“Exposed”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Sunday, February 6, 2022

Isaiah 6:1-8/ Luke 5:1-11 (Forward, p. 8) CEV p. 700

I was not overly surprised to discover several days ago that actors experience their own particular kind of nightmare, something so very common that it is referred to as ‘Actor’s Dream’ or AD for short. This dream, or nightmare, can take various forms. The most common one is where the actor comes up on stage and can’t remember even one of his or her lines. The actor feels totally exposed, lost for words before an expectant audience. He or she feels totally helpless. Another variant is where the actor walks through what he or she thinks is the stage door and discovers that it leads to an entirely different place, like out on the street, which again calls up that feeling of utter helplessness. Most of us, I would guess have had similar feelings, similar dreams, at some time or other. For clergy it is appearing out at the front of the congregation with no pants on, or even worse, no clothes at all. Talk about feeling exposed.

In today’s suggested passage it is the prophet Isaiah that feels exposed, but this time before the presence of Almighty God. In another reading for today, Luke 5:1-11, it is Simon Peter, this time in the presence of Jesus. Interestingly, there are some very real commonalities to these two incidents:

a) Firstly, the two of them are in perfectly normal, familiar circumstances, at least to begin with. (Perfectly normal for them, that is). Isaiah, whom scholars think to be a priest, is in the temple in Jerusalem. Perfectly normal and to be expected. Peter is in his fishing boat, which once again is perfectly normal and ordinary for someone who fishes for his life work.

b) Secondly, God breaks into the ordinariness of their situations with something that is totally unexpected. Isaiah experiences the uncomfortable, other-worldly presence and holiness of none other than God Himself. One would think that, given the way the account proceeds, it is not something that Isaiah has encountered previously. Isaiah is totally ‘blown away’, humbled, brought to his knees by this awesome experience.

The same for Simon Peter. He and his colleagues have fished the entire night away and not caught a blooming thing. Talk about being dispirited, down in the mouth, despondent: that’s putting it mildly. And then Jesus suggests putting down his net and trying again. In a very real sense, such a suggestion is more than a wee bit insulting. After all, fishing is Simon’s business, his life work, and he should know. But, nevertheless, he does exactly what Jesus says, and where there was seemingly no fish earlier there are now scads of them! Something has happened to Simon’s ‘ordinary’ existence; a new reality has broken upon it. He too is blown away, humbled.

c) And how do both Isaiah and Simon Peter respond? With an acknowledgement of their own sinfulness, their own broken, fragile humanity. They get a glimpse of the glory and wonder of God and see how unworthy, how ‘naked’, they are in light of this. They, like the actors of the ‘actors dream’, feel exposed.

d) Fortunately, in neither account are our chief players simply left there to wallow in their seeming nakedness. In each case, that sense of brokenness and inability is just the starting point. In seeing their own lack they begin to see something bigger and better and more to be prized and relied upon, which is the grace and ability of God Himself. They are thrust upon the grace of God and forced to rely upon Him. And then, wonderfully, they can be used by Him, as only a broken and humbled, and vulnerable (and exposed) person ever can be.

And so, let us all allow ourselves to be seen by God, and to see ourselves just as God does, and allow ourselves to rely totally upon Him and His grace and be used by Him. Amen.

Forward notes; “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ (verse 8)

“What comes to mind when you picture a hero? To me, people who do heroic deeds seem like they must be fundamentally different from me—somehow naturally braver, stronger, smarter, more capable. But more often than not, when I look closely at the stories of heroes, I realize that they are ordinary people who happened to find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. The special thing about them is that, when God called them to do something great, they said yes.

“Isaiah is exactly this kind of hero. When God appears to him in a terrifying vision, his first reaction is to hide his face and cry that he is unworthy. But when he realizes that God still wants to call him as a prophet, Isaiah finds the courage to serve—and, after he proves himself willing, God gives him the strength to carry out his mission. If we can find the same willingness within ourselves to face situations that feel terrifying or overwhelming, God will surely do the same for us.”

MOVING FORWARD: “What can you say yes to today?”