If
you came to church today hoping for some good news, you’re in luck. The
readings are full of good news – all three of them. And what’s the good
news? The good news is that God calls sinners and even depends on
sinners to accomplish good – even great - things. And there’s even more
good news. It’s this: nothing is impossible for God.
The
reading from Isaiah set the stage. Isaiah is favored with a vision of
the majesty and glory of the all-holy God. He hears the angelic chorus
filling the heavens with their mighty hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy!” and
suddenly he is overwhelmed by the enormous abyss that exists between him
and God – between God’s holiness and his own sinfulness. “Woe is me,” he
says, “I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips living among a people
of unclean lips.” But God reaches out to bridge the great abyss.
God sends one of the seraphim to touch Isaiah’s unclean lips with a
burning ember taken from the altar. In that moment Isaiah is a changed
man, so much so that when God asks for someone He can send on a
prophetic mission, Isaiah, no longer burdened by his overwhelming sense
of sinfulness, quickly signs up: “Here I am,” he says, send me!” Call
that ‘good news, exhibit A.’ God calls sinners and even depends on
sinners to accomplish great things.
Exhibit B was in the gospel, a story we know well. Jesus is teaching a
large crowd of people at the Sea of Galilee. The crowd on the shore is
so large that Jesus decides to teach from Simon Peter’s boat. Luke gives
a nice little detail when he tells us that Jesus sat down in the boat to
teach. We might think that Jesus sat down in order to steady himself as
the boat rocked and pitched, but the real reason is that rabbis always
sat down to teach. It was a sign of their authority.
When
he had finished teaching Jesus told Simon Peter to put out into deep
water and lower his nets for a catch. At first, Peter reverses roles and
tries to play the teacher. He, after all, was the one who knew about
fishing, not Jesus! “Master,” he said, “we have worked all night and
have caught nothing.” But even though Peter was certain that there were
no fish to be caught, he swallowed hard and, in an act of faith that
must have surprised even himself, he says to Jesus, “but at your command
I will lower the nets.” It was an act of faith that paid off: so great
was the catch that the nets nearly gave way and Peter had to call for
help from his friends on a nearby boat.
Then
there’s Peter’s response to Jesus. Notice how much it sounds like
Isaiah’s response when he beheld God’s glory. Isaiah had said, “Woe is
me for I am unclean.” Peter says, “Depart from me for I am a sinful
man!” And just as Isaiah was cleansed from his sins, so was Peter. And
just as Isaiah was sent on a great mission, so was Peter. God calls
sinners and even depends on sinners to accomplish great things. Mark
that as ‘good news, exhibit B.’
Exhibit C came in the second reading. Paul reminds the Corinthians of
the various appearances of the risen Lord (to Peter, James, the Twelve,
the more than 500). He then mentions himself, quickly adding that he
really didn’t deserve to be an apostle for he had persecuted Christ’s
church with a vengeance. But his sins didn’t seem to count for much. God
had chosen him and called him and that was that! God calls sinners and
even depends on sinners to accomplish great things. ‘Good news, exhibit
C.’
My
friends, we have heard some very good news today, and there is even more
good news in those readings: there’s the exceedingly good news that for
God nothing is impossible. Luke sounds that theme often in his gospel.
We heard it during Advent when the angel announced to Mary the
impossible news that she, a virgin, would conceive and bear a child who
would be the long-awaited savior; we heard it, too, when Mary’s cousin
Elizabeth, childless because she was sterile, conceived a child in her
old age. And of course, we heard it in today’s gospel when Peter and his
friends hauled in that great catch of fish. Nothing is impossible for
God. Nothing can get in the way of God’s wonders: not human sinfulness
or human obduracy, not even the laws of nature itself. Nothing! Isaiah,
Peter, Paul, and those two boats loaded down with fish are ample
evidence of that!
My
friends, we live in a world where bad news rules. We can’t get away from
it, can we? It’s everywhere, and because of the 24-hour news cycle and
social media, we are inundated by it. We can’t escape it and, strangely,
we can’t retain it, either, because no sooner are we aware of one
tragedy, catastrophe, or outrage, than another one occurs and eclipses
the others. Bad news is everywhere, and it can so easily drag us down,
immobilize us, make us numb, make us hopeless.
But that is
not the whole story. We are believers, people of hope, Good News people!
We know bad news all too well but we also know the stories of people
like Isaiah, and Peter and Paul, and we know that the God who worked
wonders for them and through them can work wonders for us and through us
- turn us into apostles - agents for change, agents for good, agents for
justice in a world that is deeply flawed, yes, but also charged with
God’s presence, God’s glory!
My
friends, the God who turned Isaiah the visionary into Isaiah the
fearless prophet, who turned Peter the fisherman into Peter the
disciple, and Paul the persecutor into Paul the apostle has not run out
of great things, and never will!”
Father Michael G. Ryan
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