Sermon Illustrations for Epiphany 5 (OT 5) Cycle C (2025)
Illustration
Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13)
The song “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero” was written in 1974 by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander. The song tells the story of Billy, who volunteers to fight for the Union Army in the Civil War. His fiancé pleads with him to not be a hero and come back to make her his wife. She cries, “Keep your head low.” The lyrics continue, “I need a volunteer to ride up, And bring us back some extra men. And Billy's hand was up in a moment, forgetting all the words she said.” Billy gets killed on that mission. The military writes to Billy's girlfriend to inform her that he died a hero, but she throws the letter away.
It is an interesting song, and, frankly, one I like. Billy’s hand was up in a moment when the sergeant asked for volunteers. I thought about that song as I read through this familiar passage again. Isaiah was also willing to be sent on a mission.
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!” (vs. 8). Prior to stepping forward, Isaiah confessed his guilt. He is a man of unclean lips. Grateful for forgiveness and awed by God’s glory, he volunteers to be God’s messenger even though he does not know where he will be going or what God will ask him to do. Isaiah was willing to do whatever God asked. Will we?
Bill T.
* * *
Isaiah 6:1-8, (9-13)
In the many times I’ve preached on this passage, I’ve enjoyed focusing on the heavenly throne room, the unutterable weight of God’s glory flattening Isaiah to the point (in my retelling, anyway), of the legions of angels circling and recircling, wheels within wheels within wheels, to the point where I’m talking as much about Ezekiel as I am about Isaiah.
But this time I want to focus on the message Isaiah is commissioned to deliver.
Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
Keep looking, but do not understand. (Isaiah 6:9)
Isaiah’s message is in one sense futile. He is told to prophesy to an uncomprehending people, one who either cannot or will not listen, respond, and change. When Isaiah asks how long he has to deliver this message the reply is, “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people and the land is utterly desolate.” (6:11)
That’s discouraging. And yet, though we know we may not totally eliminate hunger, end war, and begin God’s reign of peace, we also know that we are to be about the Master’s work for as long as we are able. If you can’t feed everybody, feed this family. If you can’t stop war, help resettle another family. If we are not living in the millennium right now, we can demonstrate what the peace of Jesus Christ will look like in the way we live our lives together as the church.
Because even this gloomy message is not without hope. Isaiah promises, after desolation and another wave of desolation passes over the land, there is still a stump standing when all is over, adding “(The holy seed is its stump.)” (6:13) And we know from the words of Jesus that the smallest of seeds, the mustard seed, which normally grows to be a bush, will in God’s time become a tree of life, shelter, and healing.
Frank R.
* * *
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
I sometimes have difficulty with the letters attributed to Paul. In this letter, Paul professes that “I worked harder than any of them” in his conversation about the disciples. It seems less that humble, until we read the rest of the passage that makes it clear that Paul believes it is the grace of God that has enabled him to preach and teach, to plant churches, and to honor Jesus. He honors the proclamations of all the disciples, all the messages anchored in faith, anchored in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Who do we honor as the ones who have led us to faith, who have taught and comforted and helped us to surrender to the teachings of our faith? How has grace been manifested in our lives? When we feel the presence of God, the grace of God, how do we respond? Do we speak the truths we believe? Do we speak the faith or our forefathers and foremothers? Do we proclaim the honor that we offer to Jesus? Proclaiming the Word of God is not about bragging; it’s about the humility of knowing that it is God’s grace that enables us to walk our journey of faith. We need to proclaim that message to the spiritually hungry and needy world.
Bonnie B.
