FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Sermon by Rev. Craig N. Goodrich
January 28, 2007
THE DEEP WATER
Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-8, Luke 5:1-11
Let me ask you this morning, “Have you ever been overwhelmed?” Or maybe a better question is “What is overwhelming you this morning?”
David Ford is an Anglican priest who has written a book entitled The Shape of Living: Spiritual Directions for Everyday Life. It was recommended to us by our FOCUS preacher last fall, Bill Enright. The thesis of the book is profound and simple. Ford says that as human beings we live in a state of constantly being overwhelmed, subject at any one time to what he calls “multiple overwhelmings.” The place in which we are overwhelmed is our core, our inner being, that is the human heart, which Ford describes as that place or dimension of our self where memory, feeling, imagination and thinking come together. The heart [he says] is like a home for all the concerns of our lives, where our identity is sorted out year after year.” The Shape of Living at page 33 (Baker Book, 2004)
We can protect our hearts and we are very careful about who and what we let in, but we cannot avoid being overwhelmed.
It’s not hard to come up with a list of the things that overwhelm us is it? Often it’s a negative list driven by our fears. “Will I have enough money for tomorrow, let alone retirement?” “How will I ever get over this disappointment, this grief?” “Why is there such conflict in my relationships?” Overwhelmings of anxiety, bitterness, fear, despair, not to mention the world situation. Fears of scarcity and of failure. There is no end to the negative overwhelmings if we allow them to rule our hearts.
But just as there are negative overwhelmings there are also positive overwhelmings-- experiences of happiness, of gratitude, of love, joy of peace. The positive experience Ford emphasizes by way of illustration is the phenomenon of falling in love.
Has that ever happened to you?
I fell in love with my wife Andie when I was 18 and she was 17. On the basis of a 20 minute visit on Spring break in 1974 in my parent’s living room, I went back to college, unable to eat, unable to sleep, unable to think about anything other than this beautiful girl. My heart and my brain were absolutely overwhelmed! Thankfully it was reciprocated. We wrote long, long letters and sent them “special delivery” (remember those?). It was absolutely overwhelming. Of course, that stage passed, but, you know, I am still overwhelmed though in a much quieter and deeper way.
For you see, those we love we let into our hearts.
Positive overwhelmings. Think of the joy of the birth of a child or of a grandchild, of giving a present with love, the overwhelming of the Christmas Eve services here in the Sanctuary, the great satisfaction of a good day’s work
So there are both positive and negative overwhelmings. And Ford concludes
“that the wisest way to cope is not to avoid being overwhelmed, and certainly not to expect to be in control of everything; rather it is to live amidst the overwhelmings in a way that lets one of them be the overwhelming that shapes the others.” (Page 28)
In other words, we must let the positive dominate and shape the negative. There is great wisdom here. Think about this, Have you ever tried to resist a negative overwhelming by the force of your own willpower? It’s hard isn’t it?
Harry Emerson Fosdick describes this struggle by using two examples from classic Greek lore, Ulysses and of Orpheus both of whom on separate sailing voyages had to pass the treacherous Isle of Sirens who by their songs lured ships on to the rocks:
Fosdick writes:
“When Ulysses passed the Isle of Sirens, he had himself tied to the mast and had his ears stopped with wax, that he might not hear the sirens singing- a picture of many a man’s pitiful attempts after negative goodness. But when Orpheus passed the Isle of Sirens, he sat on the deck, indifferent, for he too was a musician and could make melody so much more beautiful than the sirens, that their alluring songs were to him discords.”
So Fosdick says, “Only by a stronger passion can evil passions be expelled, and a…soul unoccupied by a positive devotion is sure to be occupied by spiritual demons. The safety of the Master (of Jesus) in the presence of temptation lay in his complete and positive devotion to his mission: there was no unoccupied room in his soul where evil could find a home; he knew what Dr. Chalmers called “the expulsive power of a new affection.”
(From The Manhood of the Master, quoted at page 283 of A Guide to Prayer by Reuben P. Job and Norman Shawchuck)
The expulsive power of a new affection. That’s a great phrase isn’t it?
The Apostle Paul said it in Romans chapter 12, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good.” (Romans 12:8) The positive expels the negative. Think about what happens to you, to your heart when you are full of love or joy or gratitude… the negative simply disappears, there is no room for it. It is as the writer of 1st John says “Perfect love casts out fear.” (1st John 4:18).
