Luke 5:1-11 THE CALL

 The Fifth Sunday of Epiphany Judg 6:11-24 Ps 85 1 Cor 15:1-11 Luke 5:1-11  "The Call"

"Little Transmitters

In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe "Pioneer 10." Its main mission was to reach Jupiter and send back information about that planet. It was a bold plan because at that time no satellite had gone beyond Mars. Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and so much more. It swung past Jupiter in November, 1973, then passed Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. By 1997, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun. Despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to earth. The most remarkable thing was that those signals were powered by an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light. Not even the most optimistic scientist could have ever imagined what that little 8-watt transmitter could do.

So it is when you and I offer ourselves to God in faithful obedience. It’s just incredible what God can do through little 8-watt transmitters like me and you, when we’re turned on for him."

Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.eSermons.com

We are looking at our call, our equipping and our own  missions today through the Gospel in the Readings for our last Sunday after Epiphany. We move into the 3 Sundays before the 40 days till Easter next Sunday, or Lent( the days lengthen).  They are Sundays of preparation .

1. The Call of our lives has many facets.  If we are honest with ourselves the Gideon (Judges) reading is us. Judges 6:13, " Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us."

We too have a lot of excuses.  Gideon argues with the Angel if that is possible.  He says his situation is not ripe for helping out too, " Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?

15 And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."  Then he asks for a sign.  Eventually he realizes that a real angel was there, and that he is being called by God to do something for His people.

Peter too asks for help too with a bit of attitude I believe...but He does obey.  Jesus fills the net with fish, and Peter realizes he is in the Divine presence.   He is filled with awe and wonder at the miracle.  The word in the original there " amazement was on them all"  thambos- is when someone encounters the Divine in the ordinary things of all.  Luke 5:9

2.  God equips those He calls.  The Apostle in I Corinthians 15 says , " 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."  

We too realize that God's grace accompanies us through the work He calls us to do.

Realize we all have a vocation, a calling----.  Everything we do we can do for the glory of God.  It may be something we see as small but as the initial illustration , the 8 watt transmitter, we are needed. 

The smallest task in the kitchen can be done in a way that we are seeing God through it.  This takes some thinking on our part to know about glorifying God in the small things. " But when the Savior's light shone upon him (Peter) the darkness scattered , and by faith he began to discern in the deep what he could not see with his eyes." Maximus of Turin

3.  Then we are off so to speak to do His work....Luke 5

"And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.

11 And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him."

I repeat however that not everyone has the same vocation....each of us have a place to do His work, and a task.  It may be the cup of cold water in His name.  Mt 10:42 "And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward."

Let me end with a wonderful quote from the Anglican Leon Morris, "

A turning-point has been reached. ..the nature of the new life to which Jesus is calling (Peter and the rest of the disciples) him comes out in the final words: you will be catching men.  The tense is continuous: a habitual practice is in mind. And Peter will no longer be concerned with fish but with men. (this is ) catching for life, not for death.  When the fishing party got to land they left everything. They left the greatest catch they had seen in all their lives. The catch was not as important as what it showed them about Jesus. They realized this and they followed Him.  They became disciples in the fullest sense."