The Rev. Ann R. Lougee February 4, 2007 Who Me? Isaiah 6:1-9; Luke 5:1-11 Today's stories seem very different, yet they actually have a lot in common. As Isaiah comes face-to-face with God in the temple, he is stricken by a sense of his own unworthiness. Simon Peter falls down at Jesus' knees to confess his own sinfulness after Jesus has led him to dip down into deep waters for an abundant catch. Both Isaiah and Peter feel called to take their experience of God and or forgiveness to others. Meeting up with God, in temple, in Jesus, or in whatever way it happens is first a humbling experience, and second one that makes people feel called to bring others to the same experience. As Luke tells the story, Jesus had found an enthusiastic audience by the lakeside, and he needed a boat to get out into the shallows of the water so that the crowds could see and hear him. One might imagine that Jesus wanted to say so much that he needed more than words to express the abundance of God's love and the overflowing power of God's grace. So he decided to show them as well, urging the tired fishermen to strike out into the deep rather than heading safely home after a long day. What follows in the story is a wonderful metaphorical way to tell of how their experience of Jesus shocked the disciples into realizing life's amazing abundance which we normally either take for granted or deny. Their encounter with Jesus made them keenly aware that life held much more possibility than fishing for fish, so they left their boats and nets and followed him to fish for people. Today we have difficulty imagining what it means to "leave it all behind" unless we do something along the lines of becoming a missionary or drastically changing our lifestyle. So we may wistfully read this story once again this Epiphany season, and go back to our nets, that is, our ordinary lives, as if this story were not about us, and this call were not ours, too. But what if we can in fact clean the nets and strike out again to do the work of our lives and yet, at the same time, live lives true to the gospel, given to God, faithful to the Word that called Simon and his partners away? What if our lives could be transformed right where they are, with the people we love and know? Can our imaginations open us up to epiphanies all around us, wonders that challenge our expectations? After all, the last thing those "tired fishermen" were expecting was a showing of God's awesome power right there, at the end of another workday. Why couldn't the same be said of our workdays: that they hold the possibility of seeing God at work in our lives and all around us? The famous preacher Renetta Weems says that "Christ still shows up and surprises us," and we can find our lives changed forever. This fish story is in all the Gospels, with variations, and in Matthew we read that Zebedee, the father of two of the fishermen-turned-disciples, stayed in the boat. After all, someone had to clean up all that fish and get it to the people who were hungry and would buy it. The everyday work of earning a living had to go on. It would take a lot for us to walk away from our boats -- our sources of livelihood and security -- too. It may strike us, like Zebedee, as wholly unrealistic and perhaps even irresponsible to walk away from our work and the people it supports, including ourselves. But then, that's not really the point of the story. What matters is the response of Simon Peter to something far beyond his understanding, something that makes him painfully aware of his own limitations and unworthiness. His awe, translated by Eugene Peterson as, "I'm a sinner and I can't handle all this holiness. Leave me to myself," may help us understand better the phrase, "fear of the Lord." This is akin to the reaction that the young Isaiah had to his vision in the temple of the immensity and glory of God, contrasted with his own smallness and sense of having sinned. Isaiah's vision let him know his past no longer mattered, that God was calling him and empowering him to be a special messenger about God and God's way. Similarly, Jesus' words to the fishermen are, "Don't be afraid." These consoling words, found often in the Good News, are followed closely, however, by a commission that holds within it a risky invitation to "strike out into the deep." What this "big fish story" that appears in all the gospels tells us in no uncertain terms is that part of the job of following Jesus is to gather people to him. Our reaction to this is usually "Who Me?" We may feel that we're tired, like the fishermen, that we're not up to the task, like Isaiah, and that there are no more people interested in the good news we offer anyway. Perhaps we need to be casting our nets into the deeps, as Jesus instructed. "The deeps" may represent those places where we would rather not go, the places of discomfort and danger and unfamiliarity, where we fear we might "get in over our heads." Might we reach out, for example, to the low-income elderly living on the other side of town at Pilgrim House, which is part of the United Church of Christ's ministry? Might we make an effort to contact, invite and welcome individuals and families struggling with mental illness? Might we even learn to care better for those already within our fellowship? Who knows what other deeps we might find by looking! As we celebrate the Fiftieth Anniversary of both Pilgrim Church and the United Church of Christ, we would do well to consider the deep waters still unexplored that may call us as a congregation to new ministry, new insights, new experiences of faithfulness and wonder. Let's continue widening our circle of table fellowship and extending an invitation to all to participate in this family of faith. Amen.