* * *
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Martin Luther explains the amazing character of what has happened in Jesus on the first Easter:
For no one could ever have understood or thought that Christ would be alive on the third day. Within all the world's wisdom, there was not an iota of knowledge regarding this. And yet we have the word which declared him alive while he was still lying in the grave. And as this word declared, so it had to happen, even though all the world's senses and reason and everything else contradict it. Thus it also happens to us. (Luther's Works, Vol.28, p.72)
Luther also proceeded to describe the implications of all this for daily life. He wrote:
Even if my person was as evil as a human being can be, I am now forgiven, and by God's grace, I am now what I am. (Luther's Works, Vol.28, p.88)
John Calvin takes an interesting insight from this text. He writes:
Let us learn, therefore, that we have nothing that is good, but what the Lord has graciously given us, that we do nothing good but what he worketh in us. (Phil. 11-13) — not that we do nothing ourselves, but that we do nothing without being influenced — that is, under the guidance and impulse of the Holy Spirit. (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol.XX/2, p.16)
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 5:1-11
For Martin Luther the first part of the lesson "shows that those who believe on him will certainly have [what is] sufficient also for the present life." (Complete Sermons, Vol.2/2, p.132) To this point he adds:
Therefore, you must learn this part well, that you are to work and hope, even if God should delay a little and let you toil in your sweat, so that, you imagine your labor is now lost. (Ibid, p.136)
Commenting on v. 8 and the fear the disciples felt in the Lord's presence, John Calvin wrote:
Although men are earnest in seeking the presence of God, yet, as soon as God appears they must be struck with terror and almost rendered lifeless by dread and alarm until he administers consolation. They have the best reason for calling earnestly on God, because they cannot avoid feeling that they are miserable when he is absent from them; and, on the other hand, his presence is appalling, because they begin to feel that they are nothing, and that they overpowered by an immense mass of evils. (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol.XVl/1, pp.241-242)
Calvin also offers illuminating comments on why evangelism is compared to a fishing expedition:
... the allusion Christ made to fishing, when he spoke of the preaching of the gospel was appropriate: for men stray and wander in the world, as in a great and troubled sea, till they are gathered by the gospel. (Ibid., p.242)
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 5:1-11
Years ago, at one of the conferences I was a member of offered a church growth program entitled “Casting Our Nets.” Its focus was this scripture. These fishermen, the disciples of Jesus, knew how to fish. It was clear that they had followed all the rules and expectations of their profession. To go back out and fish differently didn’t make any sense to them. Sometimes we in the church think we “know” all the ways to be the church, all the ways to include others, all the processes of liturgy and worship. Yet, there are increasingly fewer people participating in church. Maybe we need to do something different.
Jesus sends the disciples back to their work, but he changes the directions, the parameters of their fishing. Cast your nets on the other side. Do something different. Follow my instructions. I know the way to have success. How are we in these days listening to the prompting of Jesus to be more, to do church differently, to be more his followers and a little less certain that we have all the answers? Maybe we need to follow Jesus where he leads in theses days and cling less to our assumptions of who Jesus is calling us to be. Let’s open our hearts and our spirits to the new nurturing influences of Jesus and cast our nest on the other side.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Luke 5:1-11
The 1984 movie The Karate Kid was a popular movie whose story continues to be told. The movie is about the relationship between a young man, Daniel, and his mentor, Mr. Miyagi. After fleeing Okinawa for the United States, Mr. Miyagi meets Daniel LaRusso, a young boy tormented by bullies at his local high school. Mr. Miyagi agrees to teach Daniel karate since his tormentors are a part of a local karate dojo Cobra Kai. Mr. Miyagi’s methods are vastly different than anyone else’s and what Daniel expects. “Wax on, wax off,” and “You trust the quality of what you know, not quantity.” These were strange instructions that did not appear on the surface to lead to a successful fight against Cobra Kai. However, Daniel learns to trust Mr. Miyagi, and do it because he says so.
“Because you say so.” That is a line that indicates trust paired with obedience. When a person utters that phrase, it means they believe what the person is saying even if they do not understand it. That’s the message we see in this text, too. Simon has been a fisherman for a long time. His whole life revolved around the sea. If anyone knew fishing, it was Simon. Jesus borrows his fishing boat as a floating pulpit and when he is done teaching, he tells Simon to go out to the deep water and cast his nets. Simon may have groaned or rolled his eyes. We don’t know. He did say we’ve worked all night and caught nothing. Then, though, he utters these words, “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets” (vs. 5).
We know what happened. The haul of fish nearly sank the boat. It was incredible. However, it did open the eyes of Peter. Jesus was no ordinary rabbi. He was someone worth following. He still is.
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 5:1-11
The trouble with approaching a story you’ve known since childhood, listening from the pew, is that sometimes there’s a detail you just don’t see that you might if you were more of a critical reader. Richard L. Pervo, writing the commentary for the Scholar’s Bible edition of the Gospel of Luke, notes that after Jesus overcomes Peter’s skepticism about casting the nets one time after spending a whole night without catching a thing, and the nets are filled to the point where he has to call out for help to prevent everything from sinking, “Peter could not, without absurdity, kneel before Jesus in a boat overflowing with fish….” (The Gospel of Luke: The Scholars Bible, annotated with Introduction by Richard I. Pervo, Polebridge Press, 2024, p. 57)
The image is stark — could he have knelt? I suppose somebody skilled at fishing from boats could do anything, and whether or not he slipped around or not, I still enjoy the image of Peter kneeling before Jesus hip deep in flopping fish gasping for water. This reminds me, first of all, that it doesn’t hurt to reread an overly familiar biblical story to see what I’ve missed. Second, everywhere, anywhere, including the workplace, is the place for prayer — right now — provided, of course, I’m not endangering myself or anyone else. I’m not quite sure this is an absurd as the author thinks, but at the very least it’s funny, and a reminder that now is as good as any other moment to pray.
