Words 2.3

Words Twice a Week        2.3

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Some thoughts on some of the lectionary texts for Sunday – Fifth after Epiphany

Isaiah 6.1-13

+ “In the year that King Uzziah died…”  one writer notes that Uzziah was the last of the powerful monarchs of Judah, a time of chaos, change, confusion might be coming, in which Israel would need to pay special attention to the word of God?  How is that time like our time?

+ the priestly and prophetic spheres are not all that separate – in high church cultic setting Isaiah experiences a prophetic call.  Is your worshiping congregation formal, informal?

+ God did not abandon the world, but entered/reentered, seated in the Temple.  But God is holy and the world is not – the two do not mix, like oil and water.  This makes a dangerous situation.  Isaiah sees the hem of God’s garment and even that is enough to fill him with fear.  This is not a “And he walks with me and he talks with me” vision of God!

+ Isaiah is sent to proclaim destruction.  Here’s how Buechner puts it -

   Mystery said, “Go give the dead Hell till you’re blue in the face and go show the blind Heaven till you drop in your tracks because they’d sooner eat ground glass than swallow the bitter pill that puts roses in the cheeks and a gleam in the eye.  Go do it.”

   Isaiah said, “Do it till when?”

   Mystery said, “Till Hell freezes over.”

   Mystery said, “Do it till the cows come home.”

And this is what a prophet does for a living and, starting from the year that King Uzziah died when he saw and heard all these things, Isaiah went and did it. 

+ It feels to me like God is putting an eviction notice on the door.  Is the idea to destroy Israel as it is in order to allow God to remake it?

+ Is there anything in your life that this resonates with?

Luke 5.1-11

+ Mt and Mk both have a similar scene, but they place it earlier in the story – Jesus appears as someone proclaiming a new future.  Here Jesus has already had great success and borrows Peter’s boat because the crowds are pushing him into the lake!  That success moves Jesus from working alone to involving helpers/disciples

+ And this is interesting, we speak of this as “the Call of the disciples” but there isn’t really any call here.  Jesus simply announces “From now on you will be catching men and women.”

+ it’s the first time Peter is named in the gospel, although we have met his mother in law in 4.38.  If there is a mother in law, is there a wife?  Is she part of what Peter walked away from?

+ at first Peter is the only one named – John and James get tagged on at the end.

+ Simon walks away from miraculous catch (economic high point of his life) 

+ Jesus says “Put down the nets” and Peter says “Been there, did that, got that t-shirt - but if you say so…”  Followers don’t necessarily understand, but they do obey.

+ the issue was not Peter’s lack of skill at fishing, it was his humanity(sinfulness).

+ again, Holiness of Jesus vs humanity(sinfulness) of Peter/Simon.  This is not a “what a friend we have in Jesus” scene!  Peter’s response is “Go away from me”! And Jesus’ first words are “Don’t be afraid.”  What was Peter afraid of?  Do you ever feel that way?

 + then I really like this – “catch (men and women)” as in “to take alive” as in “to rescue from death” as in Holden Caulfield/The Catcher in the Rye.

+ and this miraculous catch of fish.  (This is from Richard Swanson)  In ordinary life, these fishermen end the day with torn nets, sunken boats, a catch that will glut the market and lower the prices, and no promise for tomorrow.  Might as well leave it all behind!

+ another writer notes that Peter walks away from the economic high point of his life.

+ How do you think about it?

+ What kind of promise for the future does this scene give for everyday life?

+ “The rabbis say, ‘If you are told the messiah has come, finish what you are doing.  Messiahs can wait, daily work must be done.’”

+ And again, is there anything in your life that this story resonates with?

O Lord, with your eyes you have searched me, 

and while smiling, have spoken my name.

Now my boat’s left on the shoreline behind me,

By your side I will seek other seas.

I love that image of Jesus smiling and saying my name.  What “boat” have you left behind?

And finally (added later) this from Soren Kierkegaard (and no, I don't read Kierkegaard, it came in the Daily Dig from Plough!)   Christ came into the world with the purpose of saving, not instructing it. At the same time – as is implied in his saving work – he came to be the pattern, to leave footprints for the person who would join him, who would become a follower. This is why Christ was born and lived and died in lowliness. . . . What then, is the difference between an admirer and a follower? A follower is or strives to be what he admires. An admirer, however, keeps himself personally detached. He fails to see that what is admired involves a claim upon him, and thus he fails to be or strive to be what he admires.

That’s what I got for now…..

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