(By Dave, 15-20 min)
Scripture 1
Luke 5: 1-10
One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.
The face of Jesus
I am watching “The Chosen”, a dramatic depiction of the ministry of Jesus by Angel Studios. In season 1, Jesus meets many of his followers for the first time. The actors respond to these encounters so realistically, it left me wondering what I would feel in the presence of God?
Today’s Scripture verse describes Simon’s feelings when he meets Jesus, but it doesn’t appear to be their first encounter. Assuming Luke is chronologically arranged, Simon knows a good bit about Jesus before today’s Scripture verse because the Lord came to his home in the previous chapter. While there, he heals Simon’s ailing mother-in-law and others who came for help (presumably also at Simon’s home). Some of these healings are accompanied by demons fleeing the afflicted shouting: “you are the son of God”.
Then after an entire night of unsuccessful fishing, Simon hears Jesus preaching at the water’s edge and is asked to sail him out a short distance so Jesus can continue. At this point Simon becomes personally involved in the miraculous. At Christ’s urging, he brings in an enormous catch of fish from a previously empty sea. His mother-in-law instantly cured of a fever, seeing demons screaming the identity of Jesus as they are cast out of the sick, the truth Jesus speaks from the shore, and an impossible catch were too much for doubt, and Simon’s mind accepts the reality that Jesus is Messiah and Lord.
Simon responds to his insight: “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Standing beside perfection, even when it is constrained in human form, Simon’s first reaction is to collapse to his knees recognizing his own imperfection. He cannot imagine Jesus wanting to be in his presence. Simon is not the first to have this kind of response.
Scripture 2
Isaiah 6: 1-5
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
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!”
The face of God
In this second Scripture, God visits Isaiah in a vision. Despite their heavenly nature, the seraphim flying above God cannot look upon him and use two of their six wings to hide their eyes. In the presence of ultimate holy perfection even heavenly citizens are ashamed of their bodily imperfection and hide their feet with two more of their wings. Only the portion of the body from which their last two wings emerge is visible as they fly. And fly around the Lord they do calling out that which fills their mind in the presence of God: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
Isaiah’s response is reminiscent of Simon’s: “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
When Simon is in the presence of God as a human, he asks Jesus to leave because he is too sinful to be with him. When Isaiah is in the presence of God, he fears that all is lost and, given the history of the Old Testament, that he will likely die. The response from both men is based on perceiving their sinfulness in full because they are in the presence of infinite holiness.
Reverence lost
Simon and Isaiah provide the correct human response to Jesus Christ and God Almighty. The Old and New Testament are consistent in telling us that next to God, in any form, we are imperfect in the extreme and should be overwhelmingly awed and simultaneously ashamed by our sinfulness. Even the seraphim of heaven feel this way.
Our society’s view of God and Jesus Christ looks nothing like this. Instead, God and Jesus Christ are thought of more like the triune God described in the novel The Shack published in 2007. The protagonist of the novel, Mack, suffers a horrible loss and finds himself in a ramshackle building of unknown origin invited there by mysterious means. Inside are human-like representations of the triune God.
Mack first meets the woman representing God as she bursts through the front door calling out his name:
“Mack, look at you!” She fairly exploded. “Here you are, and so grown up. I have really been looking forward to seeing you face-to-face. It is so wonderful to have you here with us. My, my, my, how I do love you!” And with that she wrapped herself around him again.
Mack’s subsequent conversations with all three members of the Trinity have the same warm feel. They are personal interactions between a hurting man and a loving, triune God who is intent on helping Mack find healing for his pain through discourse with the divine.
The book sold 22.5 million copies according to Wikipedia’s list of best-selling books. In 2017 it was made into a movie and grossed 96.9 million worldwide. I believe the reason for this popularity is that the tale comports with our contemporary view of God as a loving, magnanimous healer reaching out to us at the height of suffering.
Being called
The Shack presents something that is within the Trinity. A capacity for love and empathy that surpasses anything the author could capture in words. In fact, the scene I quoted above is very reminiscent of Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son suggesting the author was biblically aware as he created his characters. So, I don’t believe it’s wrong to focus on this aspect of our triune God. But if God’s tender loving care is all that fills our minds, if our relationship with God is only about personal healing and transformation, something will be lost.
Both of today’s Scriptures go on to present God’s response to Simon and Isaiah. Their honest self-assessment and full reverence for the infinite holiness of God results in both being called.
To Simon:
“Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:10-11).