Frank R.
The song “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero” was written in 1974 by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander. The song tells the story of Billy, who volunteers to fight for the Union Army in the Civil War. His fiancé pleads with him to not be a hero and come back to make her his wife. She cries, “Keep your head low.” The lyrics continue, “I need a volunteer to ride up, And bring us back some extra men. And Billy's hand was up in a moment, forgetting all the words she said.” Billy gets killed on that mission. The military writes to Billy's girlfriend to inform her that he died a hero, but she throws the letter away.
It is an interesting song, and, frankly, one I like. Billy’s hand was up in a moment when the sergeant asked for volunteers. I thought about that song as I read through this familiar passage again. Isaiah was also willing to be sent on a mission.
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!” (vs. 8). Prior to stepping forward, Isaiah confessed his guilt. He is a man of unclean lips. Grateful for forgiveness and awed by God’s glory, he volunteers to be God’s messenger even though he does not know where he will be going or what God will ask him to do. Isaiah was willing to do whatever God asked. Will we?
Bill T.
* * *
Isaiah 6:1-8, (9-13)
In the many times I’ve preached on this passage, I’ve enjoyed focusing on the heavenly throne room, the unutterable weight of God’s glory flattening Isaiah to the point (in my retelling, anyway), of the legions of angels circling and recircling, wheels within wheels within wheels, to the point where I’m talking as much about Ezekiel as I am about Isaiah.
But this time I want to focus on the message Isaiah is commissioned to deliver.
Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
Keep looking, but do not understand. (Isaiah 6:9)
Isaiah’s message is in one sense futile. He is told to prophesy to an uncomprehending people, one who either cannot or will not listen, respond, and change. When Isaiah asks how long he has to deliver this message the reply is, “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people and the land is utterly desolate.” (6:11)
That’s discouraging. And yet, though we know we may not totally eliminate hunger, end war, and begin God’s reign of peace, we also know that we are to be about the Master’s work for as long as we are able. If you can’t feed everybody, feed this family. If you can’t stop war, help resettle another family. If we are not living in the millennium right now, we can demonstrate what the peace of Jesus Christ will look like in the way we live our lives together as the church.
Because even this gloomy message is not without hope. Isaiah promises, after desolation and another wave of desolation passes over the land, there is still a stump standing when all is over, adding “(The holy seed is its stump.)” (6:13) And we know from the words of Jesus that the smallest of seeds, the mustard seed, which normally grows to be a bush, will in God’s time become a tree of life, shelter, and healing.
Frank R.
* * *
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
I sometimes have difficulty with the letters attributed to Paul. In this letter, Paul professes that “I worked harder than any of them” in his conversation about the disciples. It seems less that humble, until we read the rest of the passage that makes it clear that Paul believes it is the grace of God that has enabled him to preach and teach, to plant churches, and to honor Jesus. He honors the proclamations of all the disciples, all the messages anchored in faith, anchored in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Who do we honor as the ones who have led us to faith, who have taught and comforted and helped us to surrender to the teachings of our faith? How has grace been manifested in our lives? When we feel the presence of God, the grace of God, how do we respond? Do we speak the truths we believe? Do we speak the faith or our forefathers and foremothers? Do we proclaim the honor that we offer to Jesus? Proclaiming the Word of God is not about bragging; it’s about the humility of knowing that it is God’s grace that enables us to walk our journey of faith. We need to proclaim that message to the spiritually hungry and needy world.
Bonnie B.
* * *
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Martin Luther explains the amazing character of what has happened in Jesus on the first Easter:
For no one could ever have understood or thought that Christ would be alive on the third day. Within all the world's wisdom, there was not an iota of knowledge regarding this. And yet we have the word which declared him alive while he was still lying in the grave. And as this word declared, so it had to happen, even though all the world's senses and reason and everything else contradict it. Thus it also happens to us. (Luther's Works, Vol.28, p.72)
Luther also proceeded to describe the implications of all this for daily life. He wrote:
Even if my person was as evil as a human being can be, I am now forgiven, and by God's grace, I am now what I am. (Luther's Works, Vol.28, p.88)
John Calvin takes an interesting insight from this text. He writes:
Let us learn, therefore, that we have nothing that is good, but what the Lord has graciously given us, that we do nothing good but what he worketh in us. (Phil. 11-13) — not that we do nothing ourselves, but that we do nothing without being influenced — that is, under the guidance and impulse of the Holy Spirit. (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol.XX/2, p.16)
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 5:1-11
For Martin Luther the first part of the lesson "shows that those who believe on him will certainly have [what is] sufficient also for the present life." (Complete Sermons, Vol.2/2, p.132) To this point he adds:
Therefore, you must learn this part well, that you are to work and hope, even if God should delay a little and let you toil in your sweat, so that, you imagine your labor is now lost. (Ibid, p.136)
Commenting on v. 8 and the fear the disciples felt in the Lord's presence, John Calvin wrote:
Although men are earnest in seeking the presence of God, yet, as soon as God appears they must be struck with terror and almost rendered lifeless by dread and alarm until he administers consolation. They have the best reason for calling earnestly on God, because they cannot avoid feeling that they are miserable when he is absent from them; and, on the other hand, his presence is appalling, because they begin to feel that they are nothing, and that they overpowered by an immense mass of evils. (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol.XVl/1, pp.241-242)
Calvin also offers illuminating comments on why evangelism is compared to a fishing expedition:
... the allusion Christ made to fishing, when he spoke of the preaching of the gospel was appropriate: for men stray and wander in the world, as in a great and troubled sea, till they are gathered by the gospel. (Ibid., p.242)
Mark E.
