Epiphany V, Year C

Judges, 6:11-24a
1 Corinthians, 15:1-11
Luke, 5:1-11

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Last Wednesday evening at our catechumenate meeting, we tackled the fundamentals of Christian doctrine: the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Creation, the Atonement. These are probably the most difficult and abstract topics that the catechumenate engages in each year. So instead of teaching it myself, I naturally passed it off to John Earls, our seminarian. The usual approach to these topics is to dive into philosophy and abstractions, but John wisely asked the class a question: "What is God for you? What do you know about God? What qualities does he have?" And then, perhaps even more wisely, he looked over at me and added, "And not a word from you."

During the class, we discussed how we knew God through our experiences, specifically through things like prayer, relationships, nature, reflection, and of course scripture. When we read scripture, a good spiritual exercise is to ask: what does this passage tell me about what God is like? The gospel this morning tells us several things about God. The people pressed upon Jesus to hear the word of God, to hear divine teaching. God is a source of wisdom and knowledge. He advises us how to live, how to structure our lives, what to value. We believe that in living according to God's wishes we will be blessed, happy, content. That is certainly my experience, and the experience of Christians through the ages. The more we conform our lives to God's will the more content and fulfilled we are. God's law – morality – is not arbitrary, and obeying it promotes our happiness and humanity.

God's knowledge, however, does not appear to be confined only to teaching people how to live. In today's gospel, Jesus appears to reveal a thorough knowledge of nature. One of the classical attributes of God is that he is omniscient, all-knowing. That's something we would say about God, and something that appears to be assumed in today's gospel.

Closely related to being all knowing is being all powerful, omnipotent. In today's gospel, God seems to control nature, how else to explain the enormous haul of fishes, so much that the net was beginning to break. This is particularly remarkable because generally the fish in Lake Gennesaret, a.k.a. the Sea of Galilee, are not caught in broad daylight, but at night. Simon Peter had been fishing all night and caught nothing. He knew about fishing, and he knew that Jesus' suggestion was counter to good sense. His willingness, however, to follow Jesus' apparently mad suggestion allows for the miracle. The miracle displays God's power and control over nature.

The Church focuses our attention on this scene during Epiphany because S. Peter gets a glimpse of God's power and knowledge. God manifests himself. Today's epistle, S. Paul's vision of the risen Christ, complements this idea of God revealing himself to humanity in power. God's power and control over nature, however, is not what is most convincing to humanity. God's power is not what causes Peter to fall to his knees before Jesus. God's power is not fundamental in producing faith in human beings. The value of miracles in producing faith is ambiguous at best.

The primary impression that Jesus' miracle had on Peter was not Jesus as a wonder worker, but as a moral authority. Peter's response to the miracle is to fall to his knees and to plead for Jesus to get away from him. Peter cries, "I am a sinful man, O Lord." Peter's response is similar to the prophet Isaiah when he beholds God. When Isaiah entered the Temple and had a vision of God, with the angels singing the Sanctus – Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. (Isa 6:3) Isaiah's response to this vision, this epiphany is: "Woe is me! . . . For I am a man of unclean lips." He is overwhelmed by his own unworthiness before God. Like Isaiah, in today's gospel, Peter sees is the majesty and splendour of God's goodness. God's goodness, not his power, makes the greatest impression upon Peter.

What is far more compelling about God than his power and knowledge is his goodness, and truth, and beauty, his love for humanity. When we seek to be like God in having power, dominion over nature and over other people, when we seek to be like God in having special knowledge, so often we use those gifts of knowledge and power to glorify ourselves, to make a name for ourselves. When we seek to be like God in being good, in loving our neighbor, in creating beauty, in proclaiming truth, then our motive is usually purer. We value God's goodness and love much more than his power and knowledge. Indeed, Jesus' whole life witnesses to the value of goodness and love as surpassing the value of power and knowledge. God in becoming a human being chose to limit his power and knowledge, mostly to be confined have human power and knowledge, but he did not limit his goodness and love in any way.

When Peter falls on his knees, Jesus tells him not to fear, that he will make Peter a fisher of men. Our Lord responds to Peter's recognition of his sinfulness by giving him a vocation: catch human beings for me and the gospel. Go make Christians. In this moment of epiphany, of seeing God's goodness, Peter is changed. His life reoriented. He and his partners – poor, hardworking fishermen – had toiled all night fruitlessly and then had pulled in the biggest draught of fish of their lives. They then abandoned not only this great bounty of fish, which presumably would have provided for them and their families for some time, but they abandoned everything and followed Jesus. Answering God's call to us is terrifying. He requires us to place him and his mission above everything.

There's a lot of debate in the Church today about what is orthodox and what isn't; about what is scripturally mandated and what isn't. I'm not going to draw any more lines in the sand, but I do notice that there's a lot more in the gospels about the requirement for the followers of Jesus to build up the Church, to make more Christians, to spread the good news that God loves every one of us, that God's mercy has no bounds, that we have hope and life in Christ, that we can be changed, than about anything else. Building up the body of Christ is the number one theme in the gospels. Again, and again, and again, the gospel stories are about sharing good news, about our responsibility to be fishers of men.

Bible churches certainly are not pushing strictly orthodox Christianity. They essentially have no sacraments, no historic creeds, no historic episcopacy, but what they've got is evangelical fervor, and that's the heart of scripture, the heart of orthodox Christianity. Orthodox Christianity comes from not only a deep, serious, passionate faith in Christ, but a sincere and burning desire to share it, and not to share it on our own terms. A primary characteristic of an orthodox Christian is someone who prays for specific unchurched people to find Christ, who prays for the return of specific lapsed Christians, who invites people to mass, who talks about the importance of their faith, that is a Christian who witnesses to his personal relationship with Christ, not using Christ to score debating points and to divide people. Orthodox, biblical Christianity is broad, dynamic, alive, inclusive, seeking out the lost, seeking out those who want the their lives transformed and healed. When a church is not reaching out to people, when it loses its passion for Jesus' mission, it no longer has any reason to exist.

I'm grateful that this parish is not a club of like minded individuals. Through the years we have reached out to many different types of people and incorporated them into our parish family. Consequently, we are a diverse community of people with a variety of views and experiences, but we are united in the love and mercy of Jesus, united in worshiping Jesus, united in hope for the future, united in a desire to be faithful to God's call. And we have to be united in fishing, in catching human beings. We have a beautiful church; moving, exciting, stunning worship; warm, caring people. It becomes easy to enjoy those things alone, but that would not be faithful to Christ's call for us. Maintaining what we are is not good enough; it is not faithful. We have to be willing to forsake all in order to follow our Lord. We are here not only for ourselves. We are here to bring people into the Church. We are here not only for ourselves. We are here for the next new person who walks through our doors, and we are here to bring people through our doors.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.