In the Name…
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you all from God the
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and
love. (2 Jn 1)
Who speaks to you saying,
“But at your word I will let down the nets.”
It is at this point in the game, that St. Peter mistakes the
“word” for only those things that are spoken, written, or taught. It is not in
the furthest corner of his mind that it could be anything else. You agree with
him and who could blame you? English translations of the Bible have been
pushing this point since forever.
The point being that when we think or hear “the word of the
Lord”, we have been programmed to think only of lectures, or commands, or
sermons. Verses from the Bible such as Luke 22:61-62,
“The Lord turned and
looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told
him, ‘Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.’ And he went
out and wept bitterly.”
It appears as if St. Peter is there remembering only the
words Jesus spoke to him and refers to them as “the word of the Lord”. Also in
Acts 11:16,
“And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John
baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’” Here
we are shown the truth that the Bible is the word of the Lord and that hearing
it, you hear God speak to you.
Of course we believe that the Bible is God’s Word, that He
does use it to speak to any and everyone, and it is the only way that God
speaks to people. In fact, this is so true, that if someone were to claim that
God told them something and its not in the Bible, you would be correct in
condemning them and saying they had a demon. You wouldn’t make them your friend
by saying it, but you could do that and be right, if you wanted to.
The problem we run into is when we turn to the Old Testament
and find men speaking seemingly whatever they want and calling it God’s Word,
in both good and bad ways. As in true prophets and false prophets. Both say
they speak with the word of the Lord and both claim authority by it. A real
prophet was even punished for believing a false prophet! (1 Kings 13).
The difference between them is how they receive the word of
the Lord in the first place. The false prophets receive it by chicanery,
sorcery, or some other mediating spirit. For the true prophets, the Word of the
Lord comes to them directly.
Now, you start to think telepathy or direct God download, or
something like that. The problem is it is impossible to tell who has God’s Word
and who doesn’t, at this point. Both claim the same things. On top of that, you
don’t know who’s telling the truth until the events predicted come to pass. And
while there’s always time for repentance, don’t you think we ought to be able
to tell who’s speaking truth right away?
We should. And we can. But we don’t. Our sin-fancy is
tickled when we hear someone speaking powerfully, agreeing with us, and saying
God said it to them. We fall in line when they quote one verse of the Bible. We
make excuses for these hooligans claiming to speak for God, saying “at least
they are decent” or “what they're saying isn’t wrong”.
Repent. You are St. Peter who laughs at Jesus as Sarah did
when God said she would birth a son at 90 years of age. At Jesus speaking to
him directly, St. Peter mocks and back-talks like a 10 year old, “UGH, but we
fished all night and didn’t get anything. Why do I gotta do it again??”
St. Peter acts this way because he is facing a man, his
equal (Ps 55:13). St. Peter and you have this idea in your head that God is
everywhere, which usually means He’s not paying attention to me and I can get
away with stuff. You say in a similar thought, that there are angels among us,
but you don’t mean actual angels, you mean helpful people.
In sin we want heaven and earth separated. We function best
that way. If heaven is up there, I can do my “heaven thing” every now and then:
go to church, give thanks, maybe even pray. If heaven is way up there, I can
also accomplish my earthly things without worry. God’s not breathing down my
neck every second, causing strife, as others believe.
What we are getting at is a couple verses before our Old
Testament reading, 1 Kings 19:9,
“And behold, the word of the Lord came to”
Elijah. In our reading, Elijah was not remembering God’s words to him neither
was he listening to a speech. The Word of the Lord came to Elijah the same way
the Word of the Lord came to St. Peter: in his face.
This is the way Christ calls His Apostles and His prophets.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Jonah, Micah, and Zephaniah. Nathan,
Samuel, and many others all had the Word of the Lord come to them and tell them
to preach to the people. What were they commanded to preach? “My Word”, said
God. Not just “my words”, but my Word: the only begotten Son of God.
Psalm 33:4 says,
“the word of the Lord is upright; and
all his works are done in faith”. There is only one Who is Upright. All
others have sinned. Isaiah 26:7, “
The path of the righteous is level; You,
the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.” And Faith, we know
is a gift from God alone, for it comes by hearing His Gospel.
The Lord is upright and faithful. He comes that His Word may
go out to all nations and His sound out to all lands. He has a work to
accomplish that cannot be done by man, for man is dead in sin. And what does
uprightness have to do with unrighteousness anyway, asks (2 Cor. 6:14)?
Nothing.
Nothing, until the Christ was made man. At that point, the
unrighteousness of man became the Upright One’s number one priority as He now
had a personal stake in the game. He was being upright on His own two feet, if
you please. But this should not be a surprise. He was already seen walking in
Eden with Adam and Eve and you need feet and legs to do that.
So the Word became flesh and walked among His own once more,
even though He remembered His words to Jeremiah in 6:10,
“behold, the word
of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.” Even
though the Word has authority. Even though the Word has power. Even though the
Word is full of merciful kindness, He is a reproach.
He is a disappointment to those in sin. Jesus comes as the
Word made flesh, hiding His divine power so that He doesn’t destroy everything,
and He disappoints. Not only is there no strong winds to tear mountains, or
earthquakes to signal His presence, or fires, or low whispers, but He looks
just like you. Which means, in our sinful minds, unable to do anything about
the state of the world.
And yet, the Word stands and He stands forever (1 Pet 1:25).
He does not just stand in front of St. Peter, but He stands up even after He is
murdered. He does not just stand in power, but He will stand on the Last Day,
alive.
So after the appropriate amount of time, the Word of the
Lord comes to St. Peter and, in usual fashion, gives him some words. And in
spite of St. Peter’s sinful sass, the Word remains, and the fish return to the
waters, and faith is restored on earth.
In the Word made flesh, the earthly world is unified with
the heavenly. God is not just “everywhere”, but now He locates Himself in
Christ, just for you. There are not just humans acting like angels among us,
but the King of Angels Himself commands actual angels to guard and protect our
spirits and our bodies.
When
“The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter
remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, ‘Before a rooster crows
today, you will deny Me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly”,
St. Peter was not just remembering words. He was remembering a man, the Word of
the Lord, and how he had just denied Him three times, to His death. That is the
impact on St. Peter and the cause of his bitter weeping.
This is all because the most offensive thing in the world is
God daring to appear in the flesh. And because God appears in the flesh, the
most offensive thing in Church is His Body and Blood on the Altar.
Nevertheless, the Word Made Flesh continues to go to Church.
The Word of the Lord continues to come to you, as He did with His prophets, to
inform you that He is casting His nets to catch you with the forgiveness of
sins.
This is why St. Peter calls you all a royal priesthood,
earlier in his epistle heard today. Because in your hands and on your lips you
take hold of the Word of the Lord, proclaiming to all the world, “Thus saith
the Lord” for the forgiveness of all your sins.
For a true prophet is known by having the Body and Blood of
Christ in his possession.
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