And Jesus said, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching
people."
Our lessons this Sunday provide us with glimpses of what happens when ordinary human beings encounter the Holy. They have something important to tell us.
Terrifying but Irresistible...
“Isaiah’s vision of the glory of God and his appointment as a prophet”
Matthaeus Merian, the
Elder 1593–1650.
Rudolph Otto, one of the first scholars of mystical encounters, would describe this reaction as the mysterium tremendum et fascinans. In short, he observed that our encounters with the Holy are inevitably mysterious, they always defy rational understanding and they almost always frighten us even as they fascinate us.
In almost every case where such encounters are reported in the scriptures, quaking human beings are routinely told, “Don’t be afraid.” Think Moses and the burning bush. Think shepherds in the fields near Bethlehem. But once the fears of those who have engaged the Holy have been calmed, it is always followed by this message:
You are the one I am calling.
“Conversion on the Way to Damascus,” Caravagio 1601
We hear a bit of that in the second reading where St. Paul reveals his fairly common pattern of self-deprecation. He says “For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.” Paul is highly conscious of two things here: one, his own imperfections, and two, that G-d has called to him to ministry, imperfect as he might be.
What Jesus Didn't Say
In our Gospel reading the man who will become Jesus’ right hand man has an experience with the Holy. Jesus appears and Peter’s boat suddenly overflows with an unexpected haul of fish. True to form, Peter is terrified. Falling at the feet of Jesus, he responds predictably: “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" Peter is very human. What he has encountered frightens him even as it draws him near.
“The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew”
Duccio di Buoninsegna,1308-1311
But notice what is different in Luke’s story from the self-deprecating visions of Isaiah and St. Paul. Pay attention here to what Jesus says and what he does NOT say. What he says is essentially, “Oh, Peter, get up. We have business to attend to.” What he doesn’t do is even acknowledge Peter’s self-deprecation.
Jesus doesn’t respond with some version of “Oh, Peter, I know you’re just a lousy sinner but, hey, G-d condescends to love you anyway,” the patronizing message too many of us have heard for too long from too many well-meaning people.
Jesus doesn’t say, “Before you answer, God must forgive you, Peter, for we are all sinners in his sight,” the language of our Rite II’s Eucharistic Prayer C. The G-d Jesus reveals is not so narrowly focused that he can only see us in terms of our sinfulness. And Jesus doesn’t say “Peter, you are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under the table. But fortunately for you, God’s property is always to have mercy,” the language of our Rite I Eucharist Prayer. Jesus knows that even ants are worthy of gathering up crumbs.
What is reflected in such words is a sin-obsessed theology.
But there is no patronizing condescension in the G-d whom Jesus lovingly refers
to as Abba, Daddy, instructing us to pray to “Our Father.” There are no
conditions for the love of the G_d that Jesus reveals. And in today’s Gospel,
the G-d whom Jesus reveals to Peter loves the imperfect human being standing in
front of him with all his warts, an imperfect human being who will eventually
betray the Jesus who is calling him as his first disciple.
Bear in mind, this divine calling of imperfect human beings
is a pattern we see throughout scripture.
Indeed, there are no other kinds of callings. Moses was a murderer. But
he’d lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt on their Exodus. David arranged to
have his chief officer killed in battle so he could cover up his adultery with
his wife. But he’d become the seed of the future messiah. St. Paul was in
charge of having the followers of Jesus executed. But he’d become the chief
apostle of a new religion which would become Christianity. Even Jesus himself
was a capitol felon legally executed by the Roman Empire on charges of treason.
The Shadow Never Stays Put
This will be hard for many of us to hear. If you are like me, you may struggle with the implications of this pattern. I think most of us can relate to the response of Isaiah, Paul and Peter. When we think of G-d, we frequently become aware of our own failings even as we often sense the frightening possibility that we are capable of answering G-d’s call to us.
But the weight of a religion based in perfection is unbearable for anyone. Depth psychologist Carl Jung observed that those aspects of our lives which are socially unacceptable are routinely repressed from our consciousness where they take on a life of their own in our unconscious minds called the Shadow. Sin-driven theologies readily generate a need to feel freed of imperfections in order to be loveable by G-d.
But human failings never just go away. Unless we own them, they end up being repressed into our unconscious minds only to be projected onto others. As a result the burden of western Christianity’s perfectionism with its resulting obsession with sinfulness has always fallen heavily on members of society unable to fend off the projections of Shadow from its dominant class. LBGTQ people know this only too well as do a number of others from women to the poor to people of color.
Theologies focused on sin arise from a presumption that G_d
can only love us if we are perfect. As a result, the challenge that Jesus
presents each of us is to let go of that perfectionism in order to love
ourselves in all of our imperfections, to own our Shadow so we do not end up
projecting it onto others. As I prepared my sermon this week, Richard Rohr
posted a daily meditation that spoke directly to this point. And I’d like to
quote a bit of it to you.
“Our problem seems to consist in the fact that we’re
convinced of not being good. And we need a great deal of trust to believe God’s
pronouncement that everything God created is very good—even in its imperfect
state. We seem to believe that only perfect things are lovable. Yet the Gospels
say very clearly that God loves imperfect things, which is really everything!
Perfection is invariably our own self-created notion, manufactured largely in
our own thinking mind or by our culture; thus, it is both delusional and,
finally, self-defeating… a major enemy and obstacle to loving what is right in
front of us. [But] only God can lay
claim to perfection… [And only] those
who don’t have anything to prove or protect [can] believe they are loved as
they are….”
If we are to take Jesus seriously at his word, our calling is to learn how to own our imperfections so that we can accept the fact that the G_d who created us has always loved us - all of us - imperfect as we are. For most of us, that means repenting of the self-understanding under which we have operated most of our lives. And it means critically reflecting on the theologies we have received, recognizing that they, too, were constructed by imperfect human beings.
It is a long journey. But today is as good a day as any to take the first step.
Our collect today reflects the need for this undertaking. And I offer it to you in an adapted form to start our journey together. Let us pray:
A sermon preached at St. Richard’s Episcopal, Winter Park, FL, Epiphany II, Sunday, February 6, 2022
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Harry Scott Coverston
Orlando, Florida
If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.
Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi
For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d? - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)
© Harry Coverston, 2022
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2 comments:
The bottom line is that God forgives us our sins. This is a mnid-boggling concept that we really don't have to think about our sins. Instead, we really need to concentrate onour forgiveness, We are not sinful people, we are forgiven people, and we need to practice being that. .
The bottom line is that we are loved by our Creator. We are imperfect people. That has been true since our creation. G-d loves us, warts and all.
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