* * *
Luke 5:1-11
Years ago, at one of the conferences I was a member of offered a church growth program entitled “Casting Our Nets.” Its focus was this scripture. These fishermen, the disciples of Jesus, knew how to fish. It was clear that they had followed all the rules and expectations of their profession. To go back out and fish differently didn’t make any sense to them. Sometimes we in the church think we “know” all the ways to be the church, all the ways to include others, all the processes of liturgy and worship. Yet, there are increasingly fewer people participating in church. Maybe we need to do something different.
Jesus sends the disciples back to their work, but he changes the directions, the parameters of their fishing. Cast your nets on the other side. Do something different. Follow my instructions. I know the way to have success. How are we in these days listening to the prompting of Jesus to be more, to do church differently, to be more his followers and a little less certain that we have all the answers? Maybe we need to follow Jesus where he leads in theses days and cling less to our assumptions of who Jesus is calling us to be. Let’s open our hearts and our spirits to the new nurturing influences of Jesus and cast our nest on the other side.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Luke 5:1-11
The 1984 movie The Karate Kid was a popular movie whose story continues to be told. The movie is about the relationship between a young man, Daniel, and his mentor, Mr. Miyagi. After fleeing Okinawa for the United States, Mr. Miyagi meets Daniel LaRusso, a young boy tormented by bullies at his local high school. Mr. Miyagi agrees to teach Daniel karate since his tormentors are a part of a local karate dojo Cobra Kai. Mr. Miyagi’s methods are vastly different than anyone else’s and what Daniel expects. “Wax on, wax off,” and “You trust the quality of what you know, not quantity.” These were strange instructions that did not appear on the surface to lead to a successful fight against Cobra Kai. However, Daniel learns to trust Mr. Miyagi, and do it because he says so.
“Because you say so.” That is a line that indicates trust paired with obedience. When a person utters that phrase, it means they believe what the person is saying even if they do not understand it. That’s the message we see in this text, too. Simon has been a fisherman for a long time. His whole life revolved around the sea. If anyone knew fishing, it was Simon. Jesus borrows his fishing boat as a floating pulpit and when he is done teaching, he tells Simon to go out to the deep water and cast his nets. Simon may have groaned or rolled his eyes. We don’t know. He did say we’ve worked all night and caught nothing. Then, though, he utters these words, “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets” (vs. 5).
We know what happened. The haul of fish nearly sank the boat. It was incredible. However, it did open the eyes of Peter. Jesus was no ordinary rabbi. He was someone worth following. He still is.
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 5:1-11
The trouble with approaching a story you’ve known since childhood, listening from the pew, is that sometimes there’s a detail you just don’t see that you might if you were more of a critical reader. Richard L. Pervo, writing the commentary for the Scholar’s Bible edition of the Gospel of Luke, notes that after Jesus overcomes Peter’s skepticism about casting the nets one time after spending a whole night without catching a thing, and the nets are filled to the point where he has to call out for help to prevent everything from sinking, “Peter could not, without absurdity, kneel before Jesus in a boat overflowing with fish….” (The Gospel of Luke: The Scholars Bible, annotated with Introduction by Richard I. Pervo, Polebridge Press, 2024, p. 57)
The image is stark — could he have knelt? I suppose somebody skilled at fishing from boats could do anything, and whether or not he slipped around or not, I still enjoy the image of Peter kneeling before Jesus hip deep in flopping fish gasping for water. This reminds me, first of all, that it doesn’t hurt to reread an overly familiar biblical story to see what I’ve missed. Second, everywhere, anywhere, including the workplace, is the place for prayer — right now — provided, of course, I’m not endangering myself or anyone else. I’m not quite sure this is an absurd as the author thinks, but at the very least it’s funny, and a reminder that now is as good as any other moment to pray.
Frank R.
