In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

One of my favourite movies is The Matrix which came out in 1999. It is a futuristic science fiction movie where the world has been taken over by computers. The computers need energy that comes from human bodies so they keep a supply of  humans in a comatose state. The computers then create an imaginary world for these comatose humans. This imaginary world is the Matrix. In the Matrix, people think themselves free and conscious, going about there business, living normal lives.

Early in the film we find the character “Neo” awakening to the truth that the world in which he inhabits is a computer generated illusion. He experiences doubts about the way things are, doubts which act like a splinter in his mind, making him feel uncomfortable. Then he is introduced to the character Morpheus who offers Neo the chance to see the truth. Morphesus holds out two pills. The blue pill is a medication that will blur over the pain of Neo’s doubts. Swallow the blue pill and Neo will be comfortably back in the Matrix. Or he can take the red pill, which will open his mind to the truth of his reality.

As you can surmise the character Neo takes the red pill and the movie takes off from there. Now the movie in many respects is a modern day parable full of philosophical and religious themes and questions. At the heart of the movie is the question, “what sort of world do we live in? And central to understanding this question is the notion of “worldview”
We all have a worldview, whether we have thought about it or not. We acquire one simply through the process of growing up. Our worldview is not only our image of reality, but it also a lens through which we see the world. So I put the Matrix question to you. What sort of world do you live in? Is it a world in which “what you see is what you get?” Where the only things that exist or are real is that which you can know through your senses, the world of matter and energy.

Or do we live in a world in which the things we call real, matter and energy, are like a veil that is drawn over those things that are down, deep, the most real of the real. T o use the philosopher William James generic term for God or the sacred, “Is there a ‘More’ ?

Now the fact that you are sitting here this morning would indicate that your worldview includes a ‘More’, a sense of the sacred and the divine. But we must acknowledge that over the last three centuries these two worldviews which I have described have collided in our Western culture. The modern worldview, or the what you see is what you get worldview, has no place for God. (God delusion)

This was my worldview when I was in my late teens and early twenties. For me, the only things that existed were those things that surrounded me. But I didn’t find this worldview very satisfying. Questions and doubts, like Neo’s splinter of the mind, continued to nag at me until one evening I encountered the ‘More’, the unconditioned, the sacred, the divine and my life has not been the same since.
My life since then has been an effort to understand more deeply what or who I encountered that one night. Perhaps your story is similar to mine. And maybe it is totally different. Either way, each of us have had an encounter with the ‘More’, the unconditioned, the sacred, the divine, God. For at the heart of Christianity is God. Without a sense of the reality of God, Christianity makes no sense.

And just as important, is how we see God, how we think of God and how we speak of God because this encounter has shaped and continues to shape our worldview and how we see reality. We are human, however, and so we cannot speak of God. And yet it is this encounter with the ‘More” or God that we find described, spoken of, in our reading from Isaiah and the gospel of Luke – the strange world of the Bible.

Both readings are filled with symbolism because this is the only way that one can describe an encounter with the Divine. In Isaiah, we find the prophet in the heavenly court before the Lord who is seated on the throne. Guarding the throne are seraphs, six winged creatures, who are calling to one another.

In our reading from Luke, the setting is more mundane on the shore of Lake Gennesaret. But is here that Simon Peter in the midst of an ordinary day of fishing encounters the divine in the person of Jesus Christ.

Notice the response by both Isaiah and Simon Peter in their encounter with the sacred – the Wholly Other.
Isaiah says, “Woe to me, I am ruined! For I a man of unclean lips”
Simon Peter says, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man.

The encounter with the divine forces them to recognize the holy in which they are present. Simon Peter falls on his knees in fear and Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid.” In the encounter with the divine they both recognize their humanness with all their failings, vulnerabilities and weaknesses. And yet they are accepted.

And so it is for each of us. We have encountered the “More’, the divine, the sacred, the wholly other, God. This encounter shapes our worldview and the way that we see the world and ourselves. We are human, we are creatures with all of our failings, vulnerabilities and weakness. And yet we are accepted.

However this is not the only truth found in our passages. Two ordinary people, Isaiah and Simon Peter encounter the divine but they are also called for a task. Isaiah to be a prophet and Simon Peter to be a disciple and so it is for each one of us as well. We have encountered the wholly other and have been called.
And that is part of the reason that we gather together on Sundays. To renew our awareness of the wonder of Jesus call’ in our lives.

We gather as those who have left, if not everything, much that we once loved behind in order to love and follow the Christ. Today, we meditate on the mystery of the divine encounter, made visible to us in bread and wine, in scripture read and in silence itself. Today we meditate on the mystery that Jesus the Christ intrudes into each of our lives and gives us a new name – disciple.
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.