Isaiah 6:1-8
Normally when we come into God’s presence, we gather in his
name – his Triune Name – we call that the Invocation. We invoke God’s name. In Isaiah’s vision, however, no one invokes
God, but he appears to Isaiah without invocation or provocation. It’s a blessed vision.
And in this blessed vision, God reveals to Isaiah, and to
us, a glimpse of his true glory, his true nature, his true identity. He shows us what truly matters when we, like
Isaiah, stand before him. And when he
shows mercy to Isaiah, it points us to the mercy of the Trinue God that is
found for us in Jesus Christ our Lord.
One notable feature of this passage is the song of the
angels. The angels sing, and we echo the
song even today in the Sanctus, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts (or
Sabbaoth)” That is, the heavenly
armies. “heaven and earth are full of
his glory” And in this short verse there is much to say.
The Lord is holy. Yaheweh
is holy, holy, holy. In saying it three
times we have great emphasis. In Hebrew,
saying something three times like this indicates the superlative. God is most
holy. He is the holiest of all. The most set apart of anyone or anything that
is ever set apart. He is in a class by
himself, creator apart from his creation.
The three-ness of his holiness also hints at the Triune
nature – Father, Son and Spirit. All
throughout the Old Testament this teaching is set forth in mysterious
ways. Even from the plural self-reference
of God in creation, “Let us make man in our image”. The Spirit hovering and the whole of creation
spoken into being through the Son, the Living Word.
And then, the angels sing of his glory. His glory fills heaven and earth, even more
than the train of his robe fills the temple.
Yet his throne is far above both.
Nothing can contain him. Rather,
he fills everything. Nothing is above
him, rather he is above all, over all.
And even the mighty Seraphim are compelled to praise him
constantly. With their majestic wings
and booming voices that shake the whole place.
Seraphim in Hebrew means, “burning ones”. They are bright and aglow with power, and yet
they tremble and hide their own faces and feet from God’s glory.
What a grand and glorious and powerful sight it must have
been. But there is a problem.
Isaiah is a sinner. His
reaction to seeing God might surprise you.
You might think he’d be glad.
Joyous. This should be far more
exciting than meeting a famous person, or even winning the lottery! You get a visit with the king of kings! You have some quality one on one time with
the Creator, Isaiah! Isn’t that great!?
No, instead, “Woe is me.
I’m ruined. Done for. I’m in way over my head with this one.” Why?
Because I’m a man of unclean lips in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. I’m a sinner. And I’m in the midst of sinful people.
Sin cannot stand before Holy Holy Holy God. He cannot stand it. He hates it and will justly destroy it. And woe to the sinner who thinks he can
withstand such pure, ultimate, all-encompassing judgment. There is and should be nothing more
terrifying than to stand before God’s throne and have no answer for your
sins. You simply must be destroyed,
condemned, doomed. And Isaiah knew it.
Do we know it? Have we lost a sense of the fear of God? Yes, we should love and trust him, but first
fear him, Luther teaches us in the meaning of the First Commandment. Fear God.
Consider how awesome and terrible a God he is, and what you deserve were
you to stand before him in your sin.
With all else stripped away – no distractions – no one else to use for
comparison – only you and the one who knows all.
Unclean lips, unclean hearts, unclean hands, we are totally
undone by the holy law of the holy holy holy God. We stand no better off than Isaiah or the
people of Israel.
“Woe is me,” Isaiah says.
It is a confession of sin. And
the Lord does not leave him hanging. He
doesn’t wait for Isaiah to justify himself, explain away his unclean lips,
concoct and execute a plan to cleanse himself (as if he could). He doesn’t even make him wait and wonder what
his due punishment will be. He
immediately sends the angel to act. To
have mercy. To forgive.
The angel takes a coal from the altar – the place of
sacrifice, and he touches it to Isaiah’s mouth.
The place of sacrifice is where sin is atoned for. In the Old Testament, thousands of beasts
shed their blood to make atonement. But
that ocean of blood wasn’t even worth a drop of the blood that was to come, the
sacrifice they all anticipated and foreshadowed. The Lamb of God who would take away the sins
of the world.
The altar of that sacrifice was the cross, and the consuming
fire of God’s wrath was upon Christ. It
hadn’t yet happened in Isaiah’s day, but it was planned from the foundation of
the world. For God so loved the world,
that he sent his only Son, sent him to be lifted up on the cross, so that all
who look to him, believe in him, would not perish, but have everlasting life.
But more than that.
It’s not an altar somewhere far off or a Jesus on a cross on a green
hill far far away. The sacrifice of
atonement that has cleansed you of your sins is up close and personal. The angel, the messenger of God, got right up
in Isaiah’s face with that hot coal from the altar. He spoke a word of mercy to Isaiah, a word of
absolution – your sin is atoned for, forgiven.
So also today. You
come here, to this messenger, not a heavenly angel but a sinner like yourself,
but one who nonetheless speaks a word of absolution to you. Your sins are forgiven, in the Triune
Name. His holiness is now yours. Your woe has already gone to Christ. And so you are not ruined. You are, rather, made clean.
So also, that forgiveness touches your lips, in the body and
blood that Christ offers you from this altar.
Here you touch and taste forgiveness in the body and blood which were
sacrificed, given into death, but also raised to life. When this has touched your lips, your sins
are also forgiven, atoned for, and you are made clean.
It is no accident that when we gather to receive the
Sacrament of the Altar, we sing this song of the angels, the Sanctus. Holy, Holy, Holy. For in the body and blood of Christ, we see
the fullness of God’s glory which fills heaven and earth. And we, like Isaiah, rather than ruined, are
made clean by this encounter with the Holy, Holy, Holy.
And you might say, “then not just my lips, but also my head
and hands and feet” and Jesus would say, “Someone who has bathed is already
clean”. You have been baptized. Your lips are clean, your whole life is
clean, renewed, reborn in the water and the word. In the Triune Name you bear.
And with cleansed lips, we can and do confess anew the name
of God. We confess Father, Son and
Spirit. We confess his mighty works, and
tell what he has done for us. We say
back to him what he has said of himself, and join our voices in the ancient and
universal confessions of the church – the creeds, Apostolic, Nicene, and
Athanasian. We confess the Holy Holy
Holy one in three and three in one.
Isaiah, too, was called to confess. To preach and prophesy to a people who needed
that same cleansing. Whom shall I
send? And now fearing no more, Isaiah
answers the call, “send me!”
Wherever you are called, Christian, go with the same
zeal. Wherever God has placed you to
serve and witness, do so with the clean conscience of a child of God whose sin
is atoned for. And when you sin, return
again to the Holy Holy Holy one who always has mercy. In Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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