February 4, 2007
SCRIPTURE Main theme, call. Paul mentions his call, Isaiah also and Jesus calls disciples. Also a sense of
unworthiness is common to all.
Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13): Isaiah records the experience of his calling, which occurred in the temple when the symbols came "alive."
We are all chosen....we forget to RSVP.
God can do great things through imperfect people.
If God can make an ugly seed with a bit of earth and air and dew and rain, sunshine and shade, a flower so wonderfully fair. What can God do with a soul like you and me with the Bible, faith and prayer. (source unknown)
Luke 5:1-11: A sudden miraculous catch of fish in deep water reveals the divine power of Jesus; and Simon (Peter), James; and John leave everything to follow him.
We don’t mend, tend or haul the net; rather, by God’s grace we become the net. Frederick Niedner
Jesus' net was his teachings.
awe-full or awful living."
for Jesus, "up" often means "down" and "down" often means "up." Father Gerry Pierse, C.Ss.R.
"…to become a disciple means ceasing to find the basis for one's life in earthly things and finding the basis for life in God alone." (Borg, 75)
The fishermen are themselves caught by Jesus and given a new vocation
Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven Church) says: "The wrong question: What will make our church grow? The right question: What is keeping our church from growing?"
Warren also points out that God does not want us just to be faithful, but also to be fruitful
illustration: We all need to have our own personal garage sale and get rid of those unnecessary things we tend to hold on to. Lindy
It is not too good to be near a chief. Aftican It isn't good to be too near God. He/she asked too much, He/she knows too much. He/she demands too much, etc....
They lost their lives and won new ones
All men should strive to learn before they die/ what they are running from and to and why. (James Thurber).
our chief want in life is someone who will make us do what we can do. (Emerson)
1. You've got to have a fishing pole or rod & reel...
2. Got to have the right bait...
3. Got to go where the fish are...
4. You got to be patient...
Where previously Simon addressed Jesus as "master," now Simon addresses Jesus as "Lord."
QUOTES
- What you see is what you get!.
-"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure."
-Abraham Lincoln
-Failure is an event, never a person. (William Brown, Welcome Stress!)
- failure was the "opportunity to begin again, more intelligently." Henry Ford
-You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures. Charles Noble
- A priest who had spent a fruitless day fishing picked our three fat fish in the market. "Before you wrap them, toss them to me, one by one. That way I'll be able to tell the monsignor I caught them and I'll be speaking the truth." Bass Mitchell
HUMOR
-You must believe in God in spite of what the clergy say. (B. Jewett)
- The woman who mistook the CD-ROM drive on her computer for a retractable cup holder
-A little boy was reciting the 23rd psalm when he got to the last part of verse 4
and said, "Thy rod and thy reel, they comfort me..." Bass Mitchell
-If you have tried to do something and failed, you are vastly better off than if you tried to do nothing and succeeded
-A fisherman walked past a game warden with a line of fish over his back. The game warden said, "Great looking fish. Where'd you get them?" The fisherman said, "Come with me, and I'll show you." He took the game warden out in his boat, took out a stick of dynamite, lit it, and threw it in the water. After a big shuddering blast, hundreds of fish came to the surface. The game warden said, "That's the most illegal way I ever saw of catching fish, and you're coming in with me." The fisherman took out another stick of dynamite, lit it, handed it to the game warden, and said, "Ya gonna talk or you gonna fish?" Bass Mitchell
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. OSLO, Norway (AP) -- A school of herring caught in a trawler's net refused to give up without a fight -and sank a 63-foot boat.
The trawler Steinholm was fishing off Norway's northern coast when it made a huge catch of the fish. When the crew tried to haul in the net, the entire school of herring swam for the bottom and capsized the ship, the Oslo newspaper Dagbladet reported Tuesday.
"I have been fishing since I was 14 and I have never seen anything like it," skipper Geir Nikolaisen, 49, was quoted as saying. Crew members tried to cut loose the net but were forced to abandon the capsized ship, which sank in 10 minutes. No one was hurt and the six fishermen were rescued by another trawler. It was not clear whether the fish escaped the net.
2. Clarence Darrow, the great lawyer, was purported to say that his favorite Bible verse was from Luke 5:5, "We have toiled all the night and have taken nothing." For all his accomplishments, he felt empty, that he had not taken in very much from the casting of his nets, his life.
3. Bill Cosby realized in the eighth grade he wanted to be a comedian, when he got laughs telling his classmates what it was like growing up with his brothers in a poor part of Philadelphia. Says Cosby: "With my teacher's permission, I walked to the front of the classroom and faced my first audience. 'I share a bed with my little brother,' I began, 'but he's not little enough.' The laughter hit me like a drug. 'Y'see, he keeps touching me, and I don't like a bed that feels like a bus.' More laughter. 'And sometime he thinks the bed is a boxing ring, but he never goes to a neutral corner.' Their laughter was even a sweeter sound than the tinkle of change in my father's pants. It was the only vocational guidance I would ever need."
CHILDREN
1. Compare the story of Simon Peter fishing all night and Edison finding just the right filament for his light bulb. (thousands of materials were tried)
PRAYER PHRASES
- Prayer by Ignatius. I am no longer my own but thine O lord/ put me to what thou wilt/ rank me with whom thou wilt/ put me to doing / put me to suffering/ let me be employed for thee/ let me be laid aside for thee./ Let me be exalted for thee/ let me be laid low for thee/ let me be full; let me be empty/ let me have all things; let me have nothing./ I'd heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal/ and now oh glorious and blessed God/ thou art mine and I am thine/ so be it/ and the covenant which I have made on earth let it be ratified in heaven. This prayer is a modern version of prayer by Ignatius. Often credited to John Wesley.
EPIPHANY
- The word means to behold the world or one's life in a new way, with new eyes. It is when something becomes clear to us in a way we have never seen or noticed before. New light can be shed on an old problem; a situation which has always been seen the same way suddenly becomes radiantly clear with a new meaning. A special door in the mind or spirit opens and suddenly we see things in a new light. An epiphany is both a revelation and a challenge because it forces us to change. We spend most of our lives fumbling around in the darkness–only rarely we are given the gift to see something old in a new way. De Jong
-...by your grace you have called us to be the church, your presence in the world. Give us the gifts we need to be your body, to show forth to all the world signs and signals of your kingdom. Bless your body the church. Amen Willimon
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