Preacher: Pastor Liz Miller
Date: April 7, 2019
Text: Isaiah 6:1-8
There are cultural moments we experience together and years from now can still recount where we were or what we were doing at that exact moment. Where were you when JFK or Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated? Where were you when the space shuttle Challenger exploded? Where were you on 9/11? There are monumental events that shape our lives – events we look back on and realize they fundamentally changed the world as we once knew it.
Four hundred years before Jesus was born, in the time of the prophet Isaiah, in the land of Judah, which is what we know as Southern Israel today, the death of King Uzziah was one of those monumental, world changing, earth shattering cultural events. His death shook up the political and economic landscape of Judah and made the future uncertain for many people. His death was the kind of event that made people question what they believed in or what they were doing with their life. People were grieving the King’s death, the future of their country felt unsure, and it was a turning point for them. It was a painful, confusing time. And it was during this grief and confusion and uncertainty that the prophet Isaiah had a vision of God.
We need to know something about Isaiah before we can understand this vision of God that he has. We need to know that Isaiah is a poet. He uses fanciful poetic imagery to describe what he is thinking and feeling. So instead of saying, “We have a lot of work we need to do together,” the poet prophet Isaiah might say something like, “We stand before a one hundred year old pine tree that is in the middle of the road we must travel. I shan’t climb to the top branch to see the forward path without my brother first hoisting me up.” The first sentence might be more direct, but poets offer us the gift of painting a vivid picture so that we might understand their visions with all of our senses. But if we take their words literally, we’ll be stuck wondering where the pine tree is instead of hearing the call to help one another.
Isaiah is a poetic prophet and in these verses we read together, he paints a picture of majesty and awe. Even if six-winged angels called seraphs singing while the ground trembles and smokes fills a house doesn’t fit our idea of majestic—for him is both majestic and awesome. Awe-inspiring even. In the midst of the turmoil around him following King Uzziah’s death, this vision is his calm in the storm. Those angels sing him a song that remind him that no matter what chaos is happening out in the world, “God is holy! God is glorious and God’s glory is enough to fill the whole world!”
In the vision, Isaiah is overwhelmed by what he sees. He does not feel like he deserves to have such a powerful experience of God – he confesses his sins before the angels. When they hear his confession, the angels don’t chastise him or punish him – they simply remind him that he is in fact worthy. He is good enough as is, and so they offer him God’s forgiveness. That’s the bit with the fiery coal to Isaiah’s mouth.
There is no one meaning behind the image of placing a piece of burning coal in one’s mouth, but one of my favorite theologians, Marv Dunn, says that maybe putting burning coal in your mouth represents facing a great fear – imagine how scary that would be – but instead of being burned and harmed, you are surprised that it doesn’t hurt at all, and God offers you forgiveness instead of pain. In this way the coal serves to remind Isaiah of God’s love for him.
When we imagine the meaning behind Isaiah’s poetic vision, this symbolism is important. Isaiah receives forgiveness from God, and from that moment forward, he is given a sense of direction and purpose. When Isaiah hears the voice of God asking, “Whom shall I send to do my work in the world?” Isaiah has the confidence and the strength to say, “Here am I, God!” Send me! I can do it!”
Isaiah’s vision paints a picture that lets us know that when the world is upset and disrupted, we will be reminded of the goodness of God. And when we feel unworthy of God’s love and are lost in the harm that we have caused, we will be reminded of God’s love. Then when we feel that love wash over us, we’ll have the confidence to go out, serve, and do good in the world. Isaiah paints a picture of himself in the vision as an individual, but he throughout it all he is really referring to the collective people he shared his vision with – his neighbors and friends and anyone who would listen to him. It wasn’t just an interpretation of how God felt about Isaiah – this was a message for all of God’s followers.
When I think about Isaiah’s vision today, I see a vision of what happens when we come to church each week and gather together for worship. When we arrive here on Sunday morning at 10:00am, we bring everything that we have done and seen in the past week. We bring all the stress and all the ways we messed up or let someone down or disappointed ourselves. We bring the pain we are carrying. We bring the stories we have read in the news—the disasters, wars, accidents, and violence—with us. We bring all of it.
And then, together, we create something different. Through our songs, prayers and stories, we are reminded that the pain and suffering that we see in the world or we experience in our lives is not all that there is. We are reminded that we are a part of something that is greater than the bad things that happen. We are reminded that there is still good in the world and there is still hope for us. We are reminded that the goodness and the hope is God.
Worship is our vision of God. It may look different than Isaiah’s, but when we are in worship we are doing something very similar to what he experienced. We sing of God’s greatness and wonder. Like the angels with six wings we sing out, “Holy, holy, holy! God’s glory surrounds us!” You can turn to page #277 in your hymnal to see the words there for yourself.
We lift up prayers like our call to worship and the dedication of our offering that tell us of all the good that God has created. We create silence and peace when all we have known before is chaos and noise. Together we confess the ways we have failed and then we remind each other that we are loved and forgiven and that nothing can separate us from God. We don’t kiss lumps of fiery coal, but instead we experience that same forgiveness in confession and communion. Through these rituals we are reminded that we are not alone – that we are in this together – and that God is here with us.
The vision that we create during worship is one that is meant to renew us. It is meant to give us strength to face whatever is waiting for us when we leave this sanctuary. It is designed so that we will feel empowered to start again: a little more hopeful, a little more grounded, and a little more aware of God’s presence in our lives.
Finally, at the end of worship, at the closing of our own vision of God and God’s glory, we reach the same conclusion that Isaiah did. We call it the benediction. The sending. Every single week we are told to go out in the world to serve, to do good, to help God’s people. And we do. Over and over again. We go our separate ways and we minister to our neighbors, we care for our families and friends, we work hard to leave a positive mark in the world.
Isaiah heard God’s question, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” and Isaiah said, “Here I am! Send me!” Every week, when we come to this place, we have the opportunity to answer that question for ourselves. We might come here alone, but when we leave we do so knowing we have the support of a whole community encouraging us. We might come here feeling broken, but when we leave we do so feeling a little more whole. We might come here wondering if there could possibly be a God when there are so many bad things that happen in the world, but when we leave we do so knowing that God is the source of all the is good and right and well with the world. So we say, each of us in our own way and with our own words, “Here I am, God! Send me!”
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