Sermon for 09 February 2025, Epiphany 5C, Luke 5.1-11

Let us pray: Fill us with your Holy Spirit, that through us, your light may shine in all the world. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

‘Here I am, Lord. Send me!’ Let’s talk about answering that call. We hear a lot about free will, but it is comforting to consider that God has a purpose for each of us regardless of the path taken. Together, we share part of that purpose, we are all called by God to serve and express our love. It is the ‘how’ we do it that is unique.

Isaiah wanted to serve God but hesitated. He was so aware of his limitations and was stunned that someone so ordinary could be having such extraordinary visions of God and angels, but he did!

His hesitation was resolved when he was wiped clean of sin and his guilt removed by an angel pressing a burning coal to his lips. After this painful trial, Isaiah was now ready to serve God and offered himself when he heard God call, ‘Whom shall I send?’ Isaiah’s response was, ‘Here I am, Lord. Send me!’

I hope you will listen out for God calling you. Not many, though, hear a divine voice calling in the dark. You might hear someone ask you to do something that surprises both of you. ‘Where did that thought come from?’ you might both think. You might recognise a nudge or a calling from God when a thought,or an idea of an action lingers, returns, wakes you in the night or generally will not go away until action is taken. Sometimes it takes years.

In my teenage years, I had a deep desire to serve God, to learn more and, and… Then I would run out of words to explain this calling that felt like a burning within me. At the same time, I couldn’t see how an 18-year-old girl could be a minister. So I became an engineer, working and playing hard, for twenty years. But that little voice was never completely silenced. Just before I turned 40, with three very young children and an accelerating career, I enrolled in a part-time university theology course. Why? Because I couldn’t bear the waking in the night or recurring thoughts any longer. I answered the call when God wore me down. ‘Here I am Lord, send me!’

But Isaiah’s burning coal sounds painful and a tough thing to endure. How does that searing experience concur with God’s grace given freely and in love? How does that pain connect with the golden idea of responding to God’s purpose for us?

I think that, sometimes, particularly when we are lifelong believers, we forget that accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour is not always easy. True, saying “I believe” might be achieved with a heart full of joy, but that is just the beginning. Changing your life, your behaviour and even your friends can feel like a high price to pay some days.

Living a life that focuses on love can take some significant changes and could feel like a hot coal pressed to the lips. The rest of us have no idea how long or painful that transition might be. As part of our welcome, we need to be aware of those changes that may be happening and be kind.

None of us are immune to struggles with our faith. It is a continual process to listen to God, to follow where you believe you are called. It can be an almighty battle to avoid actions and thoughts that lead you away from God, which we call sin, rather than towards the blessings of God.

Does it help to know that you are not alone in juggling what we do against what we know we should do? I hope it does. I know it helps me.

To one extent or another, we are all working this stuff out. That is one of the strengths of being part of a community, even one as wonderfully imperfect as ours. We support each other in so many ways.

St Paul, in his letter to the troublesome Corinthians, talked about how the people had previously accepted the gospel he had preached to them. His turn of phrase caught my attention. Paul did not say that belief in God’s good news of love and forgiveness had saved them, but that they were being saved. Being saved.

That small change of verb tense is so powerful and revealing. Paul knew that our relationship with God is part of an ongoing process, a constant struggle between the temptations of the world and our ability to accept that we are loved.

When considering following and serving God, we cannot go past Luke’s account of the first disciples being called to follow Jesus. Leaving their boats that day to follow Jesus, Luke softened the blow for those the three fishermen abandoned by providing a miracle-sized catch of fish to be eaten or sold. But that same catch was experienced as a divine act by Simon. How do we know? He fell to his knees, as always happens in scripture in the presence of God, and he changed his address from ‘Master’ to ‘Lord’.

Until this point, Jesus had been teaching and healing as a one-man ministry, but things were getting out of hand as the crowds increased. He recognised that he needed help, an awareness that we humans often undervalue.

Jesus had only met Simon previously as part of his healing ministry. On this day, Simon (later called Peter) was exhausted after a long night of fishing with nothing to show for all the fishermen’s efforts. When Simon expressed doubts that echo Isaiah’s regarding his suitability to serve God, Jesus reassured him. “Don’t be afraid; from now on, you will be catching people.” Please note the complete absence of training, selection or approvals.

This phrase, ‘catching people’, does make me wince. Jesus’ idea of gathering a community of followers by being fishers, or hunters, of people has been rendered problematic by some unscrupulous evangelists over the years. It feels somewhat predatory.

Surely, there must be a happy medium between hunting for new believers and hoping that people will somehow find their own way to any church. That is the wildly optimistic ‘if we build it, they will come’ model.

I think our approach to spreading the good news here is three-fold, and it feels honest and healthy. We are raising people’s awareness that there is a church here; we are getting braver by inviting folk to visit; and providing a kind and generous welcome to those who do visit us.

The rest is between the visitor and God; This process is a wonderful dance between humans and the Holy Spirit. One takes a step and then the other, but in no particular order and to no particular beat. They might come back, or they might grow their faith elsewhere. We pray that they might discover God’s purpose for them while they flourish in a community of folk trying to serve and follow.

The key to evangelising and sharing the good news, is to recognise the truth that Paul taught the Corinthians, that we are all being saved. We all need God’s forgiving love to truly discover God’s purpose for us, which is slowly revealed until the day we die. The bright Epiphany light we are watching for today is God’s sparkle within each of us.

It doesn’t matter how you found your way into this gathering; God’s love shines from us as we follow and serve God. Reflecting God’s love so that, as the psalmist says, the Lord can make good his purpose for us.

So friends, never stop shining as you continue to be saved daily.  The Lord be with you!