Isaiah 6:1-8.                      The amazing call of God                                                31/5/15

(1)  In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. {2} Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. {3} And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." {4} At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. {5} "Woe to me!" I cried. "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." {6} Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. {7} With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." {8} Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

This week’s reading deals with God’s revealing of himself in an amazing way as he calls unworthy Isaiah to carry out his difficult and challenging work here on this earth. As we listened to that reading, surely we found it to be truly awesome in the full sense of its meaning: A God whose greatness is beyond comprehension. Clearly here is a great and mighty God who is not to be messed with.

Particularly when he goes on from here and tells Isaiah what he is to do. In the verses after this great revelation of God he says to Isaiah: "Go and tell this people: "'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?" And he answered: "Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.

Today, we find this part of things very difficult to handle. We don’t want to come to grips with the grandness of God and his seeming negative and harsh message which he has for us all. We want a nice, easy and soft message. We want a God who ‘is my mate’ and who is all loving and accepting of us no matter what we think and do. Today we also want our church to preach like the false prophets of Isaiah’s day;  “Peace, peace when there is no peace.” ‘We have God and the temple therefore we can do as we please. We are Abrahams children therefore God will see to it that no harm comes our way.’ They like many today had taken God for granted, and thought nothing of it. Even when challenged they wanted only to hear that which was good and positive: that which suited them and the culture of their day.

Yet here Isaiah himself is called to preach exactly the opposite message. To preach in a way which hastens the destruction of Israel. To preach; 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’  Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant. God was out to punish his own people for their unbelief: for their rejection of him and how he told them that they should live and act.

Even though they claimed that they were God’s people, they did not want listen to God or follow his ways: they had become fat, complacent and selfish which resulted in their never understanding and never perceiving. They were determined that they would not listen to or follow God’s way, so he sets about bringing about their destruction. But even there, there was the proclamation, the holy seed will be the stump in the land. There is still the promise of hope to those remanent that look to and trust in God, no matter how tough things get.

However lest we think that this is just an Old Testament Isaiah speaking to an ancient situation, let us reflect on Peter, Paul and the disciples in the early church or to Luther in his day as well. They too preached to many who also claimed to be God’s People, but who just did not want to hear or follow what God had to say to them. They wanted their own religious ways and where not prepared to listen to the truth. So they proclaimed destruction for those who were self-secure in their own righteousness.

However most clearly we see this message come to the fore in Jesus Christ himself. Not just in his preaching and confrontation with many of those he came into contact with, but with his very being. Here God himself comes, fully as a human-being, identifying with us in every way and he takes God’s punishment on a wayward, rebellious people; you and me, on himself. Here God’s punishment is complete and total. Jesus is destroyed for our never understanding and our never perceiving. Here we see the depth of the depravity of each and every one of us. That is what we deserve. Humanity does not have a ‘leg to stand on.’ Our destruction is complete. In ourselves we are dead.

How can we be anything but. We stand before a holy and awesome God. The Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." This holy God cannot have in his presence anything that is less than perfect. They will be destroyed by his greatness.

Before this awesome God surely we too can only say: "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."  Go away from me, Lord; for I am a sinful person.

But then there is the most awesome of all the revelations of God himself by Jesus in our Gospel reading. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,  that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

This God is truly awesome. He is not just the holy and awesome God that revealed himself to Isaiah, but he is also a God who comes right into our messed up world to do what was necessary for our salvation. This very Jesus dies and comes back to life again, assuring us of the forgiveness of all of our sin, and eternal life, no matter who we are or what we have done. He gives new life to all who are connected to him.

They are born again through baptism and belief, into everything that he has done for us and won for us. We can have the certainty that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. This Jesus himself says: whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:16)  How truly great that is: God accepts those who simply cling to Jesus and all that he has won for us.

However that brings us back to where we began. Do we want to believe? Do we want to hang on to Jesus Christ and follow him? Do we want to acknowledge him as the great and awesome God that he is? Or do we want to continue on our own merry way; ‘She’ll be right mate. I’ve got it all under control.’ God is a loving God and so we can go on doing what we want to do.

Surely there is no question as to what our answer would be. Surely this God and his Son Jesus Christ is our all and our everything. He is our one and only hope for life and salvation. Surely we will take him and what he has to say to seriously.

The follow up from that is the same call of God to Isaiah, the disciple and his people down through the ages:  "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"  Who is going to share this Good News with others? Who is going to be bold enough to preach Law and Gospel in all of its fullness in a wicked and adulterous generation? Who is game tell of Jesus Christ and him crucified, even though the people’s ears, eyes and hearts are calloused and do not want hear that kind of message. But who simply want a nice fluffy god who will make them feel good and allow them to do as they please, and who will ensure health, wealth and happiness for us? Who is going to tell our wicked and adulterous generation, the truths of God himself, even though they don’t want to hear it? Who?

Knowing this great and awesome God who has revealed himself to us in this truly great way; and who has accepted and cleansed us despite who we really are; surely we can only say; "Here am I. Send me!" Send me, even though I am weak and frail and do not have the where-with-all to do it. Send me to my neighbour or my friend. Send me even though some people will find my message unpalatable and offensive. Send me, for I know that you are the Lord Almighty himself and you will work through my efforts and you will achieve what you want.

Yes God does and will work through us as we proclaim the truth of his Word. There will be life and salvation brought to some, but there will also be the hardening of the hearts of those who have wilfully chosen to ignore and rebel against God and his Word. Sadly for them their destruction awaits.

But for us who have been saved, we cling to our Lord and Saviour as our one true hope. For we know that because of the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. Our God is a great and awesome God who is supreme over all, and to whom alone belongs all glory and honour. May his name be honoured and glorified both in his salvation and in his destruction. AMEN

Pastor Roger Atze

Glandore/Underdale Lutheran Parish