Send Me!

Isaiah 6:1-8

In a facetious way that story makes a very important point - namely, that sometimes we’re afraid to use the talents God has given us, because it may require more work on our part. God has given to each one of us certain gifts and abilities to build up His kingdom here in this place. But too often we are reluctant to use them, because we’re fearful of the outcome. We see something similar in our text for today - the account of Isaiah’s call into the ministry. In a way, it’s not unlike the Strategic Ministry Planning process we’ve been going through. In the SMP God has also given us a calling - to preach and teach the truth to His expanding kingdom, reaching out to all. And in that SMP process we’ve been talking about our fears and doubts, our issues and concerns - the impediments that would keep us from accomplishing God’s plan for our congregation. We’re supposed to give those over to God, but sometimes we like to take them back and worry about them. Maybe we think we’re not making enough progress. Maybe we think we’ve got the wrong goals or it’s too big a task for us to fulfill. Maybe we even think it’s just a waste of time and money.

Well, evidently Isaiah also had those same kinds of fears and doubts about his calling - doubts about his ability to accomplish the work that God had given Him to do. In fact, he was filled with a deep sense of his own unworthiness to be God’s servant. We see that clearly in the vision Isaiah describes in our text. He says that in his vision, he saw God sitting on His throne, high and lifted up in all His majesty, and the train of His High-priestly robe filled the heavenly temple. Isaiah tells us that God was surrounded by angels - the six-winged angels called the seraphim. Their name in Hebrew means: ‘burning flames,’ because they reflect the pure burning holiness of God. And indeed that was the theme of their song: “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD ALMIGHTY!” This Trinitarian cry speaks of the awesome holiness of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

As a matter of fact, that’s why the seraphim used two of their wings to veil their eyes and two of their wings to veil their feet. You see, in Scripture feet are often a symbol of uncleanness, because they touch the unclean dust of the earth. And so the seraphim hid their feet out of reverence for God. And they veiled their eyes out of humility, for they dared not look at the face of the Most High and Holy One. This reminds us that even the good angels in all of their purity and perfection are as nothing in comparison with the holiness and righteousness of God. Which is why the door-posts of the heavenly temple shook at the sound of their song and the whole place was filled with smoke. These are the traditional signs of God’s wrath and anger and judgment.

No wonder, then, that Isaiah was filled with fear. He had good reason to be afraid - afraid because of his own sinfulness. And so he cried out: “WOE TO ME! I AM RUINED! FOR I AM A MAN OF UNCLEAN LIPS AND I LIVE AMONG A PEOPLE OF UNCLEAN LIPS AND MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE KING, THE LORD ALMIGHTY!” Isaiah knew that in his own sinful, corrupt human nature he could not see God and live. That’s why he said: “I AM RUINED!” Or as the Hebrew text literally puts it: “I am dissolved.” It’s a verb that means: ‘to come undone.’ It’s the idea that if we remain in our sin we are utterly lost and done away with. We deserve nothing but God’s punishment and rejection. That is the penalty for our sin.

Now the particular sin that Isaiah was confessing was uncleanness of lips, which is an idiom for hypocritical living. God had accused His people of honoring Him with their lips, while their hearts were far from Him. You see, the people of Judah came to the temple faithfully - perhaps more faithfully than some of us. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with their sacrifices and offerings and worship, because their heart was not right. Some worshipped half-heartedly, expecting to get great things out of the worship, while putting relatively little into it. Instead of thinking about what they were saying, when they read the Scripture Lessons or sang the Psalms, their minds would wander. There was very little excitement and fervor in the way they praised God!

There were also those who worshipped God only out of a sense of duty - to fill some imaginary quota of good deeds on their heavenly merit badge, all the while patting themselves on the back for being so virtuous and faithful. In the meantime, the desires of their heart were rotten to the core - full of selfishness and jealousy, dishonesty and revenge, lust and greed. In other words, they talked a good game, but they didn’t live it. They did not have a close personal intimate relationship with the Lord.

