Depression is a serious and debilitating disease. It’s a disease that
is quite common and widespread. Now I have absolutely no expertise
whatsoever in medical matters. But it would appear to me that
depression can result from many and varied factors: the death of a
loved one, one’s own bad health, physical or mental trauma, loss of a
job, failure of a business, pressure in school, financial
difficulties, burnout, a feeling of guilt, a feeling of failure as a
human being. And these last two make an appearance in the Scriptures
today.

Isaiah has this vision of the majesty and the glory of God. All the
earth is filled with his glory. And, in the light of this vision, he
sees himself as useless and worthless. “Woe, woe is me. I am doomed.
I am a man of unclean lips.” Simon Peter is a fisherman. He knows
his job. He has been doing it for years. But with all his expertise,
he fails to catch any fish, even though he and his crew have worked
hard all night. And then along comes a carpenter, telling him how to
do his job. The amazing thing to me is that he listens, and indeed,
actually follows the advice, and is successful. Now you would expect
him to be doing a joyous dance along the shore, with so many fish.
But he is thrown, at least temporarily, into depression. “I am a
sinful man. Leave me.” A terrible feeling of unworthiness comes over
him. He says, “Just leave me alone.... Just leave me alone.”

Well, subsequently, what happened to Isaiah? He had the experience of
an angel, touching those lips that he himself had considered unclean,
and heard the voice of the angel say, “Your wickedness is removed.
Your sin is purged.” And indeed, he heard the voice say that he was
now trusted to carry the message of hope to others. And this lifted
him up out of his sense of unworthiness, out of his depression and,
full of confidence now, knowing that God trusts him, he can cry out,
“I’m your man! Send me.”

What happened to Simon Peter? Something similar. He first felt his
own inadequacies, his own failures. But he is heartened by the words
of Jesus, “Do not be afraid.... Do not be afraid. From now on, you
will be catching men.” He realized that, in spite of his personal
failures, Jesus saw some good in him, recognized his potential for
greatness. And this realization on the part of Peter helped him to
understand that, if he trusted in Jesus he would not be a total
failure, indeed, that his life would now have real, real purpose.

Of all the people in the New Testament, Paul would seem to be the
most likely candidate for depression. He got in a huge row with Peter
and he called Peter a hypocrit. His friend, Mark, left him high and
dry. Well, let’s listen to his own words... In II Corinthians, he
says, “Five times at the hands of the Jews, I received forty lashes,
less one. Three times, I was beaten with rods. I was stoned once,
shipwrecked three times. I passed a day and night on the sea. I
travel continually, endangered by floods, robbers and my own people,
the Gentiles. I was imperiled in the city, in the desert, at sea, by
false brothers and, during labor, hardship, many sleepless nights, in
hunger and thirst and frequent fastings, in cold and nakedness. And
leaving other sufferings unmentioned, there is that daily tension
pressing on me, my anxiety for all the churches.” And his anxiety was
well-founded because they were always fighting, these churches. Most
of his letters are written to try to settle up some disputes in the
communities that he was writing to. And, finally he says, confessing
his own deep sense of guilt, “I am the least of the Apostles, and,
because I persecuted the Church of God, I do not even deserve the
name but, by God’s favor, I am what I am.”

“I am what I am.” Powerful, powerful words, words I think we should
make our own. I am what I am. You are what you are. And what is that?
It’s a person created in the image and likeness of God, loved by
God, redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus, called by God
to spread the good news to the whole world, and finally to share with
the saints in glory. You are what you are. And all of this, in spite
of human weakness, inadequacies. I am a man of unclean lips. In spite
of personal failure, “We have fished all night and caught nothing. In
spite of personal sin, “I have persecuted the Church of God.” Yes, we
acknowledge our human weakness, our sinfulness even, our
unsuitability to be instruments of God’s mercy and love and, at the
same time, we realize the power to change that lies within us, the
potential to do good that lies within us. Jesus believes that people
have a future, not a past. He believes in us. He believes in you and
me. And this surely must give us the courage, the confidence to
believe in ourselves and to face all the difficulties of life with a
deep peace that only Jesus can bring to the human spirit. Amen.