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THE
FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY FEBRUARY 8, 2004 Let
Your Light Shine Fr. John Spencer “For what I received I passed on to
you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according
to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.
After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same
time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he
appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to
me also, as to one abnormally born. This passage from Paul’s first letter
to the church at Corinth is the “Gospel in a nutshell.” Christ died, was buried, was raised
and appeared to many. This is
the essence of the Gospel. How do we respond to Jesus? How did Paul respond to Jesus? Paul started out as Saul and he
wasn’t even a Christian at the time.
Saul was present at (and consented to) the stoning of Stephen (Acts
7:54-60). Saul persecuted the church of Christ. As the Gospel spread, Saul chased it
around the countryside, having Christians arrested. The religious rulers granted him the authority to imprison
followers of Christ. On his way
to Damascus, on a mission to find and arrest Christians, Jesus Christ stopped
him in his tracks. (Acts
9:1-31) As a result of that
encounter, Saul “did a 180.” His
life changed from the chief persecutor of the church to one of the chief
proponents of the gospel of Christ.
Saul became Paul. Christ
took the least likely and made him an apostle. Peter’s response to Christ in the
Gospel lesson parallels Paul’s.
(Luke
5:1-11). If you read this
account in Matthew’s gospel (Matt.
4:18-22) you get the “bare bones” story – Jesus was walking along the
shore, He saw Peter and Andrew, James and John and He called them to be His
disciples and “fishers of men.”
Luke gives us a more complete account. Jesus is walking along the
seashore. His fame has already
begun to spread, and He is beginning to draw crowds. At this point, He is alone in His
ministry. He sees Peter and
Andrew in one boat, James and John in another. Jesus gets into the boat with Peter and Andrew and asks
them to go a little ways from the shore, so He can preach to the crowd. (The water acts as an amplifier, and
as He preaches from the boat, the crowds can hear Him.) At the end of His sermon, He turns to
Peter and tells him to go back “out into the deep” and let down his
nets. Peter, as usual,
argues. “Jesus, you’re the preacher. You’re a wonderful preacher. But I’m the fisherman; I’m the expert
here. We’ve been fishing all
night and have caught nothing.
Now you want us to go out again, in the daytime, and let down our
nets? We’re tired; we’ve just
cleaned the nets. However, if
you say so, we’ll go ahead and give it a try.” When Peter and Andrew let down their
nets, they get a HUGE catch.
There are so many fish, their boat can’t hold them all and they call
James and John to help them.
Both boats are filled with fish to the point that they begin to sink. What is Peter’s response? When they get back to shore, he falls
on his knees before Jesus and says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” This is not about the fish. This is Peter’s encounter with Jesus
and his grasp of Who Jesus is. When we really encounter Jesus Christ,
living and true, we are struck by our sinfulness. We are overwhelmed.
Paul turned his life around after his encounter with Christ. Peter and Andrew, James and John,
left their nets, their profession, their homes and families, and followed
Jesus. An encounter with Christ forces us to
leave things behind – job, possessions, homes, parents, and families. Paul let go of the assumption that he
knew the Scriptures. He let go
of his learning and his religious training and “started over,” learning from
Jesus Christ. He left behind his
status as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin; he let go of his
status as a Roman citizen. From
a place of prominence in the religious hierarchy, he became “the least.” We are called by our bishop to a
season of fasting and prayer, a season of repentance and renewal. We think, like Paul, that we know the
truth better than Jesus; like Peter, we think that we know more bout our
business than Jesus does. We get
wrapped up in “churchiness” and forget who we are called to be. If there is sickness and death in our
church, it’s because we are sick.
We ARE the church and the sickness and death in our church is also our
sickness. The Church is God’s outpost in enemy
territory. It’s a campfire in
the dark. When you are out
camping at night, in the dark, and see a campfire, you walk toward it. The problem in our world is not that
there is too much darkness, but that there is not enough light. We are called to be “the light of the
world.” We are called to let go
of things that keep us from being that light, to let go of our sins, our
self-will, our own priorities and our own ideas. God is calling us to be part of the light – to put the
light of the living word of God in front of people in a way that will draw
people to that light, the way the campfire in the woods draws people to
it. We should let the light of
Christ shine through us. SUGGESTIONS: 1.
Confess your sins to God – sins of
ingratitude, complaining, wanting your own way. 2.
Begin and end each day with a prayer
of thanksgiving – thank God for another day of life, thank Him for your
friends and family, thank Him for daily bread, warm houses, clothing. 3.
Go through each day looking for ways
to give thanks, both to God and the people around you. 4.
Make a point of complimenting at least
three people daily.
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