse begins with this line, “Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?”  Who do you instantly respond to when they call your name? It’s someone you love, isn’t it? If I happen to be in a meeting with you and I get a text on my iPhone from Nancy, I’m going to take a look at it and make sure that it’s not an emergency, or something urgent – that will take priority.  Do you love the Lord?  If so, you’re going to respond. If you love the Lord, you’ll respond.

In the second line we read these words: “Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?”  Where you don’t know – outside your ‘comfort zone’.  It takes trust to do that. Do you really believe that you’re following a God who loves you and will keep you safe? And acknowledging that – it will change you!  You will never be the same.

And the last line of that first verse reads: “will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?” As a woman who has born children can testify – you yield to the life growing inside you. It changes you in ways that you don’t control. Following Christ does the same.

Each verse in that hymn continues asking you and me questions – questions about what we’re willing to let the Lord do through us. In the second verse, “Will you leave yourself behind … Will you care for cruel and kind … Will you risk the hostile stare … Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?”  And then it continues in the next verse, “Will you let the blinded see … Will you set the prisoners free … Will you kiss the leper clean … and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?”

“Admit to what I mean in you and you in me.” You can’t have a secret love affair with Christ. You have to live it openly. That relationship has to be integral to every part of your life – just like you can’t hide away the person you’re in love with.  You openly acknowledge them to others.

So what makes it difficult for us to hear, acknowledge, accept and follow our call from God in Christ? Some of us, perhaps like Isaiah’s and Simon Peter’s initial reaction think, ‘That’s not me. I don’t fit that description. There’s no way I could do that. You’ve got the wrong person! Or, some will be like St. Paul – worried about their past reputation – that they could never be a credible witness to Christ.  Look at Paul’s past – he persecuted Christ’s Church. Can you imagine the credibility problem that he would feel today – the way people try to dig up ‘dirt’ about politicians and public figures in the past, and try to discredit them now? Paul wouldn’t stand a chance!

But what does our resistance – our shrinking back – amount to? It’s a lack of trust in the love and the wisdom of God. Don’t you think that God knows you and me better than we know ourselves? I don’t think that Christ misjudges people. And if it’s not the ‘wisdom’ part that holds us back, the only reason left is that we don’t trust the ‘love’ of God for us – each one of us, you, me. And that is exactly what is at the root of the problem of sin – separateness from God’s love. That’s the primary symptom and that’s what we struggle with.

And that is the whole reason and purpose of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension – to prove that love to us, and overcome the alienation of sin. When that becomes a reality in our lives; when that sureness of God’s love – that trust in our lives – really takes hold, then, in spite of our doubts; in spite of our fears; in spite of everything we don’t know or understand; there can be only one response to God’s continuous call in your life: “Here am I, send me.”

Amen.