Fifth Sunday of Epiphany: Unworthy Messengers of a Worthy Message

Unedited Transcript Follows:

In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy. Oh man. I got roped into coaching comp soccer. I think I've told you guys some of you the story of how I got kind of roped into that. What happened was I, uh? I showed up at trial, so I'm not like, I've never played comp soccer.

I. Like, I played organized soccer until, like, I was like. And, and like a Rec league, you know, like where you pay them to play, you know, and? Um, and they, you like, get to play half the game, even if you're bad at it. That's, like, that's really all sports for me, I kind of my sporting career ended when you stopped being required to play people half the game, you know, uh, once that was the case.

I didn't play sports anymore at all, but that's as far as I went in competitive soccer. It, and what happened was, I like? Zoe. Was like doing really well at soccer in a Rec league, and I was like, we should, like, all right. Maybe we'll look into doing something else, so she was trying out for a team that she'd been asked to try out for.

And. Then, she tried out for another team and a bunch of people showed up. And they said, oh, there's so many girls we should make two teams. Can anyone coach? And then someone put my name forward because I'd coached. Zoe's not competitive soccer team? And they said he's a good coach.

He should coach, so the the president of the club asked me. Would you coach a team and the other coaches will kind of share their notes. They'll show how they pick players. You just watch the trouts and you pick your players and they'll pick their players and we'll have two teams.

Uh, and I said yes, like a moron. And uh, and so because I wanted like Zoe to have a competitive soccer team to play on. So, I said yes, and then what happened was? Uh, I thought that meant like, hey, they were gonna pick a player, and I was gonna pick a player and they were gonna pick a player, and I was gonna pick a player.

What that meant is they were gonna pick 11 players, and then I was gonna pick. 11 players. Um, and uh, and Zoe was gonna play on that team. You know, the team with the 11 players that didn't get picked for the first team and I was, like, well, that's not exactly how I thought this was gonna turn out, but all right, I guess I'm coaching a competitive soccer team with the girls that didn't make the soccer team, which is fine.

And you know, what's been cool about? That is, it's been one of the most rewarding things I've done over the past year, is just to kind of build into these girls and love on them and see them. Learn how, uh, to play soccer, you know, and they, uh, it's been really fun to watch.

I think I don't. I don't think I don't think we're too many years out from beating that team that picked the first 11 girls. Just so, you know, just, you know, maybe a couple years, but, uh. But yeah, it's been super fun to do it and to take a team of people and to see kind of transformation, and that comes from that.

How the whole thing played out. I was going to have a bunch of girls who didn't make the competitive soccer team, right, that if the gospel is true just by virtue of the message of the Gospel, we're going to find people. That aren't worthy to be messengers of the Gospel.

And, like, if God didn't pick unworthy Messengers, there'd be no one to pick. If the gospel is true just by virtue of what the story is, if it's true that God created the world and the world fell into sin and evil, but there's no one to pick that like?

Their nail in it, and they do a great job. So, if God's going to have anyone to proclaim the good news, he's going to pick unworthy people to Proclaim the good news. He's going to transform them. And that's the story. We're going to see that the story of the Gospel is a story of God picking unworthy people to be messengers of good news.

Then doing the work of transformation, making them new. So, we start by we. We look at three unworthy Messengers today. First, we look at Gideon, right? Look at Gideon. And he said in Judges 6, 15, he says, please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

So, you came to the weakest Clan, and you picked the weakest guy in the weakest Clan, and you said, you're gonna save Israel. What he's saying, right? Gideon knew that if you were gonna look out for the most likely candidate. To save Israel. It's not him. It's not even anyone in his clan.

Yeah, it like they, they picked the wrong group. Peter, the same thing. He. He, he, he says. When he saw the miracle, and you know, what's? Lot has gone, like, we don't necessarily see all that's happening behind the scenes, but I would read Peter's words as sarcastic here. That word used Master isn't the same as Lord, which is later in the passage.

Like, uh, like? All right, boss. All right Chief, you know, uh? So, this is a professional fisherman, right? He's fished all through the night. He's caught nothing, and Jesus says, put your net on the other side of the boat. Right, and he's like. Sir Chief, if you say so.

I'll put my net on the other side of the boat, you know, like that's more. What's going on here. It's like, he's not like, what? Oh, I believe that, you're an expert fisherman, and I'm gonna do what you said your word. I don't understand this, but I'll just do whatever you say because you've displayed your prowess, right?

That's not what's happening here, which is why he responds with depart. I'm a sinful man. It's because he was kind of with an eye roll, like all right Chief, I'll put the Nets on the other side of the boat. If you say that's going to be the way to do it.

