[200~Meeting with God: Encounter and Call: Isaiah 6:1-8; Luke 5:1-11 All Age Talk: 9th February, 2025 What do you think it would be like to meet God, or to meet Jesus? How would it feel? We’ve heard two different stories from the Bible this morning. In the first story the prophet Isaiah meets God – he has an amazing vision of the holy God in heaven, In the second story, Simon Peter meets Jesus while fishing, during his ordinary daily life as a fisherman. Let’s look at these two stories and see what they say to us. In our first story, Isaiah says ‘I saw the Lord’. (Picture of eye). What does he see? He has a vision of God in heaven and tries to put this into words. He doesn’t actually say what God looks like. He speaks of God on a throne, high above everything, with angels flying around him, praising God, crying out ‘holy, holy, holy is the Lord…the whole earth is full of his glory.’ Holy and glory. These are words which try to express how beautiful, how perfect, how powerful God is. And how different from us. Imagine seeing God. That’s very hard, because we can’t see God. I’ve got a picture here (picture of light) what is it? In the Bible God is often described in terms of light – perhaps this helps us think about the holiness and glory of God. What do you think it would feel like to meet with God: God so perfect, so powerful, so full of light and holiness and glory? Perhaps we might feel like Isaiah. Isaiah feels overwhelmed. As he sees the light and glory of God, he knows that God sees (picture of eye) his own smallness and weakness and all his selfishness and sin. He feels unclean, he feels dirty. He knows he is so different from God. He doesn’t want to look at God’s glory any longer, maybe he wants to hide from God, because he knows he is not good enough to be in God’s presence (picture of man kneeling down). But the story doesn’t end there. What happens next? God takes away Isaiah’s sin, everything that makes him feel unclean and not good enough to be in God’s presence. Isaiah is forgiven. He can stand in God’s presence now. (picture of man standing up) God then says he has a job to be done. He wants someone to be a messenger to his people. Who can he send? Do you think Isaiah says, ‘well you can send my Dad or my neighbour or my best friend?’ No, he says: ‘send me’ (‘me’ card) Isaiah has seen God, met with God in his glory, been forgiven, and is now called by God, given a job to do, and sent out to speak of God to others. (sent out card). So, what about our second story this morning? This is not about a special vision of heaven. This story takes place in ordinary daily life when Simon Peter and his friends are out fishing. (fishing boat card). Now fishing might not be ordinary daily life to us, but it was to Simon and his friends because they were fishermen. On one of their very ordinary working days they meet Jesus. In fact, Jesus gets into Simon’s boat to teach the crowds from the boat. Then Jesus tells Simon to put down the nets into the deep water. Simon must have thought this was a very silly idea. Night time is the best time for fishing and they have already been fishing all night and caught nothing. What’s the point of trying again now in the day time? And, anyway, what does a carpenter like Jesus know about fishing? But Simon says to Jesus – ‘because you say so, I will put down the net’. Although he thinks it’s a silly idea, he listens to Jesus and does what he says. Then, a strange and wonderful thing happens: they catch so many fish that the boats can’t hold them all! It’s a miracle! Simon is amazed at how many fish they have caught, but he is even more amazed at Jesus. (Show picture of Jesus). Who is Jesus that he can do such a thing? Simon sees (picture of the eye) Jesus in a new way. Perhaps Simon begins to see something of the holiness and glory of God in the man Jesus. But Simon doesn’t only begin to see Jesus differently, he also sees himself differently, or maybe he knows that Jesus sees him as he really is. There are many stories in the gospels of Jesus seeing into people’s hearts and knowing them through and through. Simon falls on his knees before Jesus, (picture of man kneeling down) and says ‘Go away from me Lord for I am a sinful man!’ Meeting Jesus shows up his own failures and selfishness, just as Isaiah’s vision of the holy God made him feel small and unclean. Jesus reassures Simon: ‘do not be afraid’. Just as Isaiah was forgiven, we know that in Jesus there is forgiveness and healing. Simon doesn’t need to hide away from Jesus in shame. He also can be forgiven and can get up again and stand in Jesus’ presence. (man standing up card). Now that Simon has met Jesus, seen something of who he is, and something of his own need for forgiveness, Jesus has a job for Simon to do, just as God had a job for Isaiah. Simon’s life is going to change as Jesus calls him from being a fisherman to someone who will work with people, sharing with them the good news of Jesus. Simon, who of course will now be known as Peter, is called to follow Jesus. (follow card). And he and his friends do indeed leave everything and follow him. So, what about us? We can’t see God and we might never have a vision of God like Isaiah. We haven’t met Jesus in the same way as Simon Peter and his friends met him in his earthly life. But we can meet with God and meet with Jesus through reading the Bible, through worship and prayer, through coming to the Lord’s table to be fed, through learning with others, in the midst of our ordinary daily lives. We can begin to see. (Child – eye card) We can begin to see something of God’s holiness and glory. (child – light card). We can begin to see and know who Jesus truly is (child – Jesus card). And we realise that we are seen right into the depths of our hearts; (Move child with eye card), that God sees us, Jesus sees us. In God’s presence, in Jesus’ presence, we may feel very small and become aware of all our failure, selfishness and sin. (Child – man kneeling down). We say sorry to God. But God forgives us and calls us to stand up and not to be afraid. (Child – standing card). And just as Jesus called Simon Peter, Jesus calls us to follow him (child – follow card), to listen to him, to obey him, and to share his message of love with others. Suggestions for Reflection and Discussion 1. ‘Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips…yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’ (Isaiah 6:5). ‘Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.’ (Luke 5:8). Consider Isaiah’s reaction to his encounter with God, and Simon’s reaction to meeting Jesus. Can you identify with these reactions? Are there examples in your own life when through reading the Bible, worship or prayer, you have realised afresh your own smallness, weakness and sin, in the light of God or Jesus? 2. When we see God, when we see Jesus, we may begin to see ourselves in a different way. Or perhaps it is a matter of ‘being seen’. It is stressed several times in the gospels that Jesus can see deeply into people’s hearts. Eg Simon Peter (John 1:40-42, esp 1:42), Nathaniel (John 1:43-51, esp 1:47, the Samaritan woman (John 4:1-30, esp 4:29). Share any experience of ‘being seen’ by Jesus in your failure, weakness, and potential. Is this frightening or encouraging? (NB Jesus tells Simon: ‘do not be afraid.’ (Luke 5:10)). 3. Simon does not think Jesus’ command to put out the nets into the deep water is a good idea, since they have been fishing all night and caught nothing (and night time is the best time to fish rather than the day). Yet, despite thinking this is a silly idea, he responds to Jesus: ‘yet, if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ (Luke 5:5). Simon is doubtful of the result, but he still obeys Jesus. ‘Peter might not agree, but he could obey’ as one commentator puts it. ‘Yet, if you say so…’: Have you ever had to wrestle with doing something (or not doing something) in obedience to Jesus? In obedience to Jesus, have you ever done something you thought would be pointless, but in fact it led to fruitful abundance? 4. Isaiah has a powerful encounter with God, and Simon Peter has a powerful encounter with God. But their encounters, including the experience of being forgiven and reassured, are not an end in themselves. They are both also called for a purpose: Isaiah to speak God’s message to the people, and Simon Peter to follow Jesus and to work with ‘catching people’ rather than fish. Do you have a sense of vocation? What does the call to follow Jesus mean in your own life? 5. Isaiah and Simon Peter are both called to serve God in different ways. However, being called for a purpose does not guarantee that things will be easy or even ‘successful’ in the world’s terms. Isaiah’s message will fall on deaf ears (see Isaiah 6:9-13), and Peter will end up being martyred (see John 21:18-19). What does this say to us, to church leaders, to the church as a whole?