Year C 5th Sunday after Epiphany, 9 February 2025
St James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA
“Call”
Collect:
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Isaiah 6:1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory."
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you--unless you have come to believe in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 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, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.
Luke 5:1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Epiphany blessings, friends! Our enlightenment continues!
Over the last few Sundays I inadvertently started a sermon series. In the normal course of preparation I read the lectionary readings for the day, and let them set while I ponder them. Then I read them again, then let them set. I ponder the thread that goes through all the readings, if there is one apparent. The last two weeks there were common threads.
Two weeks ago was Unity, looking at things being “all in one accord,” and the horrible joke that went with that. For us to be at work with God we must be unified to make a real and true difference in peoples’ lives. The world sees enough division and heartbreak.
Last week we looked at being Dedicated. And our need to go “all in” to accomplish things. We need to decide and commit, and that opens doors for us that we may not have even comprehended before.
And this week we are looking at Call. Yesterday I met with many from around the diocese for the Vocations Retreat. Committees on the Diaconate and Priesthood along with those involved in Vocations gathered to pray and discuss the processes that make up the path from what we are looking at today, Call, to the ordination to Orders.
The Call stories of Scripture are some of my favorites, because we repeatedly hear of God breaking in on folks in the ordinary, day-in, day-out routines. It rarely happens in Church/the Temple, but for Isaiah it did. It often happens when we least expect it.
But that is the way God works. Before we get started on what to look for, I want to bring up a foundational belief. God is calling to us all the time, yes, YOU, and YOU, and YOU, and YOU! Each and every one of us. We all are loved. That’s it.
But, Rock, that is not a call, is it? Yes, I believe it is. It is a call away from what is being ground into our hearts and minds by the world each and every day. That we are not enough. That we are not worthy. That we are irredeemable. That we have to look out for ourselves because nobody else will.
God is good and loves us is a call to a different way of thinking and being. We start there. That is a general call that comes to everyone made in God’s image, that imago dei, which according to Genesis is every daughter of Eve and son of Adam. And for the love of God, we are called to relationship with God and one another. That is the body of Christ, each and every one of us making up our part.
And that foundational general call is what guides us to our specific call, our special piece of the puzzle that only you can do. That is what we are going to be looking at the rest of this morning, what our call is and how we can be clear.
When I lead the discernment retreats for the diocese, I talk about that. Clarity. Not that we have 100%, we never will on this side of heaven. But I remind those on the retreat that God is not a God of confusion. A sense of peace and calm comes with God’s call. If the waters are murky, wait and be still. All will be made clear, just not on our demand.
When we hear the call of God I think there are at least three characteristics that come through. The first is a sense of the Holy. It comes with a feeling above the normal to a place of holiness. I remind you, Holy literally means to be “set apart.” Like the china you bring out for special occasions, it is not the norm. You have set it apart and it is special. When we hear the call of God, we have a sense that this is something special, and even more, that WE are something special. We might have thoughts, “I was made for this.” or “This is who I really am.”
When we hear God’s call to do something above and beyond for a season or a lifetime, that aura of holiness surrounds it and brings it to our heightened attention.
The second part of it, I have found, is a sense of urgency. Urgency on our part to respond, and a sense of urgency that God wants this to happen and God wants it to happen RIGHT NOW. In our Gospel reading this morning, it says of Peter, and then James and John, that they dropped their old lifestyles of being fishermen and took on Jesus’ new call of them to “catch people.” They do so without hesitation. In Mark’s call stories of them, it says “and immediately they dropped their nets.”
When we hear those calls, we are ready. Now, we might question the call and be hesitant because everyone is surprised when God taps them on the shoulder to come and follow. Peter warns Jesus off, “I am a sinful man!” He is unworthy of the call.
He’s right. And so is everyone else who made that excuse. Moses, Isaiah, Mary, Peter, me. I remember thinking that when I was on my discernment retreat so many years ago. The unworthiness dripped off of me, like gunk off dirty hands. But then God said, “I picked you. Just as you are.” God’s love and choice of us is what equips us. God does not call the Equipped, God equips the Called.
And when we hear that call it feels like it must happen RIGHT NOW. You may have heard me say it before. When Harry Met Sally is one of my favorite movies because it speaks so clearly to the hopes of the human heart. When Harry figures out that he really loves Sally, he runs to her. He must tell her IMMEDIATELY. She blows it off, and then this movie speaks a truth about the human condition. “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” And the same is true of the call of God, “When you know what you want to do with the rest of your life, you want the rest of your life to start right now!”
Immediately. Right Now. The funny thing about that is that it may seem like God is calling right now, the disciple probably told it that way and hence the Gospel writers, too. But if we look back, God has been at work for years, maybe decades, for us to have that feeling and thought that it was immediate. There is a phrase from our Buddhist siblings, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” The funny thing is often the teacher has been there all along, we are just finally seeing them there.
The call of God is so often the exact same way. We are just finally seeing it. I remember when as a teen I told my mom that I wanted to be a pastor, and I thought it was a big deal and would be news to her. She smiled, and said, “Of course you are, it’s all you have talked about for years.” What I took as all of a sudden and immediate God had been working on all my life.
And that fits in with the third thing I wanted to say about the call of God. There is a sense of the Holy, and there is an urgency of immediacy. The third thing that comes about is that it is Enlightening, we are overwhelmed with God’s glory.
Peter had his haul of fish after working hard all night. Paul had his blinding enlightenment on the road to Damascus. Isaiah is probably the most clear, there in the Temple, with God’s glory filling the Temple. And Isaiah’s sin is purged and he is able to respond, “Here I am, send me!”
When we hear the Call of God we are given a moment where we see so clearly, and we hear God’s voice, and we are given a vision of what could be. It shakes us out of our complacency and puts us on a mountaintop where we can see the promises that God is making as if they have already come to pass. What a gift! If the Holiness were not enough, if the urgency were not enough, the Glory is wondrous.
That specific call, that feeling of “I was born for this.” and “This is who I really am.” is something any of us can see and feel, if we are open to God working in our lives and we are ready when the call comes.
Think of paramedics and the military. They train and prepare for whatever the call may be and whenever it might come. They have to have their lives prepared in such a way that they can respond to the Call.
Our spiritual lives are no different. We have to do those daily disciplines of prayer and listening to God in God’s word and in silence. We gather with our siblings also seeking God’s call for fellowship, support, and encouragement. And we gain strength through our sacraments, finding those outward signs of our inner devotions.
Friends, if you have a heartbeat, God is not done with you yet. God’s love of you is the bedrock on which we stand, and God’s call of you for the part you play in the Kingdom is built off of that. Be ready. Be Hopeful. Say yes when it comes. Amen
