Isaiah’s Wake Up Call

Text: Isaiah 6:1-8

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

          As the day begins earlier and earlier on these days as we approach the summer solstice, I find it much easier to get right out of bed as the morning sun streams through the window. Summer is approaching. We tend to think of this weekend – Memorial Day weekend – as the official start of summer – along with an opportunity to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and our freedoms. And thank you to all who have served to defend us and the freedom we enjoy. This might be our unofficial start to summer, but summer actually begins on June 20^th, the longest day of the year. And with those longer days I find it easier to hop out of bed and get rolling with the day. When the sun doesn’t rise until after 7:20 in the winter I find it much more difficult to roll out of bed and be ready for the day.

People have realized this for a long time and advertisers capitalize on our need for a little something to get us going in the morning. From breakfast foods and orange juice to toothpaste and aftershave, it’s all about selling us something that will give us a positive reason to be up and going, doing what we have to do. Coffee companies are the best at it. Even claiming that “the best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup.” I’m not sure that that’s true as I can think of a few other brands I might prefer, but the sentiment is there. We all need a little something to get us moving. A reason to do the things we need to do. Some motivation to accomplish whatever we’re called to. And it’s not just getting up in the morning. Think of all the procrastination that happens every day as we put off the things we’d rather not do, easily finding plenty of other less pressing things to fill our days with. But getting up or finishing that project we’ve been putting off are probably not the most pressing things we tend to put off.

To see where God might be calling us to wake up, we look to the prophet Isaiah, who at the time of our text really needed a wakeup call if he was going to be ready for the rest of his life on earth and the ministry before him as God’s prophet to the kingdom of Judah and ultimately the fallen world. And he sure got it, in a stunning and profound way. In that wakeup call Isaiah found forgiveness and strength. And we as Christians can find these same blessings in our own callings.

Isaiah had a tough assignment being God’s prophet. A prophet served as the official spokesman of God. And Isaiah’s call to this position was at the time the nation of Judah was on its way to destruction and captivity. The people of Israel had already been divided into two kingdoms – Israel in the north and Judah in the south. During his initial years of service, Isaiah was prophesying to a kingdom that was flourishing, but it was also a kingdom that was decaying. The people were turning to idolatry, human sacrifices, temple desecration. And not only that, but they were turning away from God’s help, preferring to seek their worldly help from the Assyrians and Babylonians.

Isaiah’s job, as with any prophet, was to convey the messages of God and His will to the people. Often that meant applying the Law to their circumstances. As you might imagine, the prophet’s message was generally not overwhelmingly popular. In addition, the prophet would have to unveil the future. As evidenced from the messages Isaiah delivered earlier in the book, these were not what the people wanted to hear. He’d have to say things like “Your country lies desolate” “foreigners devour your land,” and after which there would be only “a few survivors.” But it wasn’t all bad news. The prophet would also get to convey God’s promises of hope and a future. He proclaims the message of the remnant that will survive, many promises of a Messiah, and the glories of the Messianic period that was to come.

To prepare him for this task, God gives Isaiah a very specific wakeup call. It doesn’t come in the form of a bright early morning sun through the window or even in a great cup of coffee. It comes with this fantastic vision where he’s able to see the Lord in all His power and glory. Seraphim with six wings. “With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.’ And the foundations of the threshholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.” That “Holy, holy, holy” reminds us as the hearer of the Trinity that was before the foundation of time, is today, and always will be. And someday we’ll be in His presence to be able to understand what it means that He is three persons, and yet only one God.

These visions were a common and accepted means by which prophets would receive God’s messages, but this one is feels a little different. More powerful maybe. At least it was for Isaiah. He’s overwhelmed at what he sees and realizes his uncleanness in the presence of the Almighty. He says, “Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” It’s probably not necessary to dwell too long on this, but it would also be unwise to skip over it entirely. In the very presence of God, what Isaiah first realizes is that he is a sinful man and that he lives in a sinful world. It’s not possible to be in the presence of Almighty God and not recognize that we are not like He is. Too often, we like to think that “we’re not all that bad.” Or that “sin isn’t really that big of a deal.” In fact, it is. It’s one of the primary things that makes us different than God. And it’s the one thing that has the ability to separate us from Him. Isaiah recognizes this and expresses it by despairing of his “unclean lips.” And then in his vision, the manifestation of his sinfulness is what God cleanses. The seraphim obtained a burning coal from the altar in heaven and as Isaiah’s lips were touched, explains what the action means. “Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

As that coal touched Isaiah’s mouth and his guilt was taken away and his sin atoned for, it provided Isaiah with the one thing that would best equip him for the task that was now before him. And that was the experience and relief of the forgiveness of his own sins. Isaiah was ready to be sent as the spokesman of the Triune God to a fallen people and world. And he was empowered to respond to the Lord’s calling of “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” with an emphatic “Here am I! Send me.”

On this Trinity Sunday, God is still the holy and almighty God, and we still live with “unclean lips” and still “dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” Contrary to what people may think and say, or to whom or what they may look for safety and deliverance, the same almighty and all-powerful God that Isaiah saw in his vision remains omniscient and omnipresent today and judges by the same Law He always has. And we fare no better. Isaiah probably lived a pretty good life, as we probably believe we do, but he and we can only say, “Woe is me! For I am lost.”

The same almighty and all-powerful God that so severely judged Israel and then Judah also has every right to judge us, our nation, and the nations of this world among whom we live. But God is still a merciful God. He’s our God not only of power and glory but of grace. And by grace, God did leave those few survivors at the demise of Judah, and through the ministry of Isaiah, he showered those survivors with an abundance of promises of the one who would come out of Judah to save those who remained faithful. And by grace, God kept those promises and made possible the salvation of all mankind by sending his Son to atone for the guilt of their sins, as is so clearly announced in today’s Gospel in words spoken by that very Son. “For God so loved the world, that gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

And by grace, God still sends spokesmen to carry his message of Law and Gospel to those who worship him as the only true and Triune God. And like the seraphim, providing cleansing to the unclean lips of Isaiah, God still provides a visible means of grace. The body and blood of Christ, in, with, and under the bread and wine touches our lips to gives us assurance of forgiveness.

Also, by grace, God continues to call and ask the question, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Who will go for us? That’s the Triune God – Us – speaking. How can that be for us anything other than our wakeup call? We won’t ever fully understand the Trinity here on earth, but we can recognize His voice. And His authority. And His forgiveness. And His calling. May our response be nothing other than “Here am I! Send me.” Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.