Isaiah 6:1-13
I Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11

All of our readings this morning involve people who knew they were unworthy of doing anything for God. They knew they were unworthy, and in two of our readings, they told God just that. Isaiah, Peter, and Paul were fully aware of the truth that they, in themselves, were not good enough to do what God wanted them to do. However, God also knows that fact, and it does not bother God, because God also knows that he is the one who makes all of us worthy to do God’s will.

By saying we are unworthy to do God’s will does not mean we see ourselves as evil or stupid or have a bad self-image. It means that we have a proper self-image and grasp on reality, because the reality is: God is perfect, and we are not. No matter how good we are, we are not perfect, and so we can never be fit tools for God’s purposes. We can be really good human beings, as we should all strive to be, but being a really good human is not the same thing as being God – they are simply different categories. However, God breaks those categories and gives us whatever abilities we need to do God’s will.

We don’t always get the same abilities, because God does not want as to all do the same things. However, we are all given something, and to pretend differently is counterproductive and destructive. It might take some time to figure out what our special gifts are, but we can not use that as an excuse for never searching for them or never using them when we find them. We also need to remember that very few people are ever given any kind of spectacular gifts, so just because our gifts are the ordinary kind that allow us to help each other in ordinary ways, we can’t allow ourselves to pout and sulk and not use those ordinary gifts. We are most likely never going to see seraphim or be blinded by Jesus or go fishing with him, like the people in our scripture readings. That is ok, and actually, kind of a relief.

However, we will see God everyday in the people around us – people who are easy to get along with, as well as people who are difficult to get along with, people who make our life easier, as well as people who make our life more difficult, people whom we irritate, as well as people who irritate us. We are called to use our ordinary gifts to bring the joy and health of God to those people, as we accept it from them. We all know how impossible it is to do the job of living with other people without our special gifts from God. So rather than wasting all that time and energy fretting about how difficult it is, all we need to do is admit that we can’t do it on our own, and thank God for his help in doing it. God will bring us through all our daily, ordinary struggles, and turn them into heaven, where in a sense, we will see seraphim, go fishing with Jesus, and even be blinded by his beauty and joy.

We are unclean, we are unfit to do God’s will. What happy news! By admitting that, we give ourselves room to take in God’s gift to us, so that the new reality can grow – the reality that in God, we are clean, we are fit, we are ready, willing ,and able to do all that God asks of us. And all that God asks of us is to live in love, joy, and peace with ourselves, with others, and with God. That sounds like a good job description.   AMEN