“Of Mere Grace”[1]
A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett
Preached at Pleasantville United Church of Christ, February 7, 2010
Isaiah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11

“Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.  For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.”  (1 Corinthians 15:8-10)

In our gospel lesson for today Jesus is attracting a lot of attention.  Standing by the Sea of Galilee, he speaks to the crowd that had gathered to hear the word of God.  It’s the first time in Luke’s gospel that he uses the phrase, “word of God,” and you’d think that, since what came out of Jesus’ mouth was no less than God’s own truth, his words might have been recorded for posterity.  But Luke doesn’t tell us a thing that Jesus said in that sermon.  Nor does he say whether Simon-Peter and his cohorts were paying attention.  What the gospel tells us is what they did -- and we're still talking about it.[2]

The choosing of the disciples has always seemed mysterious to me.  Jesus was standing by the shore of the lake, he saw two boats in the water and he got into one – the one belonging to Simon-Peter.  What made him choose that boat?  Was it chance?  Or did he have some knowledge about Simon-Peter and James and John?  When you think about it, it’s hard to know why Jesus chose any of the disciples that he did.  There was nothing particularly striking about any one of them.  They weren’t terribly smart.  They weren’t extremely rich.  They weren’t very reliable and, according to this story, they weren’t even that good at fishing!  If Jesus had consulted an HR firm when he set about calling the disciples, most of them probably wouldn’t have made the first cut.  After running the standard psych and aptitude tests on them, Simon Peter would have been found to be emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper; Andrew would have lacked leadership; and Thomas would have probably been suspected of undermining the ranks – what with the way he kept questioning everything and all.[3]  It’s hard to know what qualified any of them for discipleship, and yet they were chosen.

This morning we are given three texts, all of which have one thing in common.  They are call stories.  They are stories that describe the moment of God’s appearing and the response of the human heart to that appearance.  Isaiah encounters the beauty of God’s holiness in the Temple, Paul recounts his own conversion when he meets the living Christ and Peter finds himself with a boatload full of fish and a new direction for his life.  All three had an encounter with the Living God.  All three had the same response: to bow in humility and confess that they were not worthy of the experience and certainly not up to the task of serving in the name of God.

The Bible is full of call stories.  You heard one of them last week – the call of the prophet Jeremiah.  Jeremiah didn’t feel he was up to the task because he was too young and wouldn’t have anything to say.  When Moses is called by God, he reminds God that he stutters and, therefore, won’t be a good public speaker.  Apparently the first qualification for being a prophet, an apostle or a disciple is a healthy dose of humility – or simply the awareness that if you were in charge of the universe, the last person you’d pick to help you would be you.

In the biblical call stories there’s usually a repeated pattern: God calls (or sometimes just shows up) and the response from the one who is called goes something like this: ‘You can’t possibly mean me, Lord.  I mean, you must have the wrong person.  Maybe you got the wrong paperwork.  I’m definitely not qualified for this work.  You better find somebody else.’  God, being God, these arguments never hold up.  God wins the debate, of course.  God assures the call-ee that God didn’t get it wrong and God promises to equip his servant with everything they’re going to need in order to do the job.  In other words, even though the person may not be qualified, God has called them anyway – so they might as well buckle up and enjoy the ride.

I can still recall exactly where I was when God first spoke to me about a call to ministry.  I was walking through a place called Trumpetvine Court in Berkeley, California.  It was an inner courtyard, housing a restaurant, a specialty market and a couple little shops.  I was about to climb the steps to the courtyard’s upper level to buy a cup of coffee.  I can still see the way the light slanted through the courtyard and from out of nowhere God placed the most absurd thought in my mind: that I should serve the church; that that should be my life’s work.  I was 17 years old, and this was the most ridiculous idea in the world.  I came from an unchurched, inter-faith background.  I swore like a truck driver.  And I was sure that none of my friends would believe in a million years that from that moment on, I was headed for the ministry.  So I never told them.  I didn’t tell them until seven year later when I was accepted to seminary and began packing my belongings in order to move to the Twin Cities of Minnesota where I would attend a small seminary.  There really is no telling who God will call.  And there’s no knowing why.

