Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (2022)
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I remember when my parents finally bought a boat back in the day. She was a beauty, blue and silver, an aluminum fishing boat with a big ol’ mercury motor on the back. In the bow a variety of hatches contain anchors, ropes and lifejackets. Also in the bow was this thing called a live well. A live well, as most of you know, is a small box where you put the fish. It circulates water in the boat in on a regular basis to keep the fish alive until it’s time for harvest.
I think about that live well in light of today’s readings.
The Live Well Earth
The Live Well Earth
In Isaiah 6, the year is 742 BC and the prophet sees the Lord on His holy throne. Now the question remains, is this THE temple in Jerusalem or is it something else? It seems to be a little bit of both. The temple in Jerusalem is where heaven is supposed to meet earth and just the hem of the robe of God fills this temple.
If you remember the design of the temple though, it is meant to mimic the garden of creation. I think Isaiah has this vision of the glory of God filling the heavens and the earth. It’s pretty grandiose.
The house of God was filled with smoke- the temple was filled with his robe, the whole thing is very reminiscent of Genesis and the filling of the earth.
See, this earth is like a giant ocean and the Lord by His glorious grace preserves us. We live and swim freely because God has kept the leviathan and the fisherman at bay, whether we realize it or not. It is His hand that keeps us going.
David tells us:
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.
For those in the Hebrew faith life was pretty simple. The immediate and ultimate cause of all things was God. If it rained it wasn’t because of pressure change and clouds, God did it. If someone died, the Lord was at play.
If for a moment we are plucked from the things God has provided, then we perish.
Evangelism is Messy
Evangelism is Messy
When Jesus says I will make you catch men my modern ears think of a men’s retreat. I think of the flannel board pictures of recreation. In reality the biblical narrative is much more shocking and less… nice.
“Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.
Ezekiel is quite gruesome:
I will put hooks in your jaws, and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales; and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams, with all the fish of your streams that stick to your scales.
The image from both of these is of a fish being violently pulled from its home or place of security.
Evangelism and our gospel lesson have been touted as these just happy processes that people go through.
Come join our church, the music is great, we pay your rent if you lose your job. We’re all very glad you showed up. You should live a very good life once you become a Christian. Usually there are snacks after church. Who doesn’t love snacks?
I often joke that one of the great things about having young kids is the abundance of fruit snacks around the house.
That’s not at all how it goes though. The call of Christ is utterly life changing. It’s like that scene in the little mermaid where she see’s what goes on above the water and she CANNOT just go back to living under the sea!
Our conversion to Christ should cause the foundations of our world to tremble. Pastor and Martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer said ‘When God calls a man He bids him come and die.’
Think about all that someone has to forgo in order to really be assembled into His body. Christ lays claim to your schedule; no longer do you get to sleep in on Sundays. Your money; is all in service to Him and to the abundant life of your neighbor, its not just whatever you feel like doing with it. Your friends, sure they can stay your friends but you’ve also got this crew of people that are called saints that you plan on seeing for all of eternity.
I’ve not caught a ton of fish in my life but I can tell you with 100% certainty that I’ve never caught a fish that wanted to come out of the water.
CS Lewis said: “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”
To come to Christianity requires HUGE change. For many, it feels akin to going from the Ocean to a live well. There is a new morality in ones life because of a new purpose.
Isaiah has a similar experience. When He encounters the living God what does he say first? WOE IS ME! The dictionary definition for the Hebrew word Woe is almost comical: an impassioned expression of grief and despair. Then to seal the deal an angel comes by with a burning coal and sears his lips.
Isaiah is then commissioned to retrieve the lost. Isaiah 6.8
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
God then sends him but He has the audacity to ask a clarifying question.
Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,
Isaiah and the church are ordained to teach people that there is a whole world around us. A world of incredible mercy and grace but also of real truth and learning that your flesh has ultimate purpose and your life has meaning.
As Christians we are called until the end of the age to bring others into the Kingdom of God.
Baptism is Mortal
Baptism is Mortal
On more than one occasion I have been around for the moment when a funeral home director opens the casket of a loved one for the family. It’s surreal, there they are, dressed and ready for church but already with the Lord. More than once a relative has touched up the makeup. I don’t know what to do with that. I don’t know why we dress up those who are awaiting much more glorious body.
In Romans 6 we catch another abrupt image of our bodies:
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Church, you are not morticians, in this life we’re not just putting makeup on the dead. This thing we do is no mere morality. To teach that what we do is just nice and polite is like putting makeup on a corpse.
Here is the eternal Kingdom of God.
In baptism, you have already died and risen. You have survived the catch, you have been raised to new life. On the last day when Christ descend with trumpet and shout and the graves are torn open in an earthquake we will once again be brought into His presence. Think about this- you have already survived the grave.
Isn’t that good news? You and I are no longer captive of our own sin and flesh. We’ve been given the talent to breathe underwater!
Isn’t it reassuring that we know this life is hard and that we have the assurance that Christ has and will deliver us again? I find it comforting that as much as I struggle and wrestle like a sassy fish the Lord will bring me out of my grave on the last day.
Today, consider the struggles of unfruitfulness you have with your faith and life. Rest assured that the church, this living house of words and water and spirit, has always wrestled with God.
Man has always wrestled with our flesh like a fisherman trying to catch a trophy fish. Seemingly, the body of Christ mounted to the cross was the trophy of sin. The victory of God and the church is an empty grave.
You too will rise victorious in Christ because of this. Wrestle with the world, with sin. Christ wins. Amen.