Sermon-Sunday-Feb 4, 2007

Luke 5:1-11, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 , Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13)

Brothers and Sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The story from today’s Gospel lesson has traditionally been referred to as a “calling” story. And, indeed it has many of the elements of a good, biblical calling story. You’ve got Jesus with a crowd surrounding Him as He is teaching them. You have a group of fishermen out in the water tending to their nets. You got these same fishermen catching a whole bunch of fish after Jesus tells them where to cast out their nets, and then the fishermen drop everything and follow Jesus. Again, everything is there, it’s got all the elements of a good call story.
Except for one thing, the fulfillment of a calling is dependent on the one being called answering the call. But in this story, there is no calling; Jesus simply tells Simon that he would be “catching people”. He doesn’t even say “follow me,” as He said to Matthew, as Matthew sat at the publican’s table. He is not inviting Simon to be a disciple. Jesus is not offering Simon a job here. Jesus is declaring that Simon is a disciple. And Simon offers no resistance, it says that they left everything and followed Him.
This is completely contradictory to the individualistic, winner-take-all sort of values that we have come to embrace. This is not a story about Simon seeking his own destiny or pursuing the American dream. Simon’s fate has been decided for him by Jesus. He would be a disciple.
So how did Jesus know that He could do this? How did He know that He could simply tell Simon that he was going to be “catching people” and that Simon would follow? How did He know that Simon would simply leave everything behind and follow Jesus?
I believe that one reason He knew was because of what Simon had said just moments before, after seeing how many fish he and his brothers were able to catch after letting their nets down where Jesus had told them to. Upon seeing this, Simon said “Go away from me Lord for I am a sinful man.”
This was not a reaction to the huge catch of fish. Simon had been around Jesus before and had seen Jesus perform miracles. In the fourth chapter of Luke we read where Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law, and in the same chapter we read of Jesus healing all of the sick and demon-possessed who were brought to Him.
Simon was reacting to the realization of who Jesus is; God incarnate. And the closer you come to God, the more you feel your own sinfulness and unworthiness. Simon felt the same thing that Abraham felt when he heard the voice of God and proclaimed himself to be nothing but dust and ashes, or Job who, when he was in the presence of God declared that he despised himself, or Isaiah from today’s Old Testament lesson where he writes “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
It says that Simon and all who saw what Jesus did were amazed, but I think a better description of what Simon was feeling might be to say that he was alarmed. Being amazed at something that Jesus does, doesn’t necessarily lead to worship of Jesus or repentance such as what Simon showed. Simon was reacting to the revelation of his own unworthiness and his own sinfulness in light of God incarnate in Jesus.
The revelation of the holy does not attract you; it repels you because it reveals you to be the unworthy sinner that you are. And when Simon’s unworthiness was revealed to him, he wanted Jesus to go away, as if he could hide his sinfulness from Jesus. But Jesus, of course was well aware of Simon’s sinfulness, and Simon’s sinfulness does not stop Jesus. His sinfulness does not keep Jesus away.
And in the same way that Jesus was aware of Simon’s sinfulness, He is aware of yours. And in the same way that Jesus did not allow Simon’s sinfulness to keep Himself away from Simon, Jesus does not allow your sinfulness to keep Himself away from you. He continues to come to you in the proclaimed word, and in the sacraments and in fellowship with other believers.
What Simon experienced was a death. It was the death of his old self, of the old Adam as Luther called it. But Jesus does not leave Simon in death, He recognizes the fear that Simon is experiencing at the revelation of his own unworthiness, and Jesus brings about the emergence of the new creation in Simon by declaring Simon to be a disciple.
So now, Jesus has come to you in the word proclaimed, and the sacraments administered, and in fellowship with other believers. Have you experienced the death that Simon experienced? Are you alarmed? Does the revelation of your unworthiness cause you to hide from Jesus? Does it cause you to repent? Has Jesus declared you a disciple and begun to bring about the emergence of the new creation in you, or is there some part of the old life that you can’t let go of?
That is what it means to be a disciple of Christ; to let go of the old life. Or perhaps, better stated, to be set free from the old life. For Simon and his brothers, it meant leaving their nets and their boats, and their families behind. It meant leaving their livelihood behind. Now, in most cases, this doesn’t mean anything quite as dramatic as what Simon and his brothers did. It might, but that is not what is at the heart of this. What is at the heart of this is how Simon and his brothers would now be seen and identified. They would no longer be seen as fishermen, but as Disciples of Christ. Their identity was no longer found in themselves, but in their Savior.
In our Old Testament lesson we get another one of those images of God that might just make you a little uncomfortable. Isaiah writes of God wanting His people not to hear His word, and not to look with their eyes, and not to comprehend, and He wants their minds to be dulled, and He wants them not to be healed. And why would God not want you not to be healed? Because He wants more for you. He wants resurrection for you; He wants new life for you. And before resurrection, there must be death, and before the emergence of a new life or a new creation, the old life must be left behind.
You have been claimed by the Savior, and He does not leave you in your old life, and He does not leave you in death. He continues to come to you daily as you live in your baptism. He comes to you with words of promise and forgiveness. He comes to you in His Supper and in each other.
When you hear those words of promise and forgiveness, you know that your Savior wants you to hear them and comprehend them. When the Holy Spirit calls you to faith through the Gospel, like Simon you are made aware of your unworthiness and your sinfulness. But as Jesus said to Simon “Fear not!!” Fear not because there is one who came and took your place and your sin on the cross.
And, since you have been called to faith in Christ and His promise of forgiveness, He has declared you to be a disciple. As a baptized child of God, marked with the cross of Christ, you are an emerging new creation eagerly awaiting the promised return of Christ Jesus. As a new creation in Christ, you are not a farmer, or a teacher, or a banker, or whatever, you are a disciple. Your identity is not found in what you do, but in what has been done for you.
As disciples, we are called to proclaim the Gospel through word and deed to our neighbor. So drop everything, and go do it. Amen