Sermon – 02-09 (16)- 25 (using Epiphany 5) – Cycle C
Scriptures: Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 138; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11
Sermon Title: “Whose Hands Are These Anyway?”

I am going to repeat our Call to Worship from the beginning of our worship.
Call to Worship from Psalm 138
One: The Lord is high but cares for the lowly.
All: Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you keep me safe.
One: You stretch forth your hand against the fury of my enemies.
All: Your right hand shall save me.
One: You will make good your promise for me. Do not abandon the works of your hands.
All: O Lord, your steadfast love endures forever

Is it possible to get through life without having enemies? How much kindness needs to be born in us, so that we do not have enemies? If you are such a person, I thank God for you and hope you will allow me to claim you as a model for myself.

On the other hand, I have been the recipient of more mercy than I can even remember. Over and over again people overlook whatever I have said or not said, have done or not done, to share God’s mercy with me. It is overwhelming. And oh, that I should have that much mercy for everyone in my life. Whenever I am lifted and encouraged, I see the hand of God reaching out in love for me.

Whenever we compliment another person, whenever we encourage someone close or someone we do not know, we are showing that person the hand of God. In our Isaiah passage today, Isaiah needs encouragement. Isaiah is saying, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Did we not hear, “The Lord is high but cares for the lowly.” in Psalm 138? Well Isaiah feels the hand of God as the seraph touches Isaiah’s lips with a hot coal. Isaiah no longer feels unworthy. Is it not interesting that we are picturing the hand of God, but we are talking about speech when we encourage each other and we are talking about someone else’s hand with the hot coal on Isaiah’s lips. Since God’s hands are not physically in front of us, they become symbolic; symbolic of the power of God and the power that God transfers to our hands and our lips and our feet and our minds.

When I pray with people, I often ask God to lay his healing hand on the person whose healing seems eons away. I picture the hand of God resting on the person in my presence who desperately needs divine help. In this instance, my hand is the substitute for God’s hand but my hand does not have healing power by itself. It is God’s hand invisibly covering my hand that provides the healing power.

Sometimes we need other kinds of power. It takes courage to live as God wants us to live. We need to be a bit, or a lot, different than our friend who does not know about God’s power in all situations. Are there times when you know you should be saying something to your neighbor for his or her own sake but you are so afraid that you will be ending a good relationship? Courage. We need the hand of God for courage – and not only courage – but wisdom. There are many and various ways to say what we need to say. Practice saying them in your head or aloud.

It seems that mostly I have been thinking of voices and lips more than hands. Think of the seraph in the Isaiah story. We read that the seraphs have six wings. No mention is made of hands. Yet, the seraph used a pair of tongs to move a live coal from the fire to Isaiah’s lips, Apparently, the seraph used a wing instead of a hand to do God’s work.

When we jump to the gospel lesson in Luke 5, the future disciples are using their hands to cast nets and then draw the nets, filled with fish, toward the boat. Their method of fishing is to use their hands, not their voices to catch the fish. Wouldn’t we laugh if fisherman called to the fish in the water, “Come here lovely fish, sweet fish, jump into our nets to be happy eternally.” God’s hands are in this story. First, somehow the fish got the message that they were to swim away from these three desperate fisherman. Then later, they got the message that it was time to swim toward the boat and the fish should not be too distraught to find themselves trapped in the nets. Not only will they serve as food for people, they are now serving as perpetrators with the God the Father and with Jesus to lure the fishermen themselves to work for the kingdom of God.

The fish did not have much of a choice in this story. But Simon, later called Peter, and James and John do have a choice – well at least we think they had a choice – but they immediately leave their boats and nets and fish and follow Jesus.

Paul immediately follows Jesus after being struck with blindness from a glaring
light, being forgiven for persecuting the followers of Jesus in a vicious way.

Isaiah immediately said, “Here am I; send me!”

Simon Peter, James, John, Paul, and Isaiah will now be using their voices instead of their hands to do the work of the kingdom. Let us look at our own hands. Think about our lips. How have our hands already worked to enlarge the Kingdom of God? Now, how will our voices be working for the Kingdom of God? Amen