Readings: Psalm 29, John 3:1-7, Romans 8:12-17, Isaiah 6:1-8
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, on Sunday May 30th, 2021
Isaiah was a creature of habit. He was a believer in God. The things of God were important to him. Faith was a matter of action as well as intellectual assent. So, as he often did, he went into the temple to pray. He had no expectation that God was about to meet with him in a deep and life-transforming manner. In fact, the thought that such a thing should ever happen to a regular guy like him, probably never crossed his mind.
Can we identify with him? I am guessing that we have come into church this morning, because that is what we do on a Sunday. It is a part of our lives. We believe in God. We seek for God’s will to be done. We acknowledge that we need God’s help to get us through our days. Chances are that many of us are happy having a relationship with God on that sort of level.
In fact, anything more than that may actually stress us out, even more than the stresses that we come to church to try and cope with, are already stressing us out! Maybe the last thing we need right now is a dramatic, life changing, earth-shattering encounter with the Almighty. There is a lot to be said for the notion of a 'Comfortable God'.
Isaiah at a later date would declare, 'Comfort Ye, Comfort Me, my People'. Jesus calls us to rest in His love. And are we not Presbyterians, finding comfort in notions of decency and order, taking pride in the appearance of being in control and having things ordered and in a logical pattern? The last thing we need is a change.
Did I say 'Change?' How can I resist the change jokes!
How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb? Only one. But it takes the whole church to organize the dinner that goes with it.
How many Baptists does it take to take change a light bulb? Well, the preacher will talk to it, but ultimately it has to make the decision to change for itself.
How many Methodists does it take to take change a light bulb? 'Change?' said the committee, 'What is that? We don't understand the word.'
How many Presbyterians does it take to take change a light bulb? Again, only one. However it is a six year long process requiring overtures to the General Assembly and a majority vote of the Presbyteries.
The thing is, no matter what our religious flavor, we all have strategies in place to keep the wheels of our religious traditions well-oiled and avoid the sort of dramatic confrontation that Isaiah had with God in the temple, the sort that moved him out of his comfort zone.
The problem with being in the comfort zone is, of course, that nothing ever changes. Everything is lukewarm and every day and as predictable as finding Christmas cards in Hallmark in November. I suspect complacency results in our ministry to the world being compromised. We become so consumed with keeping the wheels in motion we forget about those who don’t have wheels!
Isaiah discovered something. When God is on our case, things change. When God draws near, you change, or you are consumed. When the Spirit of God starts to move, the wind will blow, and the sparks will fly.
That morning when Isaiah ambled along to church, the unexpected took a hold. He has a vision of the glory of God. Isaiah 6:1 'I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.' In Isaiah’s vision God is robed in kingly attire. This is not a little god, this is a Godzilla of a God. Huge. Think about that phrase; 'The hem of His robe filled the temple'.
In terms of our sanctuary, just a little bit of the cloth on the bottom of God's robe filled the place. That is a big robe. That is one huge vision to get your mind around. And then there are angels and seraphs buzzing around and music filling the air.
Today in the church calendar is Trinity Sunday, and we read that the angels, in the presence of God are singing a threefold anthem, 'Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.' I know sometimes when we have the 'Holy, Holy, Holy' hymn, and the sopranos sing that top line, boy it makes the rafters tingle. That is nothing, Isaiah 6:4 in the temple; 'The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.'
The imagery is like that used in Acts 2 when the upper room on the Day of Pentecost suddenly became a place infused with the glory of God. Mighty rushing winds. Tongues of flame falling upon the disciples. The presence of a God whose glory filled the whole earth.
The challenge this passage places before us is to consider that our vision of God is just too small. That the lack of holiness in our lives is directly related to the lack of vision we have in regard to the holiness of God. That we have a God that is constructed from images that comfort and contain rather than the wild, untamed, un-named, glory of Isaiah’s God whose temple visions scare Isaiah half to death!
