Seventh Sunday after Epiphany-February 23, 2025

Prayer of the Day (from the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi)
O Lord Jesus, make us instruments of your peace, that where there is hatred, we may sow love, where there is injury, pardon, and where there is despair, hope. Grant, O divine master, that we may seek to console, to understand, and to love in your name, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Gospel: Luke 6:27-38
[Jesus said:] 27 “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; 28 bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap, for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

SERMON
What does it mean that God is merciful? Imagine thoughts and feelings so powerful they propel you to act. The rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel interprets much of the Hebrew Bible through the lens of appreciating God as passionate and compassionate. Unpacking the word “compassion” com+passio gives us the idea of suffering with those who suffer. When Jesus calls on us to be merciful, he is inviting us collectively to live compassionately. The next words about compassion come from the writer and teacher Henri Nouwen, known for his gentleness and compassion:

Father Nouwen, we can aspire to be a compassionate people, yet…. ….My hospital training and experience introduced me to the concept of “compassion fatigue” and it also introduced such fatigue to me first hand. One charge nurse whom I knew to be highly caring and competent admitted in the break room one day that she feared she had a “broken give a darn”. I was feeling the same thing, just lacking words to describe the experience.

Weeping with those who weep and suffering with those who suffer is not the way of our world…it certainly wasn’t the way of the Roman empire which valued raw power and unrelenting conquering. These days we’re learning unconditional positivity is toxic. It shames those who struggle when society insists “it’s all good and designed to be…always upward, always bigger and better. Some of us sense all of that is unravelling with appalling speed.

Maybe some self compassion is in order for each of us. It matters that Jesus is speaking to a whole community when he casts a vision for contrasting society of people who live as merciful and compassionate. It also matters that Jesus is steeped in traditions that know how to lament and grieve. Our bishop has specialized training in working with those who grieve. There’s fire in her eyes when she says ours is a death-denying grief illiterate culture. It matters that Jesus weeps. It also matters that Jesus lived as creatures were designed to live; times of activity alternating with times of rest. Jesus would speak about taking cues from nature where plants and animals don’t appear to think the world’s fate rests upon incessant worry or activity.

We can take cues from the traditions Jesus learned and revered as we seek to be people of compassion. These traditions are gifts community—we’re together, not alone. In community that might mean spelling each other once in a while just as geese do when flying in formation and taking turns flying in front where the drag and wind resistance is greatest…and taking a turn toward the rear of the flock, being drafted along by the other birds in flight.

Besides the gift of community, we have the gift of lamenting. As my mentor Anna reminded me, Augustine’s words about hope having two daughters—grief at how things are and courage to live into the merciful and just way of life Jesus maps out.

We also have the gift of being part of nature, not above it. We are creatures who need rest and renewal on occasion that we might delight in friendship with nature, with God and with other human beings—that friendship is how the late Daniel Erlander defines Sabbath.

Jesus later warns the disciples that his path of compassion would be arduously difficult. He adds, not as an afterthought, those even as we fear losing our grip on life, we would find life. For those of us who feel numb, overwhelmed or helpless, we might remind each other that God gives us gifts of community, lament and creatureliness. For those of us who feel like our give a darn is broken or at least sprained will discover that the little bits of compassion we offer are tiny echo of the overflowing compassion God plops right into our laps.

Due to the severe weather alerts for this Sunday, alternate plans are being arranged to cancel the in-person worship this Sunday (February 16) and replace it with a ZOOM service.

Pastor Bart will lead service by Zoom on Sunday, if the storm, that’s predicted, actually arrives!

More information (worship time and how to get the ZOOM link) will be posted on this website, as we get closer to Sunday morning, and we get more up-to-date information about the storm.

Today’s in-person worship service (February 9/25) is cancelled due to weather and road conditions.

Today’s Worship Guide (PDF text format)

FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY February 9. 2025 

The story of ‘the great catch’ of fish reveals Jesus’ divinity and it expresses God’s abundance. More than that, we get a glimpse of God’s liberating intentions for us all.

Prayer of the Day Most holy God, the earth is filled with your glory, and before you angels and saints stand in awe. Enlarge our vision to see your power at work in the world, and by your grace make us heralds of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen. 

Gospel: Luke 5:1-11 1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the Lake of Gennesaret and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to burst. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’s knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” 9 For he and all who were with him were astounded at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

SERMON
The miraculous catch of fish is just for openers as Jesus reveals God’s intention to bless and rescue humanity. Here is where a closer translation makes all the difference…the phrase, “fish for people” actually connotes rescuing people FROM death-A universe away from netting us into captivity wild eyed, flopping and flailing and gasping for air.

So compelling is Jesus’ recruiting of these fisherfolk to carry out God’s agenda to rescue the world , that Simon, James and his brother John to leave everything…their jobs, their families, their network of emotional and social support —-everything—and they follow Jesus.

Now that I’ve given away the peak of the story and its conclusion, let’s start again from the beginning:. Crowds press upon him waiting to hear a word from the Lord. It’s not as if Jesus needs to drum up business. There’s a hint that fishing for people isn’t about drawing crowds just to draw crowds.

Jesus spots fishing boats and sort of charters one, figuring sound travels on open water so everybody will hear what he says. Luke doesn’t let us in on what Jesus spoke about that day. Instead, Luke tells us what Jesus does next.

After the sermon, Jesus directs Simon Peter to chart a course into deep water and start fishing. What does a carpenter know about fishing? Simon’s crew and those in Zebedee’s boat had come up snake-eyes from their last outing and that meant no meal for the day. Nevertheless…..

When Simon waves another boat over to help haul up all of those fish he must have felt like the widow at Zaraphath who hosted the prophet Elijah—God just keeps providing! Maybe Simon identifies more closely with Isaiah when the Holy presence of God overwhelms him and the foundations of the Temple were shaken. Simon Peter is undone…so painfully aware of his frailty in the face of the Divine, he says he is a sinful person. Jesus doesn’t even seem to hear Simon’s confession! Instead he says to him and to James and John, “fear not”.

I pause here to relay what my mentor Dr. Anna Madsen says about “Fear Not”——it always comes when there is legitimate reason to fear. “Fear not. I am calling you into God’s Holy work of rescuing humanity from death”. I’m not sure which would freak me out more—a miraculous catch of fish, an encounter with the Holy, or a call to a whole different life dedicated to God’s agenda to bless and save the world.

What does the church need and what do we need right now to carry on the work Christ has called us to do? Do we need a Word from the Lord? An encounter with the Divine? An experience of God’s abundance? Assurance that despite every good reason to fear, God can lead us ahead anyway? A reminder that of the stakes of God’s mission is the healing and rescuing of humanity and even of creation itself? May God grant us what we need so that we may follow Jesus in proclaiming and being the Good News for the world God so loves —a world God intends to restore. Amen.

Today’s worship service (February 9/25) is cancelled due to weather and road conditions.