Welcome to Sherwood Oxley Anglican
St John's, California Road, Oxley
St Matthew's, corner Oxley & Sherwood Road, Sherwood
Reflection 9 February
BEING CALLED
Isaiah 6.1-13
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.
2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.
3 And one called to another and said:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’
4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.
5 And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.
7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’
9 And he said, ‘Go and say to this people:
“Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.”
10 Make the mind of this people dull,
and stop their ears,
and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and comprehend with their minds,
and turn and be healed.’
11 Then I said, ‘How long, O Lord?’ And he said:
‘Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is utterly desolate;
12 until the Lord sends everyone far away,
and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.
13 Even if a tenth part remains in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak
whose stump remains standing
when it is felled.’
The holy seed is its stump.
REFLECTION
The first part of this reading sees Isaiah having a vision of God and he is struck by his unworthiness, and specifically the unworthiness of his lips and words. An Angel takes care of this by cleansing his lips. Then God calls for someone to send to God's people and Isaiah says, 'Here am I; send me!' No hesitation, fear or question. God though is not sending him to give a door of hope, but to bring about a time of blindness to the people. Why? God is wanting to prepare Isreal. God wants to get rid of the problems and find a worthy base to grow his kingdom. Isaiah is the farmer who clears the useless weeds and vegetation, and the rocks and breaks the ground to make good soil. He is looping the tree to its base so that new healthy shoots can grow. He is called to the hard labor of preparation.
Psalm 138
1 I will give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart:
even before the gods will I sing your praises.
2 I will bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name:
because of your faithfulness and your loving-kindness,
for you have made your name and your word
supreme over all things.
3 At a time when I called to you, you gave me answer:
and put new strength within my soul.
4 All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord:
for they have heard the words of your mouth;
5 And they shall sing of the ways of the Lord:
that the glory of the Lord is great.
6 For though the Lord is exalted, he looks upon the lowly:
and he comprehends the proud from afar.
7 Though I walk in the midst of danger,
yet will you preserve my life:
you will stretch out your hand against the fury of my
enemies, and your right hand shall save me.
8 The Lord will complete his purpose for me:
your loving-kindness, O Lord, endures for ever;
do not forsake the work of your own hands.
1 Corinthians 15.1-11
1 Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain. 3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.
REFLECTION
I want to look at this reading as a reflection of who Paul is, this person called to serve God in the work. He shares with the Corinthians how the gift of Jesus' death and resurrection has come to them and how he had been called. It was not a result of education, or upbringing. It was a long chain of events which resulted in an unworthy person, Paul, being called to take Jesus' message to the Gentiles.
Gospel
Luke 5.1-11
1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5 Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7 So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ 9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
REFLECTION
As we jump backwards in Jesus' life, we go back to before he had any disciples. He was alone and had attracted a number of followers. Wanting space, or was he wanting to talk to Peter and Andrew? There seems nothing important happening between him and the crowd. It is after the talk when he asks then to go fishing again that we see something happen. This miracle leads to Jesus calling them to follow and they do. How important was the fish to their response? In the end they like Isaiah answer the call, but are they called to prepare, as Isaiah was? Jesus says in Matthew 9:35-38, Jesus says the, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;...' They are called to complete the work. Where does that leave us? What is God calling us to be?