Isaiah, Peter, and Paul could have all had different responses than they did of course.  Instead of responding to God’s call with humility and amazement, they could have said things like, ‘Well, of course you called me Lord.  ‘Cause I’ve been working so hard down here and, as you probably noticed, I just brought in a huge load of fish; my monthly numbers report is higher than anybody else in the office so why wouldn’t you choose me.’  Isaiah could have suggested that his encounter with the Holy was long overdue, since he’d been worshipping faithfully in the Temple forever.  And Paul could have said that he deserved to be considered an apostle since he had that encounter with the risen Christ on the Road to Damascus… oh, that’s pretty much what Paul did say, bless his heart.

They all could have responded to God’s call differently.  They could have responded as if they deserved such attention and notoriety.  But mostly what these folks did was to recognize that, in the face of the living God, all of their foibles, all of their weakness, all of their ugly character defects just showed up in living color.  There was no getting around it.  There was no hiding it.  In that moment of awe and utter honesty, when they come into the presence of the Holy and Eternal One, they are led to hit their knees in confession and repentance and acknowledge before God that they are simply not up to the test; that God has no business choosing them for anything.  And yet God chooses them nonetheless.

These are stories with some good news in them.  These stories where God encounters God’s people and calls them to servanthood are good news.  Because we know what it’s like to feel not good enough.  We know what it’s like to feel we aren’t up to the task.  No matter how hard we work or how much we try, there are some things we just aren’t good at; or some bad habits we just can’t shake.  And to think that God would see us clearly -- with all our imperfections, with all our flaws, with all our inadequacies -- and still believe in us enough to expect great things from us – this is good news.  We don’t have to be perfect to be Christ’s disciple.  We just have to say yes.

I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
Oh, there are ten thousand charms.

I love that hymn. 

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and pow’r.

            I heard the hymn in a new way recently.  Maybe I never heard all the verses before.  But there was this one verse that really caught my attention when I was singing it in worship out in Grand Rapids last week.

Come, ye weary, heavy-laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.

Did you hear that? 

Come, ye weary, heavy-laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.

It’s an amazing thing. 

Jesus calls us to be disciples; he calls us to follow him – he calls us though we are weary and heaven-laden, lost and ruined by the fall.  He calls us though we are imperfect.  He calls us when we feel we don’t have anything to offer.  He calls us when we’re sure he must have gotten the wrong person.  He calls us and bids us come.  And if we wait until we’re sure we’re ready.  If we wait until we’ve got our act together.  If we wait until there’s nothing left about ourselves that embarrasses us or makes us ashamed, then – as the hymn so wisely says – then, we will never come at all.

We are called to be disciples – to walk with Jesus and learn from him.  We are called to be apostles -- to go into the world and allow Christ to speak through us; to be ministers of God’s reconciling love to the world.  If you’re like me, then there are days when you’re sure God must have made a mistake.  There are days when you just don’t feel you have anything to offer.  And when those days come, it’s important to remember that those He calls, he equips.  It’s not up to us.  We didn’t choose the call; the call chose us, and the call will change us.  Of that you can be sure.  You will be changed by your decision to follow Jesus.  And the longer you follow Him, the more He will change you.

It’s not up to us.  We didn’t choose the call.  All we have to do is say, ‘yes.’  Here I am, Lord.  Send me.

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Heidelberg Catechism, Question #60
How are thou righteous before God?

Answer:

Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ;
so that,
though my conscience accuse me,
that I have grossly transgressed all the commandments of God,
and kept none of them,
and am still inclined to all evil;
notwithstanding, God,
without any merit of mine,
but only of mere grace,
grants and imputes to me,
the perfect satisfaction,
righteousness and holiness of Christ;
even so, as if I never had had, nor committed any sin:
yea, as if I had fully accomplished all that obedience
which Christ has accomplished for me;
inasmuch as I embrace such benefit with a believing heart.