5pm homily given the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, February 9 2025, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Seattle, Washington by Phelps Jones.
Isaiah 6:19-13
Luke 5:1-11
Psalm 138
I don’t know if I should be up here. I mean I’m pretty sure this is the service when I’m scheduled to give a sermon, and I’m reading off the page right now. But like Isaiah, I am unclean, I am sinful. It is an honor to be up here, but is it an honor I deserve?
When God appeared enthroned, towering over Isaiah, when Simon Peter fell to Christ's knees, both Isaiah and Peter proclaim their inadequacy. “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” - “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man”. Who hasn't felt the same?
Well God doesn't have time for that. God set Isaiah on a mission, God set Peter on a mission, and Christ appeared on the road to Damascus to our patron Paul because it was time for Paul to get with the program.
“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do” Acts 9:6
Get with the program Paul.
Like Isaiah and Peter and Paul, you may feel unworthy of God's grace. You may feel afraid, God’s majesty is terrific, terrifying - awesome, awful. To feel unworthy may be the only reaction that can be expected when coming face-to-face with the almighty.
God has a mission for each of us, each of you. It is understandable if you feel unworthy when confronted with God's mission. Well sorry, but today’s readings teach us that God does not have time for that. God cleansed Isaiah's lips with a hot coal because God cuts to the chase. Christ appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus because God cuts to the chase.
Christ doesn't respond to Peter's supplications, instead he cuts to the chase: now you’re catching people.
“Get up and go”
This is the first sermon I have had the privilege of delivering, but is not the first step in the mission God has given me.
When Father Stephen first asked if I would serve in the altar party, I demurred. I told him that I didn't think I had earned it yet. That I didn't think that I had established myself as a member of the St. Paul's community yet. That, like Isaiah and Peter, I didn't think I was worthy.
Our God is a God of forgiveness, we saw that in each of today's readings. He forgives out of his unending love, but you have to accept his forgiveness. You have to get up off your knees, cease your supplications, gird your loins, and accept God’s forgiveness because God has a mission for you.
So am I worthy to stand here? Am I worthy to serve as crucifer? – I don’t know! But here I am. God called me to a mission which has brought me before you now, a mission which stretches out before me.
That call, like the Lord, is awful. For Simon Peter, God’s mission ultimately led to his martyrdom in Rome (something here about how he still felt unworthy?). The Saint Jerome writes of Peter's death:
“At [Nero’s] hands he (Simon Peter) received the crown of martyrdom being nailed to the cross with his head towards the ground and his feet raised on high, asserting that he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord.”
Unworthy to the end, at least he thought so.
Here we are, sinners, living among a nation of sinners, a new Babylon of a scale beyond all comprehension. Like Isaiah, like Peter, we feel unworthy when confronted with God’s mission. Well, sorry, God does not have time for that.
Like it or not, you have been forgiven. Stretching out his arms on the cross, Christ gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. It doesn’t really matter what you think. You can follow Peter and prostrate yourself saying “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man”, but Christ did not go away, Christ WILL not go away. As Peter received the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, you are a child of God, and an heir to his Kingdom.
Isaiah's sin was blotted out when his lips were touched by a glowing coal. In a few moments you will be invited to partake in holy communion. Your lips will be touched not by a glowing coal, but by the precious body of our lord.
So when you hear the Lord saying “whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” what will you say?