I consider myself to be rather good at designing and maintaining websites, so perhaps the equivalent scene in today’s gospel (Luke 5:1-11) would be if – for example – Bishop Peter happened to drop into the parish office after a frustrating day of work, where new components or installations were not working on the Diocesan website. Although he doesn’t have any experience of programming, perhaps he might suggest that I move from my chair and let him have a go at seeing if he could fix my problem. I suspect that I would have good reasons to be hesitant in taking the good bishop up on his offer to fix the website, just as Simon-Peter was hesitant in putting the freshly cleaned nets back into the boat so that he could launch out into the deep. But the difference in this scenario, is that Simon did allow the Lord to call the shots and he did pay out the nets for a catch – despite the fruitless effort of the whole of the previous night. It is that decision that changed everything in his life, just as the decision that Isaiah makes to move from ‘woe is me’ to letting his unclean lips be cleansed.
Recorded at St Mary’s, Leppington 8am (11’39”)
Sunday 05, Year C. Isaiah 6:1-8.