1 Kings 19:11-21/1 Corinthians 1:18-25/St Luke 5:1-11
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
What a bunch of nonsense. Hooey. Utter foolishness. A big pile of, well, you get it. That’s what all those who are perishing think when they hear the Word of the Cross - the message of Christ our Lord triumphantly owning your sin and the world’s sin and bearing it to death upon the Cross so that He might give you and all the world the gift of forgiveness and bestow on all who trust in Him a life that never ends, resurrection, immortality, adoption as children of God, and a place in the Father’s house forever. They can’t but think of it as nonsense; malarky. You’d have to be a fool to believe that one man’s death - and such an ugly death at that - could do that.
So in the Epistle St Paul tell us the Word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing. Moria. Utterly worthless. Though they may think it nonsense and pile of myths, but to us who are being saved it is, in fact, the power of God. Our Lord has His net. His net by which He gathers up His elect children and brings them home to Himself. That net never changes - it is always the Word of the Cross, the preaching of Christ crucified, the good news of what the GodMan accomplished when He was carpentered up to the wood of the Cross and then smashed through the gates of hell and the grave.
Indeed the Lord’s works and way cannot but look strange to us - for His thoughts are not our thought and His ways not our ways. And that is true not only for those who are perishing, but also for you who are being saved.
You too struggle to make sense of what He’s up to.
Consider Elijah from the first reading. He’d had a glorious moment of triumph at Mount Carmel. Remember how he had taunted the false worshippers of Baal as they sought to coax their fake god to deliver fire from heaven. Dancing and hollering, cutting themselves. “Maybe your god is in the bathroom,” the prophet jeered. Nothing happened.
And then, how Elijah called upon the Name of the living God, the God of Israel, the Lord God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and the fire fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. And all the people fell on their faces and confessed that the Lord, YHWH Sabaoth, He is God!
Or how Elijah had prayed for the drought to end and God sent rain in abundance. And in the strength of the Lord the prophet rain before Ahab’s chariot in the downpour.
But then, Jezebel sends word that she’s planning on killing him - that his life is now forfeit - he panics. He feels like his ministry has been for nothing. He runs away and hides and finally arrives at the Mount of God/ And there, the Lord asks Elijah what he’s up to, what does he say? I have been very jealous for the Lord, YHWH Sabaoth. But what’s the point? It’s all been a waste. I’m the only faithful one left and now they want to kill me.”
God’s ways are not our ways. This doesn’t make sense to Elijah. It doesn’t make sense to us.
And the Lord tells Elijah, “I have more people than you know about. Seven thousand, in fact, who have not worshipped Baal. Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, your work is not over. Anoint a new king for Syria; a new king for Israel, and meet the man who will be your successor in office - Elisha - whom you will train. You are not alone. I AM the Lord. I AM in control.”
Again, the Lord’s ways are not our ways; His thoughts not ours. And so the Gospel reading, where Israel’s God, come down in human flesh and blood, born of Mary, does an absolutely crazy thing. After commandeering Peter’s boat and turning it into a pulpit, when Peter and his companions had just finished cleaning and stowing their nets after that fruitless night of toil out on the lake, Jesus tells them, “Okay, guys, let’s hit it again. Go over to the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
You can imagine these seasoned fishermen, generations of experience behind them, looking at each other. “What does this landlubber rabbi know of fishing?” Peter tried to explain, Master, we toiled all night. We took nothing. Polite. Unspoken were the words, “Jesus, you’ve taken over our boat, kept us out here long enough, we’re tired and just want to go home and get some sleep.”
The look in Jesus’ eye must have shut up Peter. For he finally concedes: Nevertheless, at Your Word, we will let down the nets. The others must have been waiting for the moment they could turn to Jesus and say, “See, we told you. No fish.”
But that is not our Lord’s way. Suddenly there were fish everywhere. Glistening, flopping. At Your Word. The strong Word that cleaved the darkness in the beginning; shining an uncreated Light into the abyss. This is the Word made flesh, the Lord of earth and sky and sea, who has commanded His creatures to fill the nets, to swarm them, to tear those newly mended nets under the sheer weight of the gift given. “Good things that surpass all understanding,” that’s how we put it in the Collect today.