Indeed, even their great King, King Uzziah was like that. It’s no accident that Isaiah began his ministry in the year of Uzziah’s death. That, too, was a statement of God’s judgment. You see, King Uzziah, although he was a good and God-pleasing king, made a fatal mistake. Towards the end of his life, he thought that because he was so good he could do whatever he wanted. And one day, he entered the temple to burn incense before God, which forbidden to do, except for the priests. And though they pleaded with him to stop, he insisted on having his own way. As a result God struck him down with leprosy on the spot. And it was from that leprosy that he later died. Yes, Uzziah worshipped God with his lips, but his heart was not right!

Can you see vestiges of that kind of behavior in your own life? I know that I can see it in my life. You and I say one thing, but all too often we act just the opposite. We talk about love and forgiveness and compassion, but so many times we withhold it from one another. We talk about the importance of the Word and the Sacraments, but so often make infrequent use of them. We talk about the need to preach and teach the truth to His expanding kingdom, reaching out to all, but our meager offerings for missions and our half-heated witness to others tell a different tale. Indeed, we too are a people of unclean lips.

Dear friends, that’s why we need to follow Isaiah’s example and throw ourselves on the mercy of the court, daily kneeling before God in humble repentance to confess our sins. And as we do we have God’s sure and certain promise that He will remove them just as completely as He did for His prophet. We are told that one of the seraphim took a burning coal from the heavenly altar, touched it to Isaiah’s mouth and said: “BEHOLD, THIS HAS TOUCHED YOUR LIPS. YOUR GUILT IS TAKEN AWAY AND YOUR SIN IS ATONED FOR!” The imagery here is taken from the Day of Atonement, when the High Priest would take a coal from the altar of incense and bring it into the Holy of Holies as part of the sacrifice to atone for the peoples’ sin. And it points forward to the real Day of Atonement - the day we know as Good Friday, when Jesus Christ, the Greatest High Priest of all, laid down His life on the altar of the cross to atone for the sin of the whole world!

In that one saving, forgiving moment Jesus did for us what the angel did for Isaiah in our text - He touched us with pardon and absolution for all our wrongs. He took away all our fears and sins and doubts, and set us free. In the words of our text, our guilt has been taken away and our sin has been atoned for. Or as the Hebrew text literally puts it: “Our guilt has departed, never to return. And our sin has been covered up and extinguished!” In short, He removes the uncleanness of our lips. And that happens every time our lips read the Good News from His Word, and every time He touches our lips with His body and blood in the bread and wine for the remission of all our iniquities. That’s why it’s so crucial that we daily be in the Word and the Sacraments. That’s why we need to make use of programs like Faith Comes by Hearing, reading through the Psalms and Proverbs in 31 days, listening to the Bible on tape. For it is only through those Means of Grace that God cleanses our lips and our lives, so that we can be forgiven and free.

In his book, Planet in Rebellion, George Vandeman shares the following true story: On May 21, 1946 a young scientist, Louis Slotin, was carrying out an experiment at Los Alamos, New Mexico, in preparation for the testing of an atomic bomb in the South Pacific. Though he had done the experiment many times, the scientist’s screwdriver slipped at a critical moment. The two hemispheres of radioactive uranium came too close together. Instantly the room was filled with a dazzling bluish haze. Instead of ducking and possibly saving himself, Slotin tore the two hemispheres apart with his hands. He thus interrupted the chain reaction. On the way to the hospital, he confided to his companion, “You will all come through all right. But I don’t have a chance at all.” It was only too true. He died nine days later. Two thousands years ago the Son of God walked directly into sin’s deadly radiation and took up the cross in His hands. In His death, He broke the chain reaction of sin, death and eternal separation from God. He gave His life for me.

My friends, that’s the price that Jesus lovingly paid to make us clean. And the reason He has cleansed our lips and our lives is so that we can fulfill the calling He has given us. We can either give in to our fears and doubts or like Isaiah we can confess them to God, give them to the Lord and let Him remove them. And if we do the latter, then like Isaiah we too will be able to boldly proclaim: “HERE AM I, SEND ME!” And that is what God longs to do - to send us out into a hurting dying world to bring the comfort and peace of the Gospel, to witness about Jesus to those who are in need, to preach and teach the truth to His expanding kingdom, reaching out to all. May God empower us by His Holy Spirit to do that more and more each day, for that is our calling, in Jesus’ name. Amen.