Fifth Sunday after Trinity

Opening Prayer

O LORD our God, who speakest still to thy people through thy holy Word, open thou our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Quiet in us every restless and anxious thought, that we may hear thy voice with meekness and gladness. Give us grace to receive what thou dost show us, and courage to follow where thou dost lead. Knit us together in love as we read, that what each receives may become the portion of all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

The Texts Before Us

We are deep in Trinity Season now, the long green stretch of the year given to growth in the ordinary life of grace. This Sunday’s readings trace a single movement of the soul. A king builds everything a man can build and finds his hands still empty. A psalmist stops striving and learns to wait, then to thirst, for the God who alone satisfies. An apostle describes the quiet, blessing-shaped life of a people who have ceased to grasp. And at the lakeside, after a night of empty nets, the Lord himself steps into a working man’s boat and fills it past breaking. Emptiness, it seems, is where he likes to begin.

Reading and Reflection

Old Testament Lesson · Eccl. 2:1-11, 18-23

1 I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity. 2 I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? 3 I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. 4 I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: 5 I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: 6 I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees: 7 I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: 8 I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. 9 So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. 18 Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. 19 And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity. 20 Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun. 21 For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22 For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun? 23 For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

The Preacher speaks as a king who ran the great experiment to its end: pleasure, wine, houses, gardens, servants, silver, song. His verdict is not that these things are wicked but that they are vapor. The word rendered vanity means a breath, something that cannot be gripped. Notice the boundary phrase under the sun, which marks the limit of the experiment. Within that horizon even wisdom’s labor turns bitter, for it must all be left to another. Ecclesiastes clears the ground; it does not yet plant.

1. The experiment moves from pleasure taken to work accomplished to the thought of an heir. What changes in the Preacher’s tone at each stage, and why might the inheritance grieve him most?
2. What does the phrase under the sun include, and what does it deliberately leave out of view?

The Psalm · Psalm 62; 63

MY soul truly waiteth still upon God; * for of him cometh my salvation. 2 He verily is my strength and my salvation; * he is my defence, so that I shall not greatly fall. 3 How long will ye imagine mischief against every man? * Ye shall be slain all the sort of you; yea, as a tottering wall shall ye be, and like a broken hedge. 4 Their device is only how to put him out whom God will exalt; * their delight is in lies; they give good words with their mouth, but curse with their heart. 5 Nevertheless, my soul, wait thou still upon God; * for my hope is in him. 6 He truly is my strength and my salvation; * he is my defence, so that I shall not fall. 7 In God is my health and my glory; * the rock of my might; and in God is my trust. 8 O put your trust in him alway, ye people; * pour out your hearts before him, for God is our hope. 9 As for the children of men, they are but vanity; the children of men are deceitful; * upon the weights they are altogether lighter than vanity itself. 10 O trust not in wrong and robbery; give not your-selves unto vanity: * if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. 11 God spake once, and twice I have also heard the same, * that power belongeth unto God; 12 And that thou, Lord, art merciful; * for thou reward-est every man according to his work. O GOD, thou art my God; * early will I seek thee. 2 My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh also longeth after thee, * in a barren and dry land where no water is. 3 Thus have I looked for thee in the sanctuary, * that I might behold thy power and glory. 4 For thy loving-kindness is better than the life itself: * my lips shall praise thee. 5 As long as I live will I magnify thee in this manner, * and lift up my hands in thy Name. 6 My soul shall be satisfied, even as it were with marrow and fatness, * when my mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips. 7 Have I not remembered thee in my bed, * and thought upon thee when I was waking? 8 Because thou hast been my helper; * therefore under the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. 9 My soul hangeth upon thee; * thy right hand hath upholden me. 10 These also that seek the hurt of my soul, * they shall go under the earth. 11 Let them fall upon the edge of the sword, * that they may be a portion for foxes. 12 But the King shall rejoice in God; all they also that swear by him shall be commended; * for the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

The Psalter sets two psalms side by side as one prayer. In the first, the soul waits still upon God while men of lies press in; Coverdale’s line that the children of men are lighter than vanity itself answers Ecclesiastes with its own word. In the second, waiting has become thirst, and thirst is met with marrow and fatness, the language of a feast. Between them the psalms trace how emptiness, honestly kept before God, turns into desire, and desire into satisfaction that no labor under the sun could earn.

1. The psalmist tells his own soul to wait still upon God. What is the difference between that stillness and simply giving up?
2. Psalm 63 remembers God in the night watches and seeks him early. What do those particular hours have to do with how desire for God is formed?

Epistle · 1 St. Peter 3:8-15a

BE ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.

St. Peter writes to scattered Christians who could not control their circumstances, and he gives them a common life instead: one mind, compassion, love as brethren, pity, courtesy. The center of the passage is an exchange, blessing rendered where evil and railing were received, because blessing is what they are called to inherit. His quotation of the thirty-fourth Psalm grounds this in Israel’s old wisdom. The final charge, to sanctify the Lord God in the heart, sets a throne within, where fear of man once ruled.

1. Peter says the Christians were called to bless so that they should inherit a blessing. How does an heir behave differently from a man who must seize what he wants?
2. What would it look like, practically, to sanctify the Lord God in your heart in a week when you were being wronged?

Gospel · St. Luke 5:1-11

AND it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: and so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.

St. Luke gives us the Gospel scene the collect and psalms have prepared. Simon has labored all night under the sun and taken nothing; Ecclesiastes could have written his report. Christ first borrows the empty boat as a pulpit, then commands the deep water and fills the nets until they break. Peter’s response is not delight but dread, the confession of a sinful man before holiness. The Lord’s answer, Fear not, does not dismiss the confession; it answers it with a calling. The filled are immediately sent, and they leave the catch on the shore.

1. Simon says, we have toiled all the night, and taken nothing, and then, nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. What carries him across that nevertheless?
2. Why does the miracle produce fear in Peter rather than joy, and why does Jesus meet that fear with a vocation rather than a reassurance?

Connecting the Texts

Read together, these texts press one thing upon the Church: fullness is received at Christ’s word, never wrung from our own toil. The Preacher proves the point negatively, having built everything and kept nothing. The psalmist learns it in the school of waiting, where emptiness becomes thirst and thirst is fed. Peter’s little churches live it corporately, blessing because they are heirs and need not grasp. And at Gennesaret the lesson takes flesh: the Lord enters the very boat that failed all night, fills it beyond what it can hold, and then gives the fisherman a work that will outlast the sun. What labor could not secure, grace gives, and then employs.

For the Coming Week

Consider taking one piece of your own labor, the work that most tempts you to say this is my portion, and naming it before God in prayer as a breath, asking him to fill what it cannot. There is an old practice of praying the sixty-third Psalm at first waking, before the day’s toil begins; one might try it each morning this week and notice what early seeking does to the rest of the day. And when a task this week has already failed once, remember Simon’s nevertheless at thy word, and let down the net once more.

Closing Prayer

WE thank thee, O Lord, for thy holy Word, which thou hast opened to us this day, and for the fellowship of those with whom we have read it. Let what we have heard take root in quiet hearts and bear fruit in godly living. Keep us, our households, and thy whole Church under the shadow of thy wings, that waiting upon thee we may never be confounded; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory in the Church throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.