And Peter is astounded. He falls to his knees, he begs the Jesus, YHWH Sabaoth, to go away: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. But our Lord had no intention of going away without him. And He does something even more foolish that telling fishermen to drop their nets for a catch. He tells them: Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.
He takes a bunch of fishermen and uses them to cast the Gospel net that will haul in men for the kingdom of God! He takes Peter and Andrew, James and John, men of the same ilk and mewling courage as Elijah. But He uses them. At His Word they follow Him and He begins to put into their hands the net they will use to gather in His elect children. That net is always the same - the small whisper at Mount Horeb, the preaching from a boat that daybreak, the preaching of Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles - the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes!
No, God’s ways don’t make any sense to our fallen reason. But that’s fine. He has good things for us that surpass all understanding; promises that exceed all we can desire. And He has the craziest way of delivering them to us: the preaching of a Man nailed to a tree for our forgiveness, the message of a Man risen from the dead as the guarantee of our resurrection. Places where He meets us to give all this and more: a water where sins are left behind and you are wrapped in a holiness not of your own, but that is truly yours for you to grow up in all your days and through all eternity. A table where He feeds you His own Body and His own Blood as the foretaste of the feast to come. Hands of His ministers, laid on you that wipe out sins with His Word.
And suddenly you are not only Elijah at the mountain or Peter at the sea, but you are inside the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and the Father’s arms are wrapped around you in welcome. This is the Word, His Word, written and preached, that goon giving faith, that continue to capture hearts with the Gospel net and haul them into the kingdom.
The world will never not think that this is just a bunch of baloney; that we’re deluded and deceived. And that’s okay. You know that you are not the ones who are deceived. You are the ones who by the Spirit’s gift can acclaim the marvelous wisdom and power of God - for His foolishness is wiser than our smarts; His weakness is greater than our power; from His Cross His wisdom beameth, all His bright redeeming light. To Him alone be all the glory, honor, and worship, Father, Son, and + Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
What a bunch of nonsense. Hooey. Utter foolishness. A big pile of, well, you get it. That’s what all those who are perishing think when they hear the Word of the Cross - the message of Christ our Lord triumphantly owning your sin and the world’s sin and bearing it to death upon the Cross so that He might give you and all the world the gift of forgiveness and bestow on all who trust in Him a life that never ends, resurrection, immortality, adoption as children of God, and a place in the Father’s house forever. They can’t but think of it as nonsense; malarky. You’d have to be a fool to believe that one man’s death - and such an ugly death at that - could do that.
So in the Epistle St Paul tell us the Word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing. Moria. Utterly worthless. Though they may think it nonsense and pile of myths, but to us who are being saved it is, in fact, the power of God. Our Lord has His net. His net by which He gathers up His elect children and brings them home to Himself. That net never changes - it is always the Word of the Cross, the preaching of Christ crucified, the good news of what the GodMan accomplished when He was carpentered up to the wood of the Cross and then smashed through the gates of hell and the grave.
Indeed the Lord’s works and way cannot but look strange to us - for His thoughts are not our thought and His ways not our ways. And that is true not only for those who are perishing, but also for you who are being saved.
You too struggle to make sense of what He’s up to.
Consider Elijah from the first reading. He’d had a glorious moment of triumph at Mount Carmel. Remember how he had taunted the false worshippers of Baal as they sought to coax their fake god to deliver fire from heaven. Dancing and hollering, cutting themselves. “Maybe your god is in the bathroom,” the prophet jeered. Nothing happened.
And then, how Elijah called upon the Name of the living God, the God of Israel, the Lord God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and the fire fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifice. And all the people fell on their faces and confessed that the Lord, YHWH Sabaoth, He is God!
Or how Elijah had prayed for the drought to end and God sent rain in abundance. And in the strength of the Lord the prophet rain before Ahab’s chariot in the downpour.
