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Who We Are - Sermon, Sunday, June 15th, 2003
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Sermon text: Isaiah 6:1-8
The Holy Trinity
In 1983, Karla Faye Tucker was living a miserable life as a drug-abusing prostitute in Texas, a real loser. That year, in the course of a robbery, she murdered two people. She was caught, convicted and sentenced to die. The state of Texas put her in prison while her case was appealed, which took 15 years. But something happened during that time. Karla Faye Tucker changed. Many people did not believe it, but the evidence shows that she became a different person.
She confessed her sins. She professed faith in Christ as her Savior. She counseled other women in prison. When her appeals finally ran out, in February 1998, she died peacefully, with a prayer on her lips. Some people don't believe that changes like that really happen, changes that are so dramatic and complete. As Christians, we know that they do — that there is something powerful enough to cause such a change. You see, we've experienced it — the change from unbelief to faith, from spiritual death to spiritual life.
We also know that following that radical one-time change, there is also an on-going change in the life of the believing child of God. Day by day we are renewed and fired up to serve our Lord, to live for him as people redeemed by his blood. It's the change we see in Isaiah, as described in our text. He came face-to-face with the fire of God's presence, with the blazing, all-consuming holiness of the Almighty. Yet he wasn't burned to a crisp! He was fired up to serve the LORD. The same thing happens to us through our encounters with the God who is holy and forgiving:
WE'RE NOT INCINERATED, BUT SET ON FIRE.
The prophet here relates how he was called to serve as God's messenger to the people of Judah at a time when things were looking pretty good for that kingdom. The government was stable; there were no wars going being fought; the economy was in good shape and people generally were prospering. But as we know, if the economy's doing well, people seem able to ignore other things that are not so good — in this case, things that the LORD was not ignoring! Although the people went through the motions of worshiping the LORD, their hearts were nowhere near him. Idols dotted the landscape and idol-worship filled their homes, along with all the unspeakable practices that go along with idolatry. God's people had abandoned God, and the LORD was going to send a messenger to tell them that judgment was coming.
Enter Isaiah. He's going to be assigned the hairy task of announcing that judgment and calling people to repentance. That call came to Isaiah in the vision decribed here, which is not some wild dream he had. The living God made himself visible to this man in a truly spectacular way. The Almighty does not need laser light shows or fireworks or multi-megawatt speakers to impress people. All he has to do is pull back the curtain a bit, uncover his glory. Isaiah sees the LORD, seated on a throne, high and exalted. The LORD is attended by "seraphs" — "burning ones," perhaps the highest rank of angels. They are glorious, powerful and holy creatures, but even they cover their faces in humility before the One who sits on the throne.
Isaiah hears them calling back and forth, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty!" Usually we say that "holy" means sinless, but there's more to it than that. The word really means "set apart, separate." God's holiness is this, that he is utterly separate, totally set apart from his creation. He is so different, so far above and beyond us in every way — power, wisdom, knowledge, everything that makes him God. And part of that is, indeed, his being separate from sin — from all that's wrong, bad, evil, untrue, unrighteous, unclean.
"Holy, double holy, triple holy is the LORD of hosts," the burning ones shout to each other. The temple shakes and smoke fills it. Isaiah sees, hears, feels and smells the evidence of God's holiness. He gets a glimpse of the glory of the LORD, and it's too much for him. He cries 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 see the King, the LORD Almighty!"
"I'm dead!" That was his reaction when he faced the white-hot fire of God's holiness, the same way any sinful creature should react! Isaiah had just heard the seraphs praise God with holy lips; he had to admit that he couldn't do that with his unholy lips. As a sinful man, he could not stand in the presence of the holy One. "I'm dead!"
But he wasn't dead. Isaiah was not incinerated in the fire of God's holiness. Instead, one of the seraphs came to him with a live coal from the altar and touched it to his mouth and explained: "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." He would't be burned to a crisp because he was forgiven; his guilt was taken away, his sin atoned for. He could stand in the presence of God! And then, when the LORD asks, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" — this man answers, "Here am I! Send me!" He doesn't even know what the job is, but he's fired up to do it. "Lord, I'm ready to serve; use me!"
That's what happens. And that's how it happens, this change in a person. It happens when a sinful human being comes face to face with the holiness of God and then is comforted by the grace of God. It happens in our conversion, when the Holy Spirit makes us alive. It continues to happen for the rest of our lives, as he works in us with God's law and God's gospel. We too encounter the holiness of the LORD. In our repeated contacts with God's Word, you and I see the separateness, the sinless perfection of the Almighty. Again and again we face the reality that we are people of unclean lips, selfish desires, evil thoughts, harmful words and ungodly attitudes. God's law shows us that we really ought to be incinerated in the fire of his holiness.
But then we hear the sweet music of the gospel! In every sermon and in every part of our liturgy, we hear God's good news. His Word directs us again and again to the cross of his Son. It points us to Jesus as the Source of salvation, of forgiveness and pardon and righteousness and eternal life. When you hear this Word of God or read your Bible at home, the Holy Spirit reassures you that God's Son took your sin and guilt on himself, died for you and rose again.
Why do I keep repeating that same simple message? Why do we spend so much time talking about Christ and what HE did? Because it's what sinful people need to hear, the good news of God's grace. When we have seen our uncleanness in the light of God's holiness ("I"m ruined!"), we need to hear that we will not be incinerated by God's holiness. Weed to hear the Word tell us that our guilt has been removed, our sin atoned for. That gospel conveys forgiveness, renews our faith and changes us. It fires us up to serve our Lord!
The apostle Peter came face to face with Jesus' holiness and saw Jesus' glory in his miracles. Do you remember what Peter said on one of those occasions? "Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man!" Isaiah, glimpsing the glory of the Holy God, said, "Woe to me! I am ruined!" But the Lord did not go away from Peter, just as he did not fry Isaiah to a crisp. That same Lord, the Holy One of God, does not go away from us, either, nor does he consume us in the fire of his holiness. Instead, as he did with Isaiah and as he did with Peter, so he forgives us and sends us FOR him!
Our Savior keeps asking, today and every day, "Who will go? Who will speak? Who will serve? Who will live for me?" And as changed people, renewed by the grace of God and the good news of Christ, we're ready to answer. As Christ's holy people, not incinerated but set on fire, we say, "Lord, here I am. Send me to serve! Send me to live for you! Send me to love my God and to love my neighbor! Use me as your instrument, that I may glorify you in all that I do!" Yes, we understand that changes like that really happen, drarmatic and complete — because we've experienced them! Amen.