Both the Gospel passage and the passage from Isaiah today give depictions of people who are faced squarely with God almighty – one in a vision and one in the form of the Word made flesh. The responses are remarkably similar in each. In both cases, the person (Isaiah with the heavenly vision of God’s hem in the temple and seraphim, and Peter with the overwhelming catch of fish in the Gospel) is overwhelmed and gob smacked. Immediately for both individuals there is a feeling of unworthiness. Isaiah speaks of being from a sinful people, with sinful lips. Peter also seeks to put distance between himself and Jesus. “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
As a modern people, we have a hard time talking about sin. I think understandably we don’t like to think less of ourselves. But for our purposes today, let’s just say that Isaiah and Peter feel unworthy of the call and unequal to the task.
There is another parallel between these two stories. It is a bit more subtle. The Isaiah passage is a bit odd; it has a little twisted logic. We learn that Isaiah is to prophesy to people who are not going to listen and he is going to know this from the get-go. As someone who writes a sermon every week, I sure know that not everyone tunes in to listen each week, I only hope that some of what I write is God-infused. (I haven’t had a vision or calling like Isaiah’s, but then again God works in other ways too, so I can hope.) …. Anyway, I think I would be entirely disheartened to know that nothing was going to land when I preached, nothing was going stick. Honestly, none of us ever knows even in our casual interactions with someone else whether they will perceive the love of God that we hope we give. Still, we sure don’t know how a sermon or conversation about faith will land and what work it will do in a person later, and maybe decades later. But Isaiah actually, sincerely knows how his proclamation will land. He knows that all his work essentially will be in vain. And still, there is hope because the “seed comes from the stump.” Isaiah is being asked to give from the bottom of a well, and trust that God can bring something from nothing.
The fishermen with Peter, likewise, are asked to give from the bottom of a well, Peter is asked to drop their nets after a hard night of back-breaking work. Peter has done the work and knows there are no fish. When Peter hauls in the huge numbers of fish, it is no wonder that he is overwhelmed!
When we are asked to give from the bottom of the well it is hard. It feels theoretically easy to say “yes”, but when you are tired from working all night, a laborer, to be asked more, to be asked to get down to stump, that is hard.
As applied to faith, this is similar with what the Corinthians are asked. They like us, are asked to live without fear, to live as true to Christ as possible, knowing that the life of Christ continues in us. This is the same as being asked to go the extra mile. From the Corinthian passage we see that faith and your spiritual or personal religious life is not necessarily easy; it is not meant to be comfortable, it can be challenging. There are days that I wish that being a Christian only meant that you should go to church on Sunday. However, that is not all we are asked. If you consider yourself more a seeker than a believer, you may be being asked to fake it until you make it. However you view your own faith, we are often being asked to give from the bottom of the well. We feel unqualified. We feel the work will lead to nothing. We don’t seem to make much of a difference.
What I think what we are really being asked is the following— worry less about our own qualifications, worry less about our sin, worry less about outcomes. God takes care of the outcomes. God takes even what we give from the bottom of the well and uses it. God can find fish where there were none; God can redeem even a people that does not want to hear. Trust that, and know that when our call comes from God, we are well equipped for overwhelming blessing. -Sarah+ Colvin
Isaiah 6:1-8, [9-13]
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
Psalm 138