In today’s Old Testament reading (Isaiah 6:1-8) we hear God inviting Isaiah to take up his prophetic mission.  In the first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:1-11), Paul talks about how compelled he feels to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.  And in today’s Gospel (Luke 5:1-11) we hear Jesus calling Peter to join him in his mission to bring forth the Kingdom of God.

For me the common thread that I see in these scripture passages is that all of these individuals – Isaiah, Paul, and Peter – struggle with their “unworthiness” and see their sinfulness as a stumbling block to accepting God’s invitation.

Sometimes it can be the same for us.  Sometimes when we hear God calling us to come close to him, we are hesitant, and maybe even shrink away, because we think we might not be worthy.  Sometimes, the recognition that we are not perfect, that we are flawed creatures, presents a stumbling block to us in our efforts to respond to God’s invitation to draw closer to him.  Sometimes our recognition that we don’t always live up to the holy lives that we are called to makes us uncomfortable in proclaiming our faith and the good news of Jesus Christ.

Just think about today’s scripture.

When he found himself in God’s presence, Isaiah felt totally unworthy due to his “unclean” living.  His feeling of unworthiness brought him to the point of feeling “doomed”.  And yet, because Isaiah remained open to God’s “touch”, he ended up accepting God’s invitation and went on to become the greatest of prophets.

Paul tells the Corinthians that even well after his conversion experience, he still feels so unworthy, to the point that he insists that he is “not fit to be called an apostle”.  But Paul also tells us that it was only by his openness to God’s grace that he became effective in his mission to proclaim the gospel far and wide.  And of course we know that Paul became one of our church’s greatest evangelizers and theologians.

And think about Peter – when first called by Christ at the shores of Lake Gennesaret, he pleaded for Jesus to leave him alone due to his sinfulness.  And yet Peter became “the rock”, the foundation of our church.

And so we are left asking – how were these three men so transformed?  How did they go from shrinking in their perceived unworthiness, to boldly proclaiming God’s good news?

And the answer is simple  – it was by the grace of God.

And it is the same for us.

We don’t need to wallow in our “unworthiness”.  We have a loving God who wants us to realize how special we are as his children.  He wants us to know that even though we are flawed, we can still approach Him in response to his invitation to enter into relationship with him.  Jesus says to Peter –  “do not be afraid”.  Jesus says those same words to us.  We do not ever need to fear our God.  He loves us way too much for that.  Even in our sinfulness Jesus extends an open invitation for us to humbly approach him and to be transformed by him.

And this invitation is there for us no matter how much we stumble or how far we stray.  Jesus is always there for us inviting us back.

So like Isaiah, Paul, Peter, and so many others before us, we remain open to God’s transforming grace and we allow God to work in us and through us as we strive to live the life he calls us to. And we have nothing to fear, because God loves us that much.