Sermon from Sunday February 6th – you can read the scriptures for that Sunday here.
The scriptures for today offer us two very dramatic call stories, and two responses that are quite different and yet have much in common.
In Isaiah’s call story, his vision is more than just a picture. He hears the seraphim calling out their praise of God, he feels the trembling of the house at the sound of the voices and smells the smoke that filled the house.
This is a full on immersive experience, and it may be familiar enough to us that the dramatic elements have lost some of their edge. But the house is trembling from the sound of the seraphim voices.
I was in Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula after the first Christchurch earthquake and felt one of the aftershocks from it. It happened about 6am one morning and the place we were staying was a converted barn and it did tremble. It shook in a woody creaking and grinding kind of way for just long enough to make us anxious and to start wondering if we needed to get out of the house.
And that’s what I think of when I hear this passage….a creaking, grinding noise that makes me anxious about how safe I am and if I need to run away.
Isaiah’s response is like this, too, I think, but more. He can see that he’s not safe. He is suddenly acutely aware of his humanity, his inadequacy of coping with this visionary experience, and his unworthiness to receive it. He expresses all this in terms of uncleanliness.
In response, the scary seraphim takes a burning coal and by touching it to Isaiah’s lips makes him safe – brings him into rightness, safe in the presence of holiness. Isaiah recognises his vulnerability and fragility and then God acts to reassure him and to make all things well. And the not-yet-prophet fully accepts this.
Then comes the prophetic call – which Isaiah volunteers for without knowing what it will involve. There is no weighing up of the cost here and, unlike many other call stories, no anxiety about competence or worthiness. Isaiah saw and experienced God acting to make things right. Now he simply trusts that this is God’s nature and, even if it takes some time, if God calls him, then God will continue to make things right.
But the call Isaiah responds to is a tough one. He is to speak and not be heard or understood. The words of God, the words of life, the good news, will not be easily received and will be – is still – easily misunderstood. On top of that, the outcome of that word being spoken by Isaiah will not avert the crisis that is going to unfold for Israel… but there is a promise of hope at the end of this call.
The seed of hope remains in the stump of the tree that was felled.
Now, this isn’t a prophecy about the church, but we can listen for the living word here for our time. We can be alert for the resonance of these words for our time.
We can acknowledge how the words of life – that inclusive, healing vision of the kingdom of God which Jesus proclaimed and embodied through his life, death and resurrection – this message has been oppressed, misunderstood and used to oppress.
In our time, we see it, in most of its forms, being widely rejected. The great tree that once was Christendom, stretching over empires and nations has been felled. Only the stump remains.
And we are part of that stump. God is making things well, even through this loss.
What can we learn from the loss of that great tree? What roots can we tap into to sustain the seed of hope? What are the roots that you tap into? And how are they sustaining hope in you? How are those roots assuring you of your God-given worth?
These are important elements of the call to discipleship, and we see them play out in Peter’s story too. Not just his initial calling, but all through the gospel accounts – Peter learns again and again that God’s kingdom is inclusive and healing, that it is wholly God’s action that makes all things well, and that not in spite of his failure and mistakes but because of them and because of grace, he is worthy to participate in the mission of Love and restoration.
Peter is first made aware that he is in the presence of God’s holiness by the result of obeying Jesus’ command to throw out the nets one more time. The impossible catch of fish alerts him to the limitations of his humanity, to his sense of smallness in the presence of the overabundance of the Divine.
He expresses all this as sinfulness. And he knows he shouldn’t be in the presence of this fullness and goodness.
But Jesus doesn’t find a coal to cleanse Peter with. He doesn’t perform any sacrificial or cleansing act. Instead, he calls Peter in the midst of his fear and vulnerability, calls him and reassures him that from now on he’ll be doing a very different kind of gathering in.
You could read this story as a link to the seed of hope in the stump.
The impossible catch of fish might look like if we listen and obey the commands of God, just cast the net in the right place, then everything will come to us. If we have faith and stand steadfast doing the things we know how to do, people will return to our churches.
The call of Isaiah gives us a wider perspective for interpreting and understanding this passage.
The impossible and miraculous catch of fish isn’t about the fish. It’s about Jesus embodying Divine abundance. Peter knew this straight away. And the calling on Peter’s life isn’t about turning his fishing skills on people to haul them in. The word used to describe catching fish is one that means something more like to imprison or capture – that’s clearly not good news.
Jesus’ calling to Peter uses a word that is more like ‘catching people alive’.
Peter does struggle with a sense of worthiness. His journey into humility, where he is able to accept his worth as given and not earned, is long and slow. In many ways he is a clear biblical model of the way the seed of hope grows from the stump. As we follow his discipleship journey through the gospel accounts and into Acts, we can see and track Peter changing as he acts, pauses, engages, dreams, questions, prays, reflects, responds, learns and grows before our eyes.
But Peter isn’t special. He isn’t any more or less special than you are. He isn’t any more or less called than you are. We have his story to help us move through our story, to encourage us in our struggle to accept our worthiness as given and to find our way to humility.
The abundance of divine presence is all around us – do you see it?
With it comes the call to follow – do you hear it?
For sure, is a long, slow journey of growth which sometimes includes some severe pruning – even down to the stump. So what are the roots you are tapping into? What is supporting you and nurturing you?
We are living in a time of global change, massive loss and disruption. We have no idea what the future may hold and much of what we had in the past is gone for good.
There is a word of hope for us in these passages today, and also a calling.
In the midst of disruption and brokenness we are called to journey into humility and trust. We are called to accept our worth, to be caught into life and grow into the fullest expression of love, joy and peace that is humanly possible.
I think that’s a vision worth digging deep to nurture – and I hope that you are with me.
