God’s Calling!
EP 5 Message for February, 2025 Based on Isaiah 6: 1-8; 1Corinthians 15: 1-11; Luke 5: 1-11 (re-write 2022)
Sometimes it’s more evident than others why certain scriptures are grouped together to be read on the same Sunday. Did you hear the theme? Today’s readings are all call narratives, stories of how people answered God’s call to ministry. They are also stories of theophanies. What is a theophany? Well let’s break the word down: Not surprisingly, it comes from the Greek—theo for God and phany- signifying a manifestation or revealing of something. So a theophany is the appearance or a manifestation of God. And in each of our stories it tells of the person’s response to their meeting with God, as God calls them to ministry. Let’s begin with Isaiah
- Isaiah’s call begins with an incredible celestial vision of God as a King on a throne, and with God were God’s attendants, called seraphim. From the Britannica encyclopedia we learn: “Seraph, plural seraphim, in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic literature, (are) celestial beings variously described as having two or three pairs of wings and serving as a throne guardian of God. In Christian angelology the seraphim are the highest-ranking celestial beings in the hierarchy of”[1] Of course God would be attended to by the highest order of angels!
- Isaiah’s vision is so incredible in its immensity, so awe-some that he is overwhelmed with the experience, understandably I would think. His response? The goodness of God is overwhelming, and he has a strong awareness of his own unworthiness to be in God’s presence, and an awareness of his own sinfulness. He feels he is unclean, not pure enough to be in this awesome presence, specifically, his lips are unclean—in other words he has spoken untruths or bad things—and which of us hasn’t at some time? Isaiah feels unworthy to be a spokesperson for God.
- God understands Isaiah’s contriteness, his confession and desire to be cleansed of his sinfulness and sends a seraph with a coal to touch his lips, to make him clean—burning away the bad, as it were, leaving the clean behind. God has forgiven him and through the seraph’s action, is cleansing him of his sin. God understands, accepts Isaiah’s desire for forgiveness, and God is so gracious in God’s forgiveness! And now from this cleansed mouth can come God’s word to the people. Note that it was not God who felt Isaiah’s mouth that needed to be cleansed, it was Isaiah who felt unclean, and God complied to meet Isaiah’s need to be cleansed and feel worthy.
- God speaks directly to Isaiah, asking ‘Whom shall I send as my messenger to this people?” And Isaiah then knows what this theophany, this experience of God is all about. He knows God is calling him, and Isaiah willing steps up, “Here I am”, he says, “send me”.
- The 1st Corinthian Reading:
- The ‘call’ in this reading is less obvious than Isaiah’s. Paul’s telling of his call comes by way of his reinforcing or maybe reminding those in the Corinthian Church of the importance of the message of the good news; that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and raised again on the third day. And we know of this resurrection because the risen Christ appeared to many -- to the disciples, 500 or so other believers, other apostles and to Paul. Paul is referring, of course, to his theophany, his experience of meeting Jesus on that fateful day on the road to Damascus.
- Paul, also has a really deep sense of his unworthiness to answer Jesus’ call, he tells the Corinthians, because of what he felt was his former calling --to zealously persecute the followers of the early Christian church, which even caused some of them to die and others to go to prison.
- Yet, he tells how he has been forgiven by God, he too, like many of the other believers, have also seen the risen Christ. And so Paul says it is by the grace of the Lord that he has been made an apostle—one who is commissioned to share the good news, do the work of Christ. Paul is quite astounded, quite incredulous, he of all people, he has been called to this ministry, he who once persecuted Christians! And it is only by the Grace of forgiveness, that he is worthy to do his work, and help others too come to believe.
- Our gospel Reading from Luke:
- This is Luke’s version of Jesus calling the fishermen to be his disciples. Jesus asks Simon-Peter for a simple favour, to push him out into the water in his boat so he can better preach to the large group of people who had gathered to hear him. Simon willingly complies. And when Jesus is done preaching, he suggests something else--for Simon to go out further into the lake and put his just cleaned fishing nets into the water. Simon replies that there really wasn’t much sense to it, he and his fishing crews were all out the night before and didn’t catch a thing, but Ok Jesus, if you want me to, why not, it’s worth a try. And when the nets fill with fish to the point of breaking, Simon hollers for help from his fishing partners, James and John. What an incredible catch, net-breaking abundance. Who is this man who controls the fish in the sea to come to fill our nets so full as to be overflowing?