But then, Jezebel sends word that she’s planning on killing him - that his life is now forfeit - he panics. He feels like his ministry has been for nothing. He runs away and hides and finally arrives at the Mount of God/ And there, the Lord asks Elijah what he’s up to, what does he say? I have been very jealous for the Lord, YHWH Sabaoth. But what’s the point? It’s all been a waste. I’m the only faithful one left and now they want to kill me.”
God’s ways are not our ways. This doesn’t make sense to Elijah. It doesn’t make sense to us.
And the Lord tells Elijah, “I have more people than you know about. Seven thousand, in fact, who have not worshipped Baal. Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, your work is not over. Anoint a new king for Syria; a new king for Israel, and meet the man who will be your successor in office - Elisha - whom you will train. You are not alone. I AM the Lord. I AM in control.”
Again, the Lord’s ways are not our ways; His thoughts not ours. And so the Gospel reading, where Israel’s God, come down in human flesh and blood, born of Mary, does an absolutely crazy thing. After commandeering Peter’s boat and turning it into a pulpit, when Peter and his companions had just finished cleaning and stowing their nets after that fruitless night of toil out on the lake, Jesus tells them, “Okay, guys, let’s hit it again. Go over to the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
You can imagine these seasoned fishermen, generations of experience behind them, looking at each other. “What does this landlubber rabbi know of fishing?” Peter tried to explain, Master, we toiled all night. We took nothing. Polite. Unspoken were the words, “Jesus, you’ve taken over our boat, kept us out here long enough, we’re tired and just want to go home and get some sleep.”
The look in Jesus’ eye must have shut up Peter. For he finally concedes: Nevertheless, at Your Word, we will let down the nets. The others must have been waiting for the moment they could turn to Jesus and say, “See, we told you. No fish.”
But that is not our Lord’s way. Suddenly there were fish everywhere. Glistening, flopping. At Your Word. The strong Word that cleaved the darkness in the beginning; shining an uncreated Light into the abyss. This is the Word made flesh, the Lord of earth and sky and sea, who has commanded His creatures to fill the nets, to swarm them, to tear those newly mended nets under the sheer weight of the gift given. “Good things that surpass all understanding,” that’s how we put it in the Collect today.
And Peter is astounded. He falls to his knees, he begs the Jesus, YHWH Sabaoth, to go away: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. But our Lord had no intention of going away without him. And He does something even more foolish that telling fishermen to drop their nets for a catch. He tells them: Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.
He takes a bunch of fishermen and uses them to cast the Gospel net that will haul in men for the kingdom of God! He takes Peter and Andrew, James and John, men of the same ilk and mewling courage as Elijah. But He uses them. At His Word they follow Him and He begins to put into their hands the net they will use to gather in His elect children. That net is always the same - the small whisper at Mount Horeb, the preaching from a boat that daybreak, the preaching of Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles - the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes!
No, God’s ways don’t make any sense to our fallen reason. But that’s fine. He has good things for us that surpass all understanding; promises that exceed all we can desire. And He has the craziest way of delivering them to us: the preaching of a Man nailed to a tree for our forgiveness, the message of a Man risen from the dead as the guarantee of our resurrection. Places where He meets us to give all this and more: a water where sins are left behind and you are wrapped in a holiness not of your own, but that is truly yours for you to grow up in all your days and through all eternity. A table where He feeds you His own Body and His own Blood as the foretaste of the feast to come. Hands of His ministers, laid on you that wipe out sins with His Word.
And suddenly you are not only Elijah at the mountain or Peter at the sea, but you are inside the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and the Father’s arms are wrapped around you in welcome. This is the Word, His Word, written and preached, that goon giving faith, that continue to capture hearts with the Gospel net and haul them into the kingdom.
The world will never not think that this is just a bunch of baloney; that we’re deluded and deceived. And that’s okay. You know that you are not the ones who are deceived. You are the ones who by the Spirit’s gift can acclaim the marvelous wisdom and power of God - for His foolishness is wiser than our smarts; His weakness is greater than our power; from His Cross His wisdom beameth, all His bright redeeming light. To Him alone be all the glory, honor, and worship, Father, Son, and + Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
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