Isaiah’s response? Let him use his own words; Isaiah 6:5 'I said: 'Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!'. Isaiah’s vision of God did nothing to comfort him or cause him complacency.
It reminds me of the imagery of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on.”
This vision shook him to the core of his being. Yet at the same time it placed him in a situation where he was prepared to do with his life, whatever God required of him. It was a vision that revealed his sinfulness in the light of God’s holiness. He declares, 'I am a man of unclean lips'.
Picture that. The light of God shining so intensely into your life that every sin, every compromise, every wrong thought, or deed is lit up like the streets of Las Vegas at the peak of holiday season. Lit up for all the world to see. 'Woe is me. I am lost'. What happened in Vegas, did not stay in Vegas after all.
God is light. Light that lights things up. That is what light does. Lights things up. Reveals them. Makes them incredibly easy to see. That can be a scary thought. If that’s how God is then no wonder, we often prefer the shadows. No wonder we want to stay in our comfort zone. That kind of God could be dangerous. Wasn’t that just the reaction that Jesus incited in his opponents? They could not take the light. They preferred the darkness.
John’s Gospel 12:5 'The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it'. Going back to the 'How many people to change the light bulb' jokes, it is almost as though sometimes we are like a group of people who want to remove the light bulb because it is working too well. It is making the place look untidy by revealing the cobwebs and mess that needs dealing with!
But the light does not undo Isaiah. An angel comes with a hot coal that is placed on his lips. 'Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out. ' An act of grace. It is in response to this act of grace that Isaiah then declares, 'Here am I; send me!'
I cannot recreate you for you exactly what happened to Isaiah with the hot coal on his lips. Maybe you could smother your chicken in Tabasco sauce at lunch and see if that gives you a zing. It will not convince you of the reality of God’s call on your life, but it may give the people at the next table a smile.
God has not come to us with a hot coal. God’s love has been revealed to us through something far more intense. Through a cross upon which Jesus died a torturous death, praying, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing'. We have a glimpse of the Glory of God that Isaiah was never able to view. We have a cross and an empty tomb, which reveal that not only does God tower over the earth, but over death and hell, and evil, and all that would detract from life being lived in freedom and wholeness.
That should be enough to move us out of our comfort zone. The question we should ask is 'Does our faith in God mean enough to us to change the way we live? To shine a little more, so that we dare to commit a little more and actually achieve a little more in the way of being the people God wants us to be?'
We are headed in the right direction. Like Isaiah we have come to the temple to pray. Christian growth seems to take place with us kicking and screaming against God every step of the way. We really do not want to move out of our comfort zone. We fear the sort of changes God may have in mind.
But it should not be that way. Can we reflect on the greatness and glory of God? Can we seek to nurture in our spirits a sense of awe and the mystery of God? Can we recognize the radical, revolutionary, hot coal-like, awesome actions of God in Christ’s death and resurrection? Are our hearts prepared to be empowered by the Holy Spirit who can sometimes be found in the wind and flame, but at other times in the stillness of the quiet following the storm?
If we apply ourselves to such things, we are, I believe, moving in the right direction. Who knows, maybe this Sunday will not be your average Sunday. Maybe somebody here and now is hearing the voice of God saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go?' Maybe you are that somebody? Indeed, it is probable, in a world where 'the fields are ripe for harvest, but the laborers are few', we are all people that God is calling to particular areas of service.
The right response to make to the call of God is “Here am I; send me!” If we make the excuse that 'We are not worthy', then God comes with the hot coal of Christ's forgiveness and says, 'No, you are not worthy, but through the forgiveness of the Cross and the empowerment of resurrection glory, my Holy Spirit will guide you!'
Isaiah went, as he often did, to pray in the temple. It turned out to be a day that changed his life. Are we prepared this day to allow this not to be your average Sunday? Are we prepared to allow God to change us and remake us? Will we embrace the call that God places upon our lives to love this world with all the strength God gives to us? 'Whom shall I send, and who will go?'. Isaiah declared ‘Here am I; send me!'
What will be our response to this challenging passage of scripture?
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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