Sunday, August 9, 1998

Isaiah 6:1-13; Luke 5:1-11

vs. 8 "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!"

Could there be two stories with such drastically different settings telling the same story?

Isaiah sees the Lord, "seated on a throne, high and lifted up, the train of His robe filled the temple, and above him were seraphs, each with six wings."

Simon sees the Lord, seated in one of his fishing boats on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, also known as the Sea of Galilee.

Yet in both stories God calls Isaiah and Simon into a vocation of ministry.

In Isaiah’s case God said, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And Isaiah said, "Here am I, Send me!"

In Simon’s case God said, "Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men." And Simon "left everything and followed Him."

I find both stories to be exciting stories, particularly the call of Simon.

Do you find anything strange about this story? Think about it.

A carpenter, Jesus is teaching and preaching with authority like no one else ever before. Crowds of people are following Him everywhere. The crowd has grown so, that they are crushing in on Him. Jesus seeks refugee by getting into one of Simon’s unused fishing boats and casts away from shore so He can continue to teach.

When Jesus is finished, He tells Simon, "Put out into the deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

Now you tell me, what does a carpenter know about fishing? Or tell me why Simon the fisherman listens and obeys Jesus? If you wanted advice concerning fishing would you come to me? Trust me if you did you would be out of luck. If you wanted advice about investing money would you go to your hair stylist? Of course not yet when Jesus tells Simon to "put out into the deep, and let down the nest for a catch" Simon does.

Why didn’t Simon tell Jesus, "If you want some fish, go catch them yourself." After all Simon knew better than Jesus that it was not a good time to go fishing. If it was, he and his fellow fisherman would have been out there fishing.

Simon doesn’t do that, instead Simon says, "Master." Where did that come from? Don’t you find it a little odd, that Simon should call Jesus, Master. I don’t know about you but I would love to know what Jesus had been saying to the crowd. What ever Jesus said, it was so powerful, that coupled with the stories that had been circulating about Jesus, Simon says, "Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything, But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

You know what happens next. They catch so many fish they need help to bring the fish to shore. At which time Simon says to Jesus, "Go away from me, Lord: I am a sinful man!"

I don’t get it. What is with the people back in Bible days. Today we would give anything to see a miracle like that. Yet when Jesus cast the legion of demonic spirits out of the young man and sent them into a herd of pigs, Jesus was told to "Go". In this story Simon has a miracle catch and he says, "Go away from me."

Isaiah was no different. He had seen the great power of God and had heard the praise of the angels and responded, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."

Why? Because both Simon and Isaiah when confronted by the presence and power of God realized that they were unclean. They thought they had no hope of measuring up to God’s standards. They felt unworthy. They felt guilty. They felt ashamed. They recognized their own sinfulness.

"I am a sinful man.....I am a man of unclean lips."

What does God do?

"Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned." said the Lord to Isaiah.

"Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men." said Jesus to Simon.

The call of Peter and Isaiah is no different than the call and mission of the church. It is no different than the call and mission of individuals, namely you and me. That is not to say, that you should quit your job, sell your house, abandon your family and go to seminary to become a minister or missionary. Not everyone is called into full time ordained ministry.

However, just because you are not called into full time ministry doesn’t mean you are excused from doing ministry, from serving God. Being a Christian is synonymous with serving. Jesus said, "I have not come to be served, but to serve." Serving God and humanity goes hand and hand with faith in God. Paul said, "We are saved by faith, for the purpose of doing good works."

I am sorry to say that our pursuit of the American dream has been cost us dearly. I am not talking dollars and cents. I am talking faith, obedience to God’s Word, love for our neighbor.

There isn’t a person here who has not moaned or groaned about the declining values and morals in society. The media thrusts in our face, on a daily basis stories of violence, gangs, drugs, pornography, divorce, abuse, recreational sex, abortion. Federal, state and local governments are spending billions of dollars in an effort of stopping the increase of these problems.

Yet when President Bush nominated Ashcroft  as attorney general, the senate and perhaps the nation became divided concerning that appointment. Why, BECAUSE he is a man of strong Christian values. I don’t get it. Does this mean we would rather moan and groan about the problems and live with the problems, than correct them?

I pray: that Ashcroft will be bold in his faith;

that you will be bold and that I will be bold;

that our boldness will be like that of Isaiah, of Peter;

that we will be willing to follow Jesus’ leading and teaching;

that we will be willing to leave behind everything, everything in our life that isn’t consistent with God’s Word, such as gossip, hatred, envy, bitterness, grudges, etc..

that we will be fully committed to serving God, in our own home, in our relationships, in our place of employment or recreation, where ever God leads us.

There is a cartoon which I have framed sitting behind my desk in the office. The name of the cartoon strip is Pontius Puddle.

Pontius is sitting under a tree with his friend. He is lamenting over the problems of the world.

Pontius says, "Sometimes I’d like to ask God why he allows poverty, famine and injustice when he could do something about it."

Pontius’ friend asks, "What’s stopping you?"

Pontius replies, "I’m afraid God might ask me the same question."

You and I are wanted by God to be the light of His Word, His Will, His Love.

What is stopping you from saying, "Here am I. Send me."

amen

Reverend Richard Hayes Weyer

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Our thanks to the for the Hymn
"Something About That Name"