EPIPHANY 5, YEAR C

February 9, 2025

Saints Matthew and Mark, Barrington, R. I.

(via Zoom)

 

Isaiah 6:1-8

I Corinthians 15:1-11

Luke 5:1-11

 

This season after the Epiphany calls our attention to the ways in which God makes himself known to human beings. The word Epiphany means revelation, manifestation, or showing forth.

 

All three of today’s readings describe individual experiences of God. These stories reflect a pattern that recurs throughout the Bible. From the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets, through the Blessed Virgin Mary and the New Testament apostles and martyrs, God’s self-communications usually follow a similar outline, even though they span a period of more than fourteen centuries.

 

As recorded in the scriptures, these human encounters with God generally comprise three parts. They don’t always happen in exactly the same order—sometimes they’re all mixed up—but all three elements are usually present in some form or another.

 

First, there’s a manifestation of the divine presence: God makes himself known. In the Old Testament reading, Isaiah receives a vision of worship in heaven, with the Lord God seated upon his throne, and six-winged seraphim flying to-and-fro and calling to one another, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts!” In the epistle, Saint Paul recounts multiple appearances of the Risen Lord to the apostles and disciples, concluding with his own dramatic encounter on the Damascus road: “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” And in the Gospel, Jesus manifests his divine power through a miraculous catch of fish, so great that it threatens to sink the boats.

 

Notice that this initial revelation is completely at God’s initiative. We’re not talking about going into your room to practice meditation techniques in hope of experiencing a sense of the transcendent (valuable as such exercises undoubtedly may be). On the contrary, those who encounter God in the biblical stories often aren’t seeking any spiritual experience at all. They’re typically engaged in mundane activities, like fishing, or traveling from one city to another, and are thus taken completely by surprise when God reveals himself.

Not only that, but the encounter is always personal. The revelation is directed not just to anyone who happens to be passing by, but to a specific individual. So, the first element in the biblical pattern of encounter with God is a personally addressed revelation of the divine presence.

 

The second element is the human response, and then God’s response to that. This human response typically takes the form of fear, trembling, and most of all a sense of utter unworthiness to stand in the presence of the all-holy God. It’s not all warm fuzzies—at least not initially. In Latin this aspect of the divine encounter is called the mysterium tremendum fascinans – which means a mystery that simultaneously repels and attracts, that’s both terrifying and fascinating.

 

Thus, Isaiah exclaims, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Think for a moment what “unclean lips” might mean in this context. Many readers assume that Isaiah is speaking of profanity or even blasphemy. But unclean lips can also result from lying, gossip, libel, and slander, from hurtful and unkind speech. Notice also that in the vision, the seraphim have just been praising the sacred name of the Lord, which Isaiah immediately realizes that his own lips are unworthy to pronounce.

 

Again, following the miraculous catch of fish, Peter falls down at Jesus’ knees and implores him, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” The reason for Peter’s fear is immediate and physical: they’re out in the deep, and the boats are foundering. Peter assumes that he cannot be in the presence of such holiness and live, so that the consequence of his sin must be his imminent drowning. And in the epistle reading, Paul reflects on his own deep sense of unworthiness that the risen Jesus should have appeared to him: “For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.”

 

But then, in response to this overwhelming sense of fear and unworthiness, God always speaks a word of forgiveness and reassurance. One of the seraphim touches to Isaiah’s lips a burning coal taken with tongs from the altar and declares: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Isaiah’s lips are purified to proclaim the Word of the Lord, which will be his calling as a prophet. And Jesus tells Peter not to worry if fishing just seems to have become too dangerous; henceforth he will be catching not fish but people.

 

Notice what God does not say in response to these professions of unworthiness. He doesn’t take the therapeutic approach of building self-esteem: “There, there, it’s all right, you mustn’t be so hard on yourself, you’re not really all that bad.” Isaiah really was a man of unclean lips; Peter really was the sinful man he professed himself to be; Paul really was unfit to be an apostle. The good news is that God called each of them anyway, and then made each of them worthy of their calling.

 

This brings us to the third element in the pattern: a calling, a commissioning, and a sending. For in this biblical pattern the reason for God’s self-revelation is never simply the spiritual enrichment of the individual concerned but rather the calling of that individual to a specific role, task, or mission in God’s service. God commissions Isaiah to be a Prophet to Israel; Jesus calls Peter to be a fisher of people; the risen Lord commissions Paul to be Apostle to the Gentiles.

 

So, to recapitulate, the characteristic structure of the biblical encounter with God consists of three elements: first, a manifestation of God’s presence and power addressed to a specific individual; second, an immediate human reaction of fear and trembling, guilt and unworthiness, to which God responds in turn with words of forgiveness and reassurance; and third, a commissioning to some task or calling to fulfill God’s purposes in the world.

 

When I was in seminary, one of my Old Testament professors, Frank Vandevelder, suggested in a memorable lecture that this threefold pattern repeats itself in so many biblical stories over such a long period that it cannot be accidental. And, he pointed out, it’s thoroughly Trinitarian: God the Father manifests his holiness and power; God the Son forgives us and makes us worthy; God the Holy Spirit empowers and equips us for mission in God’s Name.

 

This threefold pattern reflects the way in which God engages his people not only in the ancient biblical stories but in all times and places, including today. Our challenge, then, is to be ready to recognize and respond to such encounters in our own lives. For we’re no more and no less unworthy than any of these biblical characters. And with them we have the assurance that God’s grace towards us is never in vain; and that is grounds for rejoicing indeed.