To Isaiah:
“Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
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!” (Isaiah 6:6-8)
The divine response to a humble heart that truly understands the separation between him/herself and God is to forgive the sin and call the person to serve. If Isaiah and Simon’s stories are God’s directions for our service, then it begins by remembering what today’s society and perhaps much of its Christian community moves to the background; that God is infinitely holy. At our best, we are too sinful to look on the face of God. As Simon implies, too sinful to be of any use to such a holy being,
Only when this occurs, does Jesus tell Simon not to be afraid. He should have no fear because his sin will very shortly be atoned for by the very man with whom he speaks. Only after Isaiah sees his fallen nature compared to God do the seraphim use altar coals to atone for his sin and does God call him to service. There is something important for all of us who serve in remembering the enormous gulf that separates us from an infinitely holy God.
Who will direct your service?
I suspect that experiencing Old Testament “fear of the Lord” as Isaiah and Simon did opens a heart to God’s directions. If all we do is focus on the love of Jesus and accepting his forgiveness we are only partly prepared for service. Today’s Scripture suggests that to be used best by God we must remember how different we are from the God who calls us. I suspect the more we neglect reverence for God, the more likely our service will be influenced by our personal desires. An analogy using my now deceased black dog, Oafy, comes to mind.
Most of the time Oaf listened to me, but if something caught his attention when I let him out before dawn in the morning, I would lose him in the darkness. To help, I bought one of those giant rechargeable flashlights that casts out a beam so great it surely would reach the moon if pointed there. That really helped because I could see my lovable mutt meandering around the woods at the edge of my yard. Then I could call him or walk right up to him, grab his collar and walk him back into the house.
That flashlight is maybe how we pursue service to God. We shine it out into a sea of choices until we find the one that seems to suit us well. We can do this thoroughly inspired by how much God loves us. We can do it while God’s love is busily transforming us and our service can be important. But we are still holding the flashlight. As powerful as that flashlight is its light is thoroughly incomplete. We only see those service opportunities our flashlight illuminates.
But take our flashlight out into the noonday sun and it would be utterly worthless. We couldn’t even tell if it was on or off. I think the Scriptures are telling us to put down the inferior flashlights of our own desires, and recognize these beams are nothing in comparison to the sun. Only when we are sufficiently humbled standing in the noonday sun will we toss the flashlight aside and clearly see God’s service choice for us.
An example
I have a friend who last Christmas season showed that humility and reverence for God can cause someone to hear a change in call for their life. A little background. My friend has a great sense of the separation between himself and God even though he feels the love and gentleness of the Trinity. His heart is very humble when he thinks of himself and God together one day in heaven. It causes him to ponder what it will be like when he stands with his life’s sins laid bare before the Almighty, and he has these thoughts knowing Jesus has paid for his sins and he will be forgiven. He very much sounds like Simon and Isaiah in today’s Scripture verses.
My friend is an excellent actor and does a good bit of community theater. He will often pick up parts around the holidays when production companies are preparing shows for its celebrating patrons. He loves this work. The cognitive challenge of it (he often gets large roles), the thinking that goes into bringing a character alive, and the sheer joy of entertaining an audience bring him joy and fulfillment.
This year he had a very big part and the rehearsals interfered with attending the Advent services at his church. In the light of today’s Scripture verses, I see now it was then that my friend’s reverence for God started to impact how he was going to serve. He made a commitment to the producers and saw the show through, but as soon as it was over he said I won’t do that again.
He could not worship God during the Advent season as God was leading him and that was unacceptable. My friend believes that acting is part of God’s call on his life as he brings a very Christian countenance and sometimes words to other cast members. He also feels like he serves the people who are entertained by his shows. But because his heart is humble, because he wants to reverently worship his holy God, during the Advent season, he is ready to move from his view of God’s call on his life as an actor to God’s call on his life as a parishioner.
His reverence is now letting the sunshine rather than his flashlight lead his way and because of that I think something else is up. My friend is also a good preacher, and he serves his local religious region providing pulpit fill when pastors of his denomination are away. I wonder what might happen now that he has responded to God’s pull on his heart to keep his calendar open for worship during the Christmas season? I guess I’ll have to see, but it wouldn’t surprise me if my friend’s reverence for and listening to God will land him in someone’s pulpit next Christmas. He may be worshiping God from a leadership position.
In his own unique service spectrum for God my friend is like Isaiah and Simon. His reverence for God is great enough that he was willing to set aside his own view of call, to put down the flashlight so to speak, and to let God’s light chart a new course. If what I am seeing in today’s Scripture verses is accurate, that’s the kind of heart God can really put to work. Accepting God’s love and grace as depicted so beautifully in The Shack can indeed transform a life and turn someone toward service. Today’s Scripture verses suggest that always remembering the infinite difference in holiness existing between God and us may open our minds to a service of God’s choosing.
As always, I hope what I’ve written here resonates with you and that it may help in your Christian journey. May you find blessings this and every day as you walk with God in reverence responding to his call on your life.
Dave
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