08.02.04 Steve
Reprioritisation - Isaiah
6: 1-8, Luke 5:1-11
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I
enjoyed reading about a remarkable woman this week.
Eleanor Strugnell was born into a poor family in Oxfordshire on January 31 1887. At birth she was so weak and tiny that her parents laid her in an empty shoe-box beside a wood stove to keep her warm until death released her. But young Eleanor went on to attend a local school and to qualify as a teacher. In 1920 she was accepted by the South American Missionary Society and sent to teach in an orphanage in Argentina. Within a few years she moved to Chile, where she learned the language of the Mapuche, one of the most tenacious of the Indian tribes, among whom she lived in humble style.
An eccentric and redoubtable character, Strugnell devoted her life to the poor and downtrodden of SouthAmerica. Her nickname "Granny Struggles", was derived partly from her name, partly from her indefatigability and partly from a line in her favourite hymn: "Jesus knows of all our struggles."
In term-time she taught at local mission schools and in the summer months rode to the more remote villages, vigorously haranguing the natives about hygiene and the Scriptures. In 1941 (aged 54) she married Canon William "Daddy" Wilson, a retired medical missionary much older than herself, whom she inspired to return to missionary work. Together they travelled the country in a converted bullock cart loaded with medical supplies, Bibles, and a battery-powered magic lantern with which she showed both health education and Christian material. After her husband's death she reverted to travelling by horse, struggling through mud and fording fierce rivers. In her eighties "Granny Struggles" began teaching English conversation at Tamuco University, while still visiting the villages in her spare time. At the age of 90 she finally accepted that her riding days were over, but persuaded her students to let her ride pillion on their motor-cycles. She continued to be active until finally disabled by a stroke. In her latter days, though virtually speechless, she still sought to convert the susceptible to Christianity by asking them to read aloud appropriate Biblical passages. After reaching the age of 100 "Granny Struggles" finally lost all power of speech. On receiving her congratulatory telegram from the Queen, though, she found the power to exclaim: "La-la-la!". She died aged 106 at Concepcion, Chile, the oldest member of the South American Missionary Society.
On the basis of these few facts, it seems a life remarkable in the inglorious anonimity of her life of service. Like the prophet Isaiah, and like Peter, she must have had some encounter with the God of love - some sense that the God we have encountered is so magnificent, or present, or loving, or beautiful - that it compelled her to respond. The response, like all authentic human response, involved an overhaul of her priorities. I imagine that Granny Struggles was a good example of someone who let very little convention stand in the way of her priorities.
In contrast to the noble achievements of Granny Struggles - In 1989, after about five years of very hard work, my musical colleagues and I achieved our goal of getting a record deal with a big record company. That had been the goal we'd struggled for - that we'd had to be single minded about and determined about during some of the most energetic years of our lives. And finally it came about. A very respectable amount of Richard Branson's money was going to give us the backing we needed to launch our music careers. Infact what happened in the following two or three years was that we found ourselves with a much bigger struggle, which can be summed up in a word - prioritisation. At any one moment in the music business it's very difficult to get yourself prioritised at the marketing department, at the radio promotion department, at the radio station playlist, in the minds of the music consumer, in the vans of the distribution department, in the very short attention span of the record buyers at the stores. Without any of that prioritisation you were stuffed - and without some stroke of luck you were'nt going to smell of money, so you were'nt going to be prioritised. That's the way the commercial world goes round.
But our whole lives might be described as a continuous process of prioritisation. How we choose to prioritise our time, energy and money defines who we are. Some people in the world have the simple priority of finding enough to eat. Some of us have the fabulous luxury of prioritising many options about our life choices.
For us who would be serious about being God's people the endless challenge of prioritising is an exciting, and life-defining agenda.
Today's readings may be seen as stories of reprioritisation.
Isaiah famously rose to the bewildering challenge that God was challenging him to be a prophet. All of us are familiar with that kind of feeling - those moments when, bewilderingly, it's apparently only you that see what needs done - 'why doesn't someone do this?' - (maybe helping someone with special needs who's trying to get the right bus - or caring for a relative - or joining the board of a voluntary agency - 'why doesn't someone do this?'. Like the prophet we might need to remember that this is how the divine calling can come - and say bewildered 'here I am, Lord, send me'.
'Go away from me Lord' says Peter after the miraculous catch, 'I am a sinful man'. And we all feel like that too - 'how did I get myself into this religious commitment?'. Perhaps, like me, you sometimes find yourself surprised to find yourself here - or amazed that you're still here after many years. But still, somehow we hear the call of Jesus - 'follow me' - 'reprioritise your life choices'.
I'll end with three suggestions about how the story in Luke 5 encourages us to find new priorities:
1. By having eyes to see - Jesus looks out across the Sea of Galilee and he sees a shoal of fish. The world is full of miracles for the eye that sees - opportunities - possibilities - needs - that God can give us eyes to see.
2. By remembering that reprioritising our lives for God may require commitment, effort and sometimes really hard work. If Jesus said it, then, tired as he was, Peter was prepared to try again. We all have gifts, talents, skills, experience and the only meaningful way to offer them to God is with all the commitment required by anything worthwhile. I've always been struck by the Closing Responses at the end of Morning Prayer in Iona Abbey - "This is the day that the Lord has made, We will rejoice and be glad in it - We will not offer to God, offerings that cost us nothing".
3. By having the heart sometimes to attempt what might seem impossible. "I can see this needs done, but I couldn't possibly do it". Peter, James and John were so struck by their encounter with Jesus that they felt able to attempt the impossible/improbable.
'Don't be afraid, from now on you will be catching people'. The Greek word for 'catching' here is zogron - used of a teacher 'catching' up the minds and lives of his/her student, so that (as education was understood to do) they are brought to a 'new life'.
Isaiah 6:8 - Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said 'Here am I; send me"