John Baille, the Scottish minister who years ago wrote what is now the classic, A Diary of Private Prayer which has a morning and evening prayer for every day of the month, provides a good example of a prayer of positive overwhelming. Listen …
“O light that never fades, as the light of day now streams through these windows and floods this room, so let me open to Thee the windows of my heart, that all my life may be filled with the radiance of Thy presence. Let no corner of my being be unilluminated by the light of thy countenance. Let there be nothing within me to darken the brightness of the day. Let the Spirit of Him whose life was the light of [all people] rule within my heart till eventide.”(A Diary of Private Prayer at page 33)
So you see, this is the answer, and it is what David Ford proposes as the key to shaping our lives, that we choose as the one overwhelming that shapes all others, the love of God in Jesus Christ.
That’s what worship is all about isn’t it? For the life of discipleship starts with being overwhelmed by the holiness and love of God.
Look at Luke’s gospel lesson.
Jesus is teaching on the shore of the lake, the crowds move in threatening to push him into the water. Seeing two fishing boats, Jesus commandeers Simon Peter’s boat and sits in it near the shore, continuing his teaching about the kingdom of God. After he has finished he tells Simon Peter (who we know simply as Peter) “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Peter protests “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” What happens? An overwhelming catch of fish. So overwhelming that it almost sinks the boat and they have to call for help.
Now what was Peter’s response to the catch? You might expect great happiness and exultation, overwhelmed by the positive, but no, he falls down at Jesus’ knees and cries “Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Or consider the prophet Isaiah and his vision of seeing the Lord on the throne, high and lifted up and the seraphim who proclaimed “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The foundations of the thresholds shake and the voice of him who called was filled with smoke. And Isaiah says “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Simon Peter and Isaiah have the same response. There is something about coming into the presence of holiness, even the holy love of God, that causes us by contrast to recognize our own sinfulness. It is God’s light and grace shining into our darkness and sometimes and it is almost too much for us to stand. Overwhelmed both by God’s holiness and our own sinfulness, we cry. “Woe is me! Depart from me for I am sinful man.”
Have you ever experienced that? If so, don’t despair.
Don’t run away. Take heart. Look what happens to Simon Peter.
Jesus responds “Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching people”
Simon Peter and the disciples when reaching the shore don’t abandon Jesus, rather they leave everything, including the overwhelming catch of fish and follow him.
Fred Craddock in writing about this passage and the call to and qualifications for discipleship says, “Simon’s skill is not the issue; the issue is his life. Yet in Jesus’ eye his sin does not disqualify him; the same power that prompted Simon to fall at Jesus’ knees now lifts him into God’s service.” (Interpretation, Luke, at page70) (John Knox Press 1959)
Or as another writer put it “Reverential fear, prompted by unworthiness, always leads to God’s gracious acceptance.” and “out of the crisis of self-knowledge and faith comes the call to service.” (Layman’s Bible Commentary, Luke at page 68).
And look at Isaiah. Does his sense of sin disqualify him from God’s service?
No! For a seraphim takes a burning coal in tongs and touches the reluctant prophet’s mouth saying “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
And what happens next? Isaiah hears, or actually overhears the voice of the Lord saying “Whom shall I sent, and who will go for us?”
And the forgiven prophet finds himself, in spite of himself, responding “Here I am, send Me.”
You know, this cycle of the overwhelming of God’s holiness, the awareness of our own sin and the receipt of forgiveness repeats itself over and over again in our lives.
It’s what we do here week after week. If you look at our Bulletin, we begin with the “Call to Worship” which today included the words “Holy is God and God’s name is awesome.” We then stand and “Praise God from whom all blessings flow” in the Doxology, we pray together our Prayer of Adoration and then we sing together a glorious hymn of praise.
And then what happens? Did you miss it? At the height of our praise, of the experience of being overwhelmed with God’s holiness we abruptly stop and confess our sins...”Woe is me! Depart from me for I am a sinner.”
But we don’t stop here. Like Simon Peter and Isaiah and like all those who have gone before us in the faith, we receive God’s mercy and the assurance of pardon, forgiveness and grace for “In Jesus Christ we are forgiven. Thanks be to God.”
And then like them, at the end of our worship, when the boat is back to shore, we “Depart to Serve.”
So let me ask again, what is overwhelming you this morning?
I pray that it may be the holiness, the awe, the mercy, grace and love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord, the one overwhelming that dispels all others and that covers all of our sins.
The overwhelming that compels us, when we overhear God calling, to answer “Here I am, send me.”
Thanks be to God!
Alleluia. Amen.