Rev. Tom Sorenson, Pastor
February 4, 2007

Scripture:

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

The last couple of Sundays I’ve been talking to you about our call to be prophets. I don’t have long to talk to you this morning because of all the other things we’re doing in this service—both receiving new members and celebrating Communion—but there are some more things I want to say about our call to be prophets. They are suggested by our Scripture readings this morning. In those readings Isaiah and Peter are called to be prophets, or at least to be a prophet in Isaiah’s case and a Disciple of Jesus in Peter’s, which amounts to much the same thing. In these stories both Isaiah and Peter have profound experiences of the Divine. Isaiah has a vision of the throne room of God and of Yahweh Himself, the Lord, sitting on the throne. Peter experiences a fishing miracle. He sees the power of God in Jesus in a miraculous catch of fish in a lake that all night had produced nothing.

Isaiah and Peter both have experiences of God, and even though their experiences were quite different they both have the same reaction. They both have a powerful sense of their unworthiness to experience such a powerful manifestation of the Divine. Isaiah says: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips…; yet my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.!” Isaiah 6:5 NRSV Peter says: “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” Luke 5:8 NRSV Upon their epiphanies, their experiences of a manifestation of God, both Isaiah and Peter are “convicted of sin,” to use an old-timey religious phrase. They consider themselves unworthy of God appearing to them and calling them as prophets.

Perhaps we consider ourselves unworthy of being called as God’s prophets too. Indeed, we may in truth be unworthy to be called as God’s prophets. The thing is, it doesn’t matter. I am quite prepared to take Isaiah and Peter at their word. They probably were sinful men, at least as sinful as the rest of us; but God didn’t care. God called Isaiah to prophesy to the people of his time anyway. Jesus called Peter to be a Disciple and an Apostle anyway. And despite their deep sense of their unworthiness, they both went. Isaiah preached God’s word of judgment and restoration to the people of 8th century BCE Israel. Peter left everything and followed Jesus, becoming, as Christian tradition has it, the rock upon which the Church of Christ was built. They were sinful men, unworthy of being God’s prophets; but that was, as they say, useless information. God called them, and they became God’s prophets, anyway.

It’s no different with us. God has called us to be prophets too. On a smaller scale to be sure, but God has called us nonetheless. We probably don’t think we’re worthy. I know perfectly well that I’m not worthy. I have no doubt about that at all. I know that I am at least as much a man of unclean lips as Isaiah was. I know that I’m at least as big a sinner as Peter was. I also know, however, that I can’t get out of this prophet business just because I know I’m not worthy. You can’t either. If Isaiah and Peter couldn’t, what makes us think that we can? We’re stuck with it folks. That’s just how it is.

And no one said it would be easy. In our reading from Luke the catch of fish leads Jesus to say to Peter and the others “from now on you will be catching people.” The net full of fish is a metaphor for the work of the apostle, of the prophet. And that net full of fish did not come easily even with Jesus’ divine help. To reap the reward the fishermen had to “put out into the deep water.” Luke 5:4 NRSV For us that means that they had to leave the safety of the shore and risk the dangers of the deep. It’s no different for us. If we are to fulfill our calling as the prophets of an emerging, progressive Christianity we need to leave the safety of our shore, of the things we’re comfortable with, of the ways we know and have always followed, and put out into the dangerous life of prophetic ministry. God calls all of God’s prophets not to safety and comfort but to risk and to the unknown. Are we up to it? I pray that we are. I know that we are. If we decide that we aren’t, we will fail in God’s call to us. Let’s not fail, OK? Amen.