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June 7, 2009—Trinity Sunday

Lectionary Texts: Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17

Sermon Text: Isaiah 6:1-13

Where the Spirit of the Lord Is, We are Called

The prophet Isaiah came to the Israelite people with the words of God: words of betrayal and destruction and words of hope and love. His words convey for us thousands of years later the relationship between the mighty God of Israel and the people God had set aside as God’s own.

Our passage is significant for understanding who Isaiah was and how he began his extraordinary task as God’s mouthpiece to the Israelite people. In chapter six, we learn a few things about Isaiah and his life. In the year that King Uzziah died, there was a significant shift in the life of Israel and her people. Up until now, Israel had been a relatively independent nation, a small nation amongst some of the most powerful. Once King Uzziah died, however, Israel began to live under the constant threat of Assyrian domination.

It was in the midst of this situation that Isaiah finds himself on the way to the Temple for worship. This simple act of going to worship was not uncommon for Isaiah. The Israelites had been coming to the Temple since the days of King Solomon, this place of worship was the center of their lives. They came to bring sacrifices, to seek the will of God, to consult with the priests, and to bring praise to the God who watched over and cared for His people.

I often wonder if Isaiah knew that something was different about this day, about this trip to the Temple.

As he was walking through the streets of Jerusalem, did he know that he would encounter God on this day?

As Isaiah enters the Temple and bows in worship, he has a vision. His vision is different from Ezekiel’s vision: Ezekiel was transported to the valley of dry bones. In Isaiah’s vision, it is as though the roof of the Temple is peeled back and he is transported into the heavenly throne room. He sees the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted. He sees seraphs, creatures with six wings, flying about the room singing praises to God. The text suggests that these seraphs were not singing sweetly with angelic voices as we might think, but rather with booming voices, the seraphs shook the doorposts and thresholds and filled the Temple with smoke.

Watching the seraphs spend their moments praising the Lord, confronted with the holiness, awesomeness, and majesty of God, Isaiah sees clearly who he truly is. He cries aloud that he is a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips. In the presence of God, in the midst of worship, Isaiah understands that on his own, he is completely unworthy to be in the presence of the Lord.

Have you ever met someone famous? I’ve been trying to remember if I have ever truly been in the presence of someone famous. Any of us who have watched TV knows what kind of reactions people have when they meet someone famous. They fall all over themselves, stammer over their words, ask for pictures and autographs. They are in awe of this person, this human standing in front of them.

Perhaps you’ve seen the commercial with a young woman who is standing in an elevator on her way to work. Suddenly the elevator doors open; a gorgeous, beautifully dressed woman walks onto the elevator. We hear the young woman’s voice over the scene, “I was standing there, and in walked Mary J. Blige. I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to tell her how much I appreciate her and all that she does, how much I love her music, how much I wanted to be just like her.” But the woman is never able to open her mouth and speak to Ms. Blige, she is too enthralled with just being in her presence. The elevator doors open and Mary J. Blige walks out, just as the woman is raising her hand to get the star’s attention.

This young woman was so in awe of the music star that she couldn’t even open her mouth to utter a word. When we stand in the presence of someone famous, we begin to think about ourselves differently. Some times those thoughts are not always pleasant or easy to swallow. We start to think about how attractive she is, and how we are not. how talented he is, and how we are not. how wonderful she is, and how we are not.
In their presence, we seem to get a new perspective of who we are.

As we gather in worship each week, I have a hunch that we are probably supposed to have a similar experience. We may not have a clear vision like Isaiah did, but hopefully, we are brought, in some small way, into the presence of the Lord.

In those moments, we have an overwhelming sense of awe and wonder: we know that God is God and we are not. When we are brought into the presence of the Lord, we are confronted with our failures. We are confronted with all of the ways that we fall short. We may even cry out in the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Woe to me, for I am a person of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.”

