5 Epiphany Year C 2/9/2025
Isaiah 6:1-13; Psalm 138; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
The year was 1784…
When The Episcopal Church would change for ever.
Just 8 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed.
The United States Revolutionary War had brought hardship and the loss of life.
In the event, the Church of England had brought back to England all their loyal clergy serving in America.
Patriotic priests had stayed…
But they did not have a bishop.
So, after the Revolution, a secret meeting of Connecticut clergymen in
Woodbury, on March 25, 1783, named Samuel Seabury to seek episcopal consecration in England.
He was elected to be their bishop.
Seabury accepted and sailed for England seeking ordination.
After a year of negotiation, Seabury found it impossible to obtain
episcopal orders from the Church of England because,
as an American citizen, he could not swear allegiance to the crown.
He then turned to the bishops of the Episcopal Church in Scotland.
On November 14, 1784, in Aberdeen, he was consecrated by the Bishop
and the Bishop Coadjutor of Aberdeen and the Bishop of Ross and
Caithness, in the presence of several clergy and laity.
The consecration took place in Bishop Skinner’s house in Longacre, approximately 500 meters from the present St Andrew’s Cathedral in Aberdeen.
This act has forever tied The Episcopal Church with the Episcopal Church in Scotland.
On his return home, Seabury was recognized as Bishop of Connecticut
and kept his promise with the Scottish bishops, to persuade the American Church to adopt the Scottish form for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.
To the present day, the American liturgy adheres to the main features of this rite in its Holy Eucharist Liturgies.
Seabury died on February 25, 1796, and is buried beneath St. James’ Church in New London, Connecticut.
Seabury began the start of something new.
Not with any guarantees…
Not with any assurances…
Just the hope of the gospel…
And the faith that God would bless the work of his faithful people.
Samuel Seabury stepped out in faith…
Followed the calling Jesus had placed in his life…
And he initiated the founding of The Episcopal Church.
(with some help from Scotland)
Life is full of surprises…
Full of twists and turns…
Many things that we don’t expect…
And plenty of moments…
Moments when we have the opportunity to step out in faith and follow our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Gospel reading today points to this walk of faith.
Jesus was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret,
the crowd around him was pushing in…
they wanted to better hear the Word of God that Jesus spoke.
Jesus saw two boats tied up.
The fishermen had just left them… scrubbing their nets.
Jesus climbed into the boat that was Simon Peter’s and asked him to put out a little from the shore.
And just like that… sitting there,
using the boat for a pulpit,
He taught the crowd.
When Jesus was finished teaching, he said to Simon Peter:
“Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.”
Simon Peter though protested and said:
“Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow.
But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.”
They brought in a huge haul of fish, filling both boats.
Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell to his knees before Jesus, saying: “Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness.
Leave me to myself.”
But Jesus said to Simon Peter:
“There is nothing to fear. From now on you’ll be fishing for men and women.”
They pulled their boats up on the beach, left them, nets and all, and followed him.[1]
This is the story of when Jesus called his first disciples…
Peter, James, and John.
It is also a story of stepping out in faith.
Jesus gave a command to a seasoned fisherman…
A Jewish Rabbi with a background in carpentry…
Giving advice to a group of seasoned fishermen.
Probably not the typical day in Peter’s life…
Jesus said:
“Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.”
Peter answered:
“Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.”
Sometimes following Jesus seems to be contrary to wisdom.
Sometimes it unsettles our desires or our emotions.
But Jesus calls us to a walk of faith.
There are times in our walk with Jesus that what we are asked to do,
or what the Spirit moves us to do,
seems contrary to what we know and understand.
It may be contrary to our upbringing.
It may be contrary to our cultural norms.
It may be contrary to the way that we have always done it.
We have plenty of excuses.
We have plenty of things in this world to keep us busy…
Or to keep us entertained…
We might respond just like Peter did:
Mister, we have been fishing all night, and you want us to go out again… This doesn’t make any sense!
But I don’t know if it was the look in Jesus’ eyes…
Or the ministry of the Holy Spirit already at work in Peter…
Or the sovereign work of God the Father…
Or perhaps all three…
But Peter does it.
He says:
Because you say so, I will let down the nets.
And with that, Peter became a follower of Jesus…
One of the 12…
He eventually became the one who initiated the church on Pentecost Sunday…
The lesson today is clear…
We should step out in faith on what Christ is calling us to do.
In our collect appointed for today, we prayed:
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…
We all want to be free…
To have freedom…
But often enough we can’t see the forest for the trees.
We remain in bondage…
Not sure how to get out of the mess of sin…
Wanting freedom, instead we choose the comforts of what we feel as normal…
Sometimes we are so comfortable in the bondage of our sin we have a hard time moving forward…
Stepping out…
But what we need is just what we prayed in the collect.
Through the gift of God’s Son…
Through his saving work on the cross…
Through his resurrection from the grave…
We gain liberty and an abundant life.
In the life of Christ, we find our true life.
In the person of Jesus, we find our true personhood.
In the identity of Jesus, we discover our true identity.
In Christ, we become transformed into what God created us to be…
A child of God…
In the here and now we find liberty and abundant life.
For the future we find the hope of eternal life.
God calls us to new life in him.
New life in Jesus Christ.
A calling that is made available for all people.
God called Samuel Seabury to be consecrated the first bishop of The Episcopal Church.
God called Peter, and James, and John to be his disciples and the founders of his church.
God calls you and I to follow him…
For such a time as this.
Through the thick and thin parts of life…
Through the trials and temptations of our own day.
Jesus calls us to follow him.
He calls us to walk in faith.
Promising to never leave us nor forsake us.
As Jesus said:
…surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
(Matthew 28.20)
Follow his calling today…
Answer that call…
We might not have all the answers…
We might not have everything sorted out…
Neither did Samuel Seabury…
Neither did Peter, James, and John…
But they followed.
They followed by faith.
May we follow the call of Jesus too.
Amen.
[1] From The Message