And so his response. Is? Depart from me. I'm a sinful man. I had you wrong. Right? Paul. Right. Saint Paul is the other unworthy messenger that we read his letter to the church in Corinth today. And he says, I am the least of the Apostles. Unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God.

So, Paul, maybe, unlike Peter, who talked about his lack of personal Holiness, I'm a sinful man depart from me, right? Paul was crushing it in personal Holiness. He was nailing it, like by all the measures he was getting it done, right? He was a holy guy. He was zealous.

He was a Pharisee, and he was pretty good at being a Pharisee. He could handle his business. He had it down. And yet he was dreadfully wrong. And ended up being an enemy of Jesus and his people. So, notice this progression in the unworthy Messengers, right? We have one.

We have it starting with weakness with Gideon. Right, you have Peter, who lacks personal Holiness and seems to know it and saying things are happening that are beyond me here. And then you have Paul, who's a full-on enemy. Of Jesus. And the way. All of whom are chosen to be Messengers for this good news.

To be messengers of God. Good news and his might and his power to save. This is the principle of God's mercy all along in the old Covenant in the New Covenant, right? Deuteronomy 7, 7 reminds us, it's not because you were more in number. Than the other people. And then he reminds him.

It's not because of their righteousness. Know that the Lord's, your God in Deuteronomy 9-6, is not giving you this land to possess because of your righteousness. Because you are a stubborn people, right? You're not strong. And you're proud. Like, like, you have two strikes against you. You, first of all, you weren't strong.

Second of all, you weren't particularly humble about it, you were. You were stubborn, and you were weak, right? And, and so, I didn't pick you because you were the likely candidate. That's not why I gave you the land. This has always been what God's about, but here's the deal.

I think this is how it would always have been if the gospel is true because the deal is we have a worthy message. To be carried, and it's like. It's like if you were being if you're trying to find the right person to carry. To just like transport a killer whale from, like by hand from one ocean to another.

It's like the the it's just too big a job. There's there's no one worthy for the task, right? The the good news is so much so incredible and so mighty. This worthy message is so big that there wasn't anyone that you could find that would be worthy. And Gideon.

They didn't have anywhere near a. Understanding of the good news that was to come. But Saint Paul did when he wrote the letter, right? He had a he had a more full understanding and picture. And so he tells this story of what? Wow, look at this message. Look what the message is.

And he talks about Jesus death, resurrection, and Ascension. You know when, when, when the gospel? Is giving out or summarized in the scriptures. It's all about the story of Jesus death, Resurrection, and Ascension. Sometimes we're tempted to think the gospel is about. Forgiveness of sins for Sinners, and it is about that.

But when the gospel is summarized in the scriptures, it's always about the story of Jesus, and it's about his word. It's more than the Forgiveness of sins. It's about his death, Resurrection, Ascension. It's why the first four books of the New Testament were named by the Church of the gospel.

The gospel is about the story of Jesus conquering sin and death and evil. So he tells the story of Jesus and what he's done and how God created the world and and God called it good. You guys know this story, and God made all that is, and all of it was good.

And then the people fell into sin and evil, and they turned away from God. And ever since then, all of them were weak and Unholy and unworthy.

Good news that Heaven and Earth have come together. He did Miracles. He demonstrated the good news that Heaven and Earth have come together as one. He died on the cross for our sins. He rose again and conquered death and evil. He reigns is King now. In heaven, where he'll return from where he'll return to judge the living in the dead, you guys know the story.

We Proclaim it every time we say the Creed, right? And we're going to see this kind of cosmic story that Saint Paul applies to himself in these verses 8 through 11, the second part of the reading, right. He applies them to himself, he says. This is like about this is my story, too.

This Cosmic story is my story. I'm unworthy to be called an apostle. But by Grace, I've been made who I am, right? See if the gospel is true. Messengers are going to be unworthy. There's no one else to find. If it's true that it's Humanity, we've taken the life that Jesus has given us.

He breathes air into our lungs as we sit here. And we've used that to rebel against him, and all of us have done that, and that he. Set up a way and and came on a rescue mission in the person of the Sun to. Break the power of death to break the power of sin and evil to forgive all our sins and to reconcile us to God.

If this is true, there's no worthy Messengers to tell that story. There's no one worthy, and so God finds people that aren't. And he makes them worthy. He transforms them. He calls them by a new name. See God's grace becomes the fuel for unworthy people to give this worthy message, right?

I, I always I find it really fascinating that Gideon, right, at the beginning of this passage. Is addressed as Mighty Man of Valor. God comes to him and says. Mighty Man of Valor. And. Nothing's changed about Gideon yet. Right? Nothing's changed. He's still the weakest guy from the weakest tribe.

