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Pastor Anderson's Weekly Devotional: Epiphany 5, week of Feb. 7
WEB DEVOTIONAL EPIPHANY 5 WEEK OF FEBRUARY 7, 2010 Pastor Mary W. Anderson Isaiah 6:18 [913] 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. 2Seraphs 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. 3And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." 4The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5And 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!" 6Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7The 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." 8Then 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!" 9And he said, "Go and say to this people: 'Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.' 10Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed." 11Then I said, "How long, O LORD?" And he said: "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly desolate; 12until the LORD sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. 13Even if a tenth part remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump.\ 1 Corinthians 15:111 Now 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, 2through 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. 3For 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, 4and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But 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. 11Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe. Luke 5:111 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3He 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. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." 5Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." 6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7So 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. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" 9For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10and 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." 11When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
What can we do when we reach our limits? What can we do when we run out of options? We all have gifts and talents, strengths and skills, but more regularly than we'd like to admit, they only take us so far. The fishing story of Luke 5 is more than a miracle about a catch of fish, it is a miracle of discipleship. It begins with an account of a man who had reached his limits. Simon (Peter, Jesus will later name him) is an expert fisherman. This is what he does for a living, it's how he feeds his family, and how he serves in his village. An expert fisherman has learned some things that make him successful. He knows about how fish behave, about the nature of the waters they swim in, and about weather and seasons. No doubt Simon had used all these skills during a long night of fishing that came up empty. Some nights were just like that you did all the right things, just like you had done so many times very successfully and yet you came up empty. You couldn't even explain it to anybody. It's just the way it was. The hardest part was going home in the morning when the children were just waking up and having to tell them that Abba hadn't caught anything and so there would only be bread for breakfast. Into this everyday, human scene, Jesus comes. Jesus comes at a point in Simon's day when he's weary from work, heavy with disappointment, and hungry for breakfast. Simon and his partners were just cleaning the nets and preparing to go home when Jesus comes teaching and in need of a boat to put some distance between himself and the crowds. After his sermon, Jesus invites Simon to put his nets down in deep water, to try for the fish once more. Simon is skeptical, after all he's the expert fisherman and Jesus is a carpenter by training, but Jesus' reputation has already begun to work on his heart, so he does it just because Jesus asked him to try. The amazing catch of fish actually caused Simon to leave the fishing business. He went that day with Jesus to fish instead for the hearts of people. Jesus continues to come to us, often when we have reached our limits and invites us to trust him enough to try one more time. But this one more time is usually not the way we have done it before. Jesus isn't simply our cheerleader or coach telling us, You can do it! or simply encouraging us to dig deeper in ourselves to find the guts, the courage or the wisdom to make something work. Simon wasn't encouraged to fish one more time in the same waters he'd cast into all night. Jesus showed him a different place, a place he had not explored or known or considered. So with us. Jesus meets us at our real limits. He comes to us in those places where we have exhausted ourselves, are going home hungry and just hoping tomorrow will be better. Into these scenes Jesus brings new possibilities. As a Christian person and as a pastor, I have discovered that my lakeshore encounters with Jesus come most often in the context of the church community. Jesus speaks through the words of scripture, the taste of the eucharist, and the words of comfort and challenge spoken by my fellow disciples. If I just keep my own counsel and doggedly stick to my own skills and ideas, I find myself fishing the same waters over and over again and eventually, and too frequently, coming up empty. Into this scene, Jesus comes strolling along the lakeshore. He is a welcome sight! For Reflection: In your own life today, are there places where you have reached your limits of what you know to do or to say? What do you do when you come to the end of a rope? Has Jesus ever encouraged you to cast your nets elsewhere? For Prayer: Jesus, too often I have fished all night and caught nothing in my name or yours. Teach me a different way and give me the courage to set a fearful foot upon that well-lit path. Amen.
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