FINDINGS II
Epiphany
V - C - February 7, 2010
Isaiah 6: 1-8; I Corinthians 15: 1-11; Luke
5: 1-11
By Harry T. Cook 2/1/10
RUBRIC
The readings appointed in the RCL for Epiphany V-C have to
do thematically with vocation -- not deciding to do something but to be called
to do it. It is hard to argue with someone who says he or she was "called" to a
task or a profession. George W. Bush once said he believed "God" called him to
be President of the United States. I remember an Episcopal bishop once telling
several hundred of his flock that "God called me to be your bishop." The looks
of astonishment exchanged by several present featured wide eyes and raised
brows. One skeptic was heard to whisper rhetorically, "What God?"
For high drama, you can't beat the first Isaiah's "call" as related in the first
reading of this proper: Isaiah 6: 1-8. It is the 8th Century B.C.E. prophet's
account of a visionary experience in the course of which he believed Yahweh had
indirectly summoned him by asking, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" (Perhaps
also in the rhetorical vein.) With the bizarre vision of seraphim flying hither
and thither through his imagination, Isaiah hears himself saying, "I'm here.
Send me."
What he believed he saw and heard became his impetus for volunteering --
not necessarily an unreasonable basis for making a life-changing decision. The founder of an
inner-city social service agency in which I now volunteer was going about the
proper sacramental business of being a priest until he met a man called "Dave"
who, out of his poverty and loss, showed the priest what he needed to do with
his priesthood.
Out of that real-life vision, the priest founded the agency
"where cross the crowded ways of life" to which those "in haunts of
wretchedness and need, on shadowed thresholds dark with fears"*
now come day in and day out, week in and week out, year in and year out for
succor.
/*"Where cross the crowded ways of life" by Frank Mason
North (#609 Hymnal 1982, Church Hymnal Corp.)
WORKSHOP
Now the other call/calling. -- It is time in the Lucan
scheme of things to put names and intentions on Jesus' followers. Luke's Jesus
has already in this gospel attracted considerable attention -- not all of it
positive (4:29). Now Luke will have him call fishers of fish to be come
"fishers of people" (5:10). Mark started the "fishermen" story (1:16ff).
Matthew continued it is 4:18ff. It is left to Luke, however, to embellish the
story in good Lucan style with great shoals of fish, nets breaking under the
load, boats shipping water.
You wonder if Luke and John used a common story (see John
21:4-11). There is only boat in John, though two in Luke's version. Not to put
too fine a point on it, John even gives the number of the fish: 153. In dealing
with this text, one does well to remember that fish and fishing were important
to Palestinians of the day. Fish were a major dietary staple for those who could
get them. Luke was attentive to the local color when aware of it.
The gospel passage at hand has Jesus suddenly gone from
Judea (4:44) to the shores of the lake of Gennesaret, also known as the Sea of
Galilee and is about 15 miles at its nearest point from Nazareth. Luke depicts
Jesus standing on the shore just as John Wesley went to the coal mines --where
the working people were in the midst of commerce. No out-of-touch religion here.
Three of those who will turn out to be disciples are named
in Luke 5: 1-11. The first is thrice called "Simon" (5: 3, 4 & 5) then
"Simon Peter" at 5:8 and back to "Simon" at 5:9-10. The others are the Brothers
Zebedee, James and John, who, it is said, were partners in the fishing business
with Simon/Peter. This gives Jesus three close followers with others yet to
come.
Like the first Isaiah's vision, the scene at the lake was an
occurrence that Simon/Peter and the Zebedees are depicted as finding extraordinary.
But we must go back a moment or two in time to the initial
encounter. Jesus appears at the lake, observing the fishermen cleaning out
their fish-less boats after a night of trolling. Luke' story is suspenseful. Jesus
is made to get into one of the boats and give advice, bidding them put out a
bit from land and let down the nets they had just brought in to dry. Like all
fishermen, they are made to roll their eyes at such amateurish counsel, yet,
again like all fishermen, they hold out hope for a catch of any kind, and so,
after some argument, yield. The upshot is said to have been a catch beyond
belief.
In Luke's imagination, that did it for Peter who is made to
kneel and bid Jesus go away from him "for I am a sinful one," meaning that
Peter, sensing he was in the presence of serious power and purpose, decided
it was no time to be anything but utterly reverent. Luke winds up the story by
saying of Peter, James and John that, after they brought their boats to shore,
"they left everything and followed him."
Isaiah was depicted as offering himself to be sent. Peter
& Co. were depicted as being dazzled and following one they believed
represented power. It is not recorded whether or not the first Isaiah flagged
in zeal. It is most certainly recorded that those who are said to have followed
Jesus did exactly that. All four canonical evangelists are careful to depict
the future holder of the keys of the kingdom saying "I do not know the man" when
accused of being associated with Jesus after his arrest. So much for the catch
of fish back there on Gennesaret's shore. (See Mark 14:66-72; Matthew 26:
69-75; Luke 22:55-62 and John 18:25-27).
For more excitement, see the epistle reading for this proper
(I Corinthians 15: 1-11) which may be the real story of Paul's "conversion."
HOMILETIC COMMENTARY
It is said that Isaiah saw the hem of Yahweh's robe fill the
temple, Peter and his partners an unprecedented catch of fish and Paul a dead
man living.
My late friend, Father James McLaren, saw Dave battered and
beaten down by the government agencies that were meant to help him but stole
his dignity instead. Seeing that, moved (or "called," if you must) Father
McLaren to start his own agency, which to this day emphasizes the dignity of
every man, woman and child who comes to its door.
One homiletic key to unlocking the 21st Century meaning for
these readings is a reprise of Arthur Miller's unforgettable line: "Attention
must be paid."
It's not so difficult for previously unsuccessful fishermen
to pay attention to nets full of fish suddenly appearing. It's not that much
more difficult to pay attention to the story of a 8th Century B.C.E. public
intellectual being caught up in a vision of seraphim. One hesitates to pay undue
attention to a story of an otherwise sane and intelligent man who says he
encountered as living one thought dead.
What's really difficult is being able to see in "Dave," as
Father McLaren saw him, a human summons to go a different way. No one but Willy
Loman's own wife saw him as one to whom attention should be paid. "He's a human
being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid.
He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog," she said of her
husband.
Attention was paid by Father McLaren, and what he saw of
Dave's situation moved him to help restore and maintain Dave's dignity and,
through the agency founded on the basis of that experience, the dignity of almost
100,000 other Daves since.
If it's a lesson in discipleship you're seeking, there it is.
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