And God is announcing to him. You're a mighty man of Valor. Because God's calling him who he will be. By its Grace, how's that? For the sermon guys, listen, God calls you what he's going to make you. Before you are that. God calls Gideon, the Mighty Man of Valor before.

He is a mighty man of Valor. Because he's going to transform him. He's going to make him new. You know, fascinating things happening here that we might miss. Is that Gideon isn't understanding that he's talking, that he's in the yahweh's presence? Even as Yahweh has said, I will be with you.

Right, Gideon doesn't really know who's talking yet. He doesn't figure that out till the end when he says, oh, no, I'm gonna die. I just saw the Lord face to face. But in, in verses 15 to 16, when he says I will be with you. It's like. He, he doesn't know he's talking to.

Yet, he hasn't figured it out yet. So, he says, what do you mean, you know, that I'm a mighty man of Valor, he says? With you. It okay, great. But I don't know what, like? I don't know who you are, but we're gonna need more people like you. If we're gonna go, uh, if we're gonna go, save Israel, right?

And he doesn't figure it out to the end that the end of the, at the end of the reading, where he realized, oh wow, I've seen the angel of the Lord. I've seen the Lord face to face, right? Is that God's presence is with him, but when he gets scared because he realizes he's seen the Lord face to face the Lord said to him, peace be to you?

Do not fear, you shall not die. Right? Hope comes for him and for us in the fact that the Lord is with him. But it's not simply his presence. It's his presence to bless. It's his presence to restore. It's his presence to make new. He says so, it's just God being with you.

Wouldn't always be great news. Gideon found out the Lord was with them and started freaking out. Like, I'm definitely going to die. I just saw the Lord right and but, but the Lord reminds him of and reassures him with is that I'm here. I'm here to bless you. And I'm here to make new, and I'm here to bring restoration in life.

Peter is told. From now on, you will fish for men. Right? When he says, depart from me, I'm a sinful man, he says. From now on, you will fish for men. And then a lot of the rest of the story of the gospels is has a lot to do with Jesus Peter's transformation into becoming the type of one that will fish for men.

You know, what's so funny this morning? Morning prayer reading was Jesus, like, remix of this miracle. So it's in the end of the Gospel of John after his resurrection. So after his resurrection, he does this miracle the remix? But what's happening is Peter is just failed. He's just completely failed to be the type of person that's going to fish for men.

He's denied Jesus, you know, he's denied Jesus three times all that's gone down. He's going fishing. He's not fishing for men. He's fishing for fish and Jesus. Does this miracle the remix to restore him to the person he caught, he said. No, you really are going to be fishing for men.

He has that whole, you guys know, the story that whole threefold. Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me three times because he denied him him?

Knew Jesus? You will fish for men. I will restore you. I will make you new, and this is what I do with unworthy Messengers. Why? Because if he didn't pick unworthy Messengers, there's no one to pick.

Saul's conversion took place. While he was still breathing out murderous threats against the church. Doesn't get much worse than that, right? You think, like, hey, I'm unworthy. Have you breathed out murderous threats against the church? Lately, you know, have you are you on your way to murder people because they proclaim the name of Jesus?

That was Paul's story. When he was still Saul right until God transformed him. And made him new. The fuel of these unworthy Messengers being made Proclaimers of the Gospel or the good news. Is Grace? It's God's presence to bless us. It's God's presence Among Us to make us new.

And to bless us. So we, we get to Proclaim. This good news, this message, even though we are an unworthy Messengers, because we have God's presence with us. And he expresses that Grace to us in our Union with him in baptism. When we're baptized into his family. In our reception of the Holy Spirit.

When we receive the Holy Spirit at our baptism in our continual participation in Jesus body and blood in the Eucharist in our receiving of the laying on of hands. When we pray for healing prayer, we experience God's presence Among Us to continually bless us. Also experience God's presence Among Us so that we might Proclaim that blessing.

To others. Unworthy Messengers because those are the only Messengers God has. Right, we've been given an incredible message to share. Although we participated in sin and evil, just like everybody else. God gives us a new name. And he makes this new people. He's present with us. His presence with us is here to bless us rather than to condemn us.

Jesus died for us, reconciled us to his father, and set us free. This message is so wonderful and we're unworthy Messengers, right? Each of us could find a hundred people better suited than us to share the good news. We're weak, we're distracted, we're sinful. But God gives us Grace to be messengers of good news.

That God transforms us. God can set us free. God can heal us. God can forgive our sins, and God can set us up to be Messengers of that. Good news, so we may we take seriously the call. To Proclaim good news. May we unworthy Messengers because God's given us a new name?

Proclaim the glory of God. Amen.