 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri Friday, February 4, 2022 A early warning:5th Sunday after the Epiphany  EARLY WARNING It is 28 degrees out right now, a veritable heatwave! The parking lot at Church is being cleared right now. However, everything will refreeze tonight. IF it seems by tomorrow afternoon that the parking lot still has a lot of water/ice on it, we will cancel in person worship for Sunday. It will freeze again tomorrow night for sure. We can’t risk a fall on the black asphalt, which always looks wet, even when it’s frozen.So PLEASE check here or on the website tomorrow, Saturday, February 5th to see if we are planning to be in church. Isaiah 6:1-8 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting ono a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings; with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory. “The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voice of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said, “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! “Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 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.”  You might think about how your awareness of your sinfulness – at least your tendency to mess up, your inadequacy, and your littleness before the greatness that is God – is related to your equally strong sense of call. And notice also – in both stories the call is to do something both vital and terrible. And nobody gets out of it alive. (Jewish tradition says Isaiah was martyred by order of King Manasseh. Peter was crucified.) It’s not a call to power or prestige or position…or even to approval. The Collect Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen  Luke 5:1-11 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to putout a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking he Simon, “Put out into the deep water and your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long, but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. “For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him. What, in your experience, accounts for their decision to “leave everything?” What accounts for Isaiah’s willingness to be sent? To what do you owe your own sense of call to be the Lord’s, whatever that might require of you? |
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