This cry of woe was not the final word for the prophet Isaiah. As he cries out, one of the seraphs flies over to him with a live coal from the altar. The seraph touchs Isaiah’s mouth. With that touch, the seraph pronounces incredible words to Isaiah, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sins are atoned for.” Immediately after this cleansing, the voice of the Lord rings out to all of those gathered in the heavenly court, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Isaiah answers at once, “Here am I. Send me!” Confronted with the awesomeness of God, cleansed by the seraphs, Isaiah is now ready to go out to the world (and more specifically the Israelite people) with the word of the Lord.

The task that Isaiah receives is not easy. He is called to go to people who will not understand or perceive; whose lives will end in destruction. The words Isaiah is given are not of goodness, grace, or joy. Isaiah has no words of a God who loves and cares about the Israelites. Instead, Isaiah is called to speak words of ruin and waste. In these verses that we have read today, Isaiah’s life as God’s prophet has begun. It was not enough that Isaiah came to the Temple on this fateful day. It was not enough that he recognized his uncleanness in the presence of God. On this day, God chose to use Isaiah as a part of God’s mission in the world. Throughout the history of Israel, the words of Isaiah marked an important part of what God was doing among God’s people. Even today, Isaiah continues to be a prophetic voice, calling to a world that does not see or understand God, making a way for the Lord who is coming, urging us to follow wherever God would lead. In the presence of God, Isaiah saw who he was, but his cry of woe was not the end, God had the final word.

This cry of woe is not the final word for us, either. As we come to worship today, we can be made clean. No longer does this need to be done by touching our lips with a burning coal from the altar. Our cleansing and forgiveness has been accomplished through the person and work of Jesus Christ. We stand in the presence of the Lord, in the presence of the famous one, and are confronted with who we are and just how often we fall short. We are made whole and clean, our guilt is taken away and our sins are atoned for. Praise the Lord, this is great news, but it is not the end of the story.

As we gather in worship, we are brought into the throne room of the Lord, we are confronted with who we are, we are healed of our iniquities. Perhaps most importantly we, too, hear a call to be a part of God’s mission in our world. The prophet Isaiah took words of judgment, words of woe, words of forsakenness, words of hopelessness, words of destruction to his world and to the Israelite people. We too, may be called to bring these kinds of words to those in our world at times. More than that, we are called to work against all those things that would destroy our world.

We don’t see many prophets in our day, or at least prophets that we would be willing to listen to and follow. Prophets, however, have been here. We have seen the prophets in Martin Luther King, Jr., who dedicated his life to peacefully struggle against powers of racism. We have seen the prophets in Mother Teresa, who lived among the poorest of the poor, caring for them and loving them as Jesus did. We have seen the prophets in those who have answered the call to go out into a dark world and share the message of Jesus Christ. We have seen the prophets as we watched two young kids tirelessly and selflessly raise money for the Nashville Rescue Mission so that those who usually have nothing will have a warm and tasty Thanksgiving dinner among friends. We have seen the prophets as week after week, a group of college students gather together at the East Nashville Cooperative ministry to eat together with the homeless and poor, building relationships and calling them friends. Each and every one of us, not just those who feel a call to full-time ministry, are called to go out and be prophets in our world.

We are called to speak out and work against the problems of racism, poverty, and injustice. We are called to bring words of healing and love to a world who finds itself hopeless, who thinks that there is no God, or at least not a God who cares for them. We are called to go into the dark places of our world and bring with us the marvelous light of the Lord.

We are going to take a few moments as we close our time of worship together. Hopefully if you have not already been in the throne room of the Lord this morning, the roof of this place will be pulled back, and you will be confronted with the majesty and wonder of our God. In these moments together, there are several ways to respond: perhaps for the very first time, you are seeing who you are in light of who God is. Perhaps you need to spend a few moments at an altar praying to be cleansed, praying to no longer be a person of unclean lips. The good news is that God can do that for you this morning. Perhaps as we worship together this morning, you will hear the same voice that Isaiah did, the voice of the Lord calling out among the heavenly courts, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Maybe your answer will echo that of the prophet Isaiah, “Here am I. Send me!” Listen for the voice of God this morning, calling you to go and take your place as a part of God’s mission in the world.
Let us worship together the Lord Almighty.