Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

Isaiah 6: 1-8, 9-13

Psalm 138

1 Corinthians 15: 1-11

Luke 5: 1-11

February 10, 2019

Steven H. Strain

A couple who served as foster parents took in three girls. The oldest was eleven and the other two were eight-year-old twins. The biological parents were unable, or unwilling to care for them. The parents had surrendered the girls to children’s services. The three were in rough shape, but with love, and food and shelter the girls began to thrive.

The couple loved the children as if they were their own. Family pictures, outings and all those things that go with raising children. Things were going well until the day a woman from children’s services came by to tell them the birth mother wanted the children back. The court had considered the matter and had ruled that she could provide a suitable home for the three girls. The couple protested. They didn’t believe things were different. They loved the girls and could provide more than the birth mother ever would. The social worker nodded in agreement. But her hands were tied as the judge had ruled.

And then the three girls were gone.

The couple was devastated. They had raised three children of their own and were prepared to raise the girls. They promised one another never again. It was too painful.

On a spring afternoon they were sitting on their front porch with a cold drink watching the birds at the feeders. A car came up the drive, dust spilling out behind it. It was the woman from children’s services. We have another child she said. They listened.

The girl had been born to a woman who was serving a prison sentence. After delivery she was placed with a grandparent who, while she did feed the child, never picked her up, never showed much love. She was very stiff when one picked her up as she had never been held as a baby. Her mother was eventually released from the women’s prison and the child was returned to her. Her conviction was for a drug offense and in spite of going through a treatment program while in jail she soon fell back into the life of an addict. She was arrested for theft and the judge removed her daughter. The girl was returned to her mother when the mother was released from jail. The birth mother left her child with extended family and friends while she, to use the country expression, “ran the roads.” She was arrested numerous times and went from one abusive relationship to another. The social worker described the mother crying, with no tears, and begging the judge to let her have her baby.

This pattern was repeated time and time again and when the child turned eight the judge had had enough and terminated the mother’s parental rights. The child needed a stable and loving home.

They did not want another child. They told the woman from the state this and she asked them to sleep on it. I’ll call you in the morning she said. They watched as her car made its way back to the road. They sat out for a while longer, talking quietly about the girl. They each prayed about it and finally sought out sleep. They were firm in their decision that they would not take the responsibility of raising the child.

That night the husband dreamed of the little girl. In the morning he told his wife that he felt they should take the child into their home. She questioned him and reminded him of the three sisters. He took her hands and asked; “if not us, who?”

Eventually they were able to adopt the child and named her Grace.

Last week, in our reading from Jeremiah, God calls Jeremiah to be a prophet.

“Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

And before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah’s response, as with many of the prophets is to tell God he can’t do it. “I am only a boy,” he tells the Lord. Indeed, with many of the prophets, who protest that they cannot do what God asks, God tells them He will be with them. Which usually means it’s going to be bad.

In our passage for today Isaiah writes:

“I saw the Lord siting on a throne, high and lofty;

And the hem of his robe filled the temple.”

Isaiah describes the seraphs flying about and singing, “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.” His response to seeing the Lord is to say:

“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.”

A seraph touches his mouth with a hot coal and tells him his guilt has departed and his sin is blotted out. Then the Lord asks; “Whom shall I send?” And Isaiah, unlike Jeremiah says;

“Here I am; send me.”

God is present with both Jeremiah and Isaiah. This is not a matter left for interpretation. In our reading from Luke, Jesus is physically present when he calls Simon. Simon’s response, much like Isaiah’s is to tell Lord Christ:

“Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

Christ tells him; “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”

Recently, in the news, there was a story about a man who had taken over the Woodmore school bus route sometime after the tragic accident that claimed the lives of six children. The man said the Lord told him to take the route. I don’t doubt that the Lord did tell him to take the route. And from the story on television I believe this gentleman is doing the Lord’s work in caring for these children and their families. But how did God tell him to take the responsibility for the Woodmore community?

A man goes into a store and sees a thermos. He has never seen one before and he asks the owner what is it? The owner tells him it’s a thermos. It keeps hot liquid hot and cold liquid cold. The fellow thinks about it and asks the eternal question: “how does it know?”

Indeed, how do we know when God is speaking to us? Some would say it’s that voice in your head that whispers to you. Which could be. The voice in my head is usually whispering, late in the day; “go home and have a beer.” This is especially true when the gym is on the schedule.

It is easy to look at Jeremiah, Isaiah and Simon and the fact the Lord is there speaking to him. Jesus is in the boat. Yet if we stop there, we overlook the fact that God is active in the world and is among us. God speaks to us through His word. In Genesis, Chapter One the phrase “and God said” is repeated as He creates the world.

“Then God said, let there be light; and there was light.”

The gospel of John begins with the Word:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”

Jesus, the word made flesh is our Lord.

We want God to talk to us; to tell us what He wants us to do in a letter, or an email or, God forbid, a tweet. We want Him to be like us; to talk to us we would. We want God to do things our way.

When I accepted the offer to become an Assistant District Attorney, I didn’t hear God’s voice telling me to do so. Indeed, my own father was against it. Yet, I feel that I am where God wants me to be.

Several months ago, I stood up quickly at Cracker Barrell and nearly caused a waiter to drop a large tray full of meals. I profusely apologized and the young man said; “that’s okay, Mr. Strain, you saved my life.” To this day I have no idea what I did to cause the man to tell me that.

Jesus comes to Simon and the other fishermen after they had worked all night long and had caught nothing. He tells them to go back and cast their nets once more. Peter Eaton, Dean of the Cathedral in Denver wrote of this passage from Luke:

“There is one final, incontrovertible truth that this passage drives home. So often the cost of discipleship does not come off the top; it is demanded of us after we have given everything that we can give. Jesus did not show up after a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast. He came to find these men at the end of a long working day, after back breaking labor and he told them to keep on working. He does the same to the preacher of this passage, and to all of us.”

God’s word calls on us to love one another. To serve one another and care for one another. Did God tell the people to adopt the little girl? Like Simon they were worn out. There were the emotional scars of seeing the three taken from them.

But they heeded the call to love. Did God tell them that in the form of a letter or a phone call? No. God’s voice is all around us; in the scriptures; in the liturgy we pray every week; in those quiet places where we feel His presence.

We think of God in heaven. The vision of the throne we see in Isaiah in one sense may separate us from the Lord as He becomes this figure on the pedestal. Lofty and unreachable. But that is not our Lord. He is alive and with us. His word is a living word and if we listen, and heed his word it calls us into relationship; into discipleship; into love.

And in spite of our “unclean lips” and sins our Lord blesses us with His grace.

Amen