5th Sunday after Epiphany, Year C

Verse of scripture Psalm 138:1

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods will I sing praise to you. I will bow down towards your holy Temple and praise your name, because of your love and faithfulness; for you have glorified your name and your word above all things.

Collect Prayer for the Day—Before we read we pray

O God, you know us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright: grant to us such strength and protection as may support us in all dangers and carry us through all temptations; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Isaiah Chapter 6:1-8(9-13)

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, 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 seraphs 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!" He said, "Go and tell this people: "'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' Make the heart of this people callused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?" And he answered: "Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land." (This is the Word of the Lord—Thanks be to God)

Luke 5:1-11

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people 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 signalled 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. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. (This is the Gospel of Christ—Praise to Christ our lord)

Post Communion Prayer

Go before us, Lord, in all we do with your most gracious favour, and guide us with your continual help, that in all our works begun, continued and ended in you, we may glorify your holy name, and finally by your mercy receive everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Meditation

I am no longer my own but yours. Your will, not mine be done in all things, wherever you may place me, in all that I do and in all that I may endure; when there is work for me and when there is none; when I am troubled and when I am at peace. Your will be done when I am valued and when I am disregarded; when I find fulfillment and when it is lacking; when I have all things, and when I have nothing. I willingly offer all I have and am to serve you, as and where you choose. Glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. May it be so for ever. Let this covenant now made on earth be fulfilled in heaven. Amen.

Commentary

Nobody is on top of the world every day. Everyone has ups and downs. Sometimes the world is sweet and sometimes it is sour. Sometimes life moves along briskly, we accomplish what we set out to do and we meet our personal goals. And sometimes things get stuck. We look failure in the face day after day. We don't know how to get out of what we don't know how we got into. Life comes to a halt. Today's gospel reading is about three discouraged men - four actually if you count Andrew - Simon Peter's brother who appears in other accounts of this story. They were fishermen - not recreational fishermen, but workers whose families went hungry if there was no catch. Jesus had met them before - when they were associated with John the Baptist - in fact he had been to Simon Peter's house and cured his mother-in-law of a high fever. It was a very bad day for the four fishers. They had fished all night and caught nothing. Now it was morning, the morning after a night of failure, and the men were washing their nets so they'd be ready for the next night's work. There was a crowd on the beach near where they were working. A big crowd. They were listening to Jesus - pressing in upon him. Jesus is in the water - out a way from the crowd. Suddenly Jesus steps into Simon's boat. "Put out a little way from shore", he asks Peter, and he does. From the boat Jesus continues to teach the crowds. Finally he is done. The crowd goes home and Jesus turns to Simon. "Put out into the deep water and let your nets down for a catch."

It was really quite audacious for Jesus, a carpenter, to tell a professional fisherman how to do his business. Very audacious - and Peter answers Jesus immediately by explaining the facts of life to him. "It won't do any good," he says, "We have worked all night - and have caught nothing. There is no point to it." Have you ever been there? You do your best. You work hard. And the results are zero. An important relationship goes sour and there is nothing you can do. You watch a marriage dissolve and you can't save it. A project you have worked upon just will not pan out. The harder you try - the less you produce. Have you ever been in the place where all your wisdom tells you - just give up?

Peter and Andrew, James and John - were not stupid men. They knew the lake, the ledges where the fish congregated, the kind of weather you had to have to bring in a good catch. Their families had been working the lake for generations. They knew the time to fish - and where to fish - and they had gone fishing - at the right time - and at the right place - and come up empty. "Try over there", Jesus says. "over there in the deep water - let your nets down for a catch." "Master, we have worked all night long", Peter replies, "we have done everything we should have done, everything we were taught to do by our fathers and there fathers before them, but we have caught nothing... yet - if you say so - I will let down the nets." Why Simon agrees to row out into the deeper water - we do not know. Perhaps he did so because they were all learning to trust Jesus - perhaps he did it to humour him - perhaps it was because of something in Jesus' tone of voice. Whatever the reason, Peter agrees to do what Jesus asks of him. You know the story from here - They threw the nets out from Simon's boat and engulfed such a great shoal of fish with them that the nets began to break. Indeed they caught so many fish that when John and James came alongside and helped load the boats - the boats began to sink. It was an amazing catch. A catch made in deep water. A catch taken where there should have been no catch.

A catch taken at a time of day when there should have been no catch. God's ways are indeed superior to our own, his wisdom is greater, his timing better, and his counsel more life-giving than our own. As Isaiah and Simon Peter each acknowledge in their own ways in today's readings, God is greater than they are and they are in need of God's grace and God's love. So too we must acknowledge our need - our need and God's ability and desire to meet that need. Our nets may come up empty for many days in a row but if we are open to God - if we are willing to listen and to try the new things he suggests - if we are willing venture out to the deep water - or simply if we are willing, because he asks us, to do over again some of the things we have tried before and given up on, our nets will in the end be filled and filled so abundantly that our very nets will threaten to break and our boats begin to sink.

Prayers for Sunday

Loving God, like Peter and Andrew, and James and John, we sometimes feel discouraged - we work hard at what we do - work hard and yet sometimes our labour seems in vain. Help us to not be discouraged - bur rather grant that we might hear your voice and accept your direction and venture forth again in obedience to your word.

Holy God - we know that you seek messengers today as you sought them in the day of Isaiah. You call us, as you called Peter and later Paul, to follow in the path of Christ Jesus and to bring to you all who are in need of you. Cleanse us, Lord, as you cleansed them, touch us with coals from your alter, lift us up from our knees where we fall before you, pour your grace out upon us -- and help us to remember that is your purpose and your power to which we bear witness - not our own. As you filled the nets of the disciples, O Lord, so we ask you to fill the nets we cast at your direction. -- grant that our prayers for healing might be answered... -- grant that our work for justice might lead to a more equitable sharing of what this world affords -- grant that our words of forgiveness might bring reconciliation -- grant that our acts of compassion might satisfy those who are in need and grant that our way of being might prompt others to praise and glorify your name.

Grant us, O Lord, a resurrection faith - a faith that is radiant in the knowledge of your victory over sin and death - a faith that is confident in your care and your love. Bless now, we pray, with joy those who call out in your name and those who labour as you have directed. Bless too those we hold before you - and work a work of healing and salvation in their lives.

Hymns for Sunday

Lead us heavenly Father 68, Father God I wonder 128, I the Lord of sea and sky (On notices), Glory to God 49, Guide me O thou great Jehovah 437, Go forth and tell 770

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