- Simon Peter has the same kind of reaction as Isaiah—overwhelmed by the presence, the power and majesty of the Lord. And his response is the same as Isaiah’s and Paul’s: I am not worthy to be in the presence of the Lord. He is awe-struck.
- And Jesus’ response to Simon-Peter? Do not be afraid. Well, we’ve heard that line before, haven’t we! Do not be afraid, we have a God in Christ Jesus who is amazing and incredible and maybe a bit fearsome in that incredibility, yet we do not need to be afraid. Because our amazing and awesome God is also a loving God, who sent his loving son to call us into God’s abundant love.
- This is an epiphany moment for Simon and also for fellow fishermen James and John; a moment of revelation that changes all three of them as they realize just in whose presence they are. Their response? They leave their fishing business to the care of their other business partners and follow Jesus.
So, today we have three call stories of regular everyday very much less than perfect people who encountered God, who experienced the Grace of God, who heard God’s call and heeded the call.
God comes to God’s people, in different ways. God chooses ways that speak to us, that we can understand. I heard an interview on CBC radio on this past week. On his program Q, Tom Power was interviewing playwright Ins Choi how he came to be a writer. Ins Choi’s play was called ‘Kim’s Convenience’ which later turned into a TV show with the same name. Ins is a person of faith. He and his family are Korean immigrants and they started out living with his uncle who lived above a convenience store. He said that he’d been struggling with what to do with his life. Ins had been working in various convenience stores and was going to school. He said he had a dream and Jesus came to him and flicked him on the head with his finger, as if to get his attention. He knew it was Jesus, and asked Jesus what he wanted him to do with his life. Jesus said what are you good at? He told Jesus he was good at writing. So write, Jesus said. What do I write about? Write about what you know, Jesus said, flicking him again with his finger. So he wrote a play about the life of a family from Korea working and living above a convenience store. And also interestingly, it was loosely based on the parable of the prodigal son. Ins also shared some of the challenges he had as an Asian playwright trying to sell a play full of Asian actors, something not ever done before. It wasn’t a particularly easy road for him always, but over time led to a TV series that opened up the industry to Korean actors.[2]
When God comes to us, he comes in ways that make sense to us, so we understand that it is of God, of Christ. God asks of us what is in our abilities to do, even if at first we’re not sure of it ourselves, or maybe feel unworthy to do so. Will it be easy, will it be without problem or controversy? Not always. Will it go the way we want, or how we figure it will or should go? Maybe not. What if we mess it up? Sometimes that happens too! But that’s ok, the bible is full of stories of God using less than perfect people to do God’s work. As one biblical scholar notes: in the Bible, “we see God using the very wounded lives of very ordinary people, who would never have passed the (Churches) tests.. (of sainthood). Moses, Deborah, Elijah, (Esther and) Paul were at least complicit in murdering; King David was both an adulterer and a liar; there were rather neurotic prophets like Ezekiel, Obadiah, and Jeremiah; an entire history of ridiculously evil kings and warriors—yet all these are the ones God works through.”[3] God works through and with our mistakes, our foibles! We have a forgiving and loving God; who understands our humanity and challenges as we try to work our spiritual callings through our humanity.
What these biblical stories also tell us, when we do God’s work, God provides, God is with us, if we ask God to. God is abundant in God’s love! God’s kingdom will come, in spite of or sometimes even despite us. We know from reading the bible that Isaiah’s message was mostly ignored by the people, Paul’s life certainly was a life of travel, danger and persecution; and the other apostles and disciples also had challenges and triumphs as they faced living lives following Jesus’ counter-cultural teachings. And still they furthered the work of God’s will, of God’s kingdom of bringing God’s love to the world.
Where our call leads, we don’t always know. Like Simon Peter, James and John, we step out of our boats, out of the safety of what we know and heed to the call—even if it doesn’t make sense at the time. That’s where the ‘Do Not Be Afraid’ bit comes in. Where ever our call leads us, Christ walks with us, and into a life that is more than we could ever ask or imagine.
[1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/seraph accessed Jan 31.22
[2] CBC Radio One program Q: Tom Power’s interview with Ins Choi, Feb 4th, 2025
[3] Richard Rohr from ‘Daily Meditations’ for Feb. 3.2022, received in my email inbox.