The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany ------- 10 February 2019

Isaiah 6:1-8, (9-13)

1 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. 2 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. 3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

5 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!" 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 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." 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!"

[9 And he said, "Go and say to this people: "Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.' 10 Make 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." 11 Then 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; 12 until the Lord sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. 13 Even 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 15:1-11

1 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, 2 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. 3 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, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 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. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

Luke 5:1-11

1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 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. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7 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. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10 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." 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.

• ·    It's unusual for all three readings to have a common theme. The first reading and the Gospel often have a similar theme with the Epistle on it's own. Today is a bit different.
•    If we’re honest with ourselves, we realize that we are who we are and we are what we are. We may try to be someone else but that is a false self. The authentic self is really a gift from God, a grace if I may use the term. We could say we owe it all to grace.
• ·       Why would Paul insist on grace having the central and primary role in his ministry? Well, that’s how he saw it. It had to do with his past life and with his ministry for Jesus.
• ·       Paul brought the Gospel to the people of Corinth and although they were Gentiles unfamiliar with the Hebrew scripture, they heard his word and believed. It was not easy for them. Religion was huge part of the life of the people of Corinth and there were many temples dedicated to many gods. The resurrection of Jesus was often the sticking point for their faith.
• ·       Paul insisted on this: 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… That first part – I handed on to you… what I in turn had received – reminded the people that Paul was in line with the preaching of the apostles.
• ·       Paul’s past is what led him to say that he was unworthy of the call to preach the Gospel. He hid the fact that he was a persecutor of the Church. That changed on the road to Damascus with an encounter with the risen Christ in a blinding flash and a time of reflection and learning that followed.
• ·       This was an experience of resurrection for Paul. He was raised from the death of hatred and persecuting to new life in Christ. He knew the grace of Jesus Christ intimately and he gave all the credit for everything he did to that grace. So he could write by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.
•      Isaiah says he is unworthy since he is a man of unclean lips. God sends a seraph who cleanses the prophet's lips with a burning coal from the altar. Peter asks Jesus to leave because he is a sinful man, but Jesus say not to be afraid; he has been chosen for a mission... to catch people!
• ·       What doesn’t always occur to us is this: we are in the same situation as Paul. Not that we’re apostles to the nations; Paul served well enough in that capacity. However, we pass on what we have received in accordance with the scriptures.
• ·       We too are what we are by the grace of God. Our faith and our practice grow from the grace we received at our baptism, no matter how long ago that might have been. Whatever has been made of our lives is by the grace of God. The idea that our baptism is a dying and rising in Christ is no lie or falsehood. We are risen with Christ and in a way, we die and rise daily.
• ·       Could we consider tragedies to be the grace of God? I would say ‘no’. Tragedies happen to us all, but our response to those tragedies and to whatever suffering we have endued comes from God’s grace and God’s presence in our lives. Sometimes, in a very real way, our survival has been and is a grace as well.
• ·       We all know that grace is unearned and unmerited. It is also often unlooked-for and unexpected. It is by the grace of God that we are here today and it is by and through the grace of God that we have done whatever good we have done in our lives. It is something to be grateful for.
• ·       Whether we follow the words of Francis of Assisi- “What we are before God is all that we are and nothing more.” or if we hold to the words of the great modern philosopher, Popeye the sailor- “I am what I am, and that’s all that I am.”, we owe all things to our God through our saviour, Jesus Christ. We can confidently say with Paul: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.