Too Early for Propheting!

Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 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!”

Isaiah’s alarm clock turned over to 6 a.m. with an unwelcome and deafening clunk as the radio crackled to life. The DJ was telling Jerusalem that today would apparently be another scorcher. Isaiah slowly reached over and with the full force of gravity pounded the snooze bar. Isaiah was NOT a morning person. For a moment he was tempted to skip work and head for the mountains. But while Isaiah had always been good at preaching about the need for selfcare and Sabbath he wasn’t that great at following his own advise so, when the radio kicked back on after the world’s shortest five minutes ever, Isaiah rolled out of bed. He looked in the mirror and not really recognizing the THING looking back at him, he continued on to the shower. That did something toward waking him up but not anywhere near enough. He got dressed, remembered deodorant at the last minute, got in the car and headed out for the Temple. On the way he drove through Dunkin’ for a large cup of high-test… Jerusalem runs on Dunkin’ you know and if THAT didn’t get him running… he couldn’t imagine what would.

Isaiah pulled his car into the Temple parking lot and parked in the spot with the sign that declared, “If you park here, you preach!” As he got out of the car and turned to walk to the Temple he heard music. “GREAT!” he yelled at no one in particular, “those kids are messing with the organ again!” But then as he swung the door to the Temple open and his eyes began to adjust from the bright Middle Eastern sunshine outside to the dim, candlelit Temple inside… Isaiah saw the absolutely LAST thing he ever expected to find in the Temple on that hot, boring, regular day… Isaiah saw God.  

There’s nothing like slipping into the office a few minutes late, still rubbing sleep from your eyes, holding a half drunk cup of Dunkin’ and finding the Big Kahuna, the Big Cheese, the Head Honcho, the Queen Bee, the Boss, the Creator of all that was, and is, and ever will be sitting there waiting for you. Ironically this was indeed, “the Temple of the Most High”, but the “The Most High” was literally the LAST one Isaiah expected to see there.  On that painfully regular day, Isaiah expected to find the painfully regular things he always took for granted would be there. Things like paraments, pews and prayer books. But not in a million, zillion years did Isaiah expect to walk in and find himself staring at the Divine’s pedicure with the hem of God’s flowing robes filling the entire place to overflowing!

Isaiah began to sing, Holy, Holy, Holy... “something” I’m sure, as the remains of his large Dunkin’ dropped to the floor. One of the Seraphim came down and gave Isaiah a hot-coal-kiss and told him that his sins were now forgiven, blotted out forever and the minute that happened the Lord spoke, asking for “someone” to volunteer for an assignment. Not seeing anyone else around and happy not to be dead… or worse, Isaiah volunteered. 

God’s presence that morning changed Isaiah. It didn’t fix his life to be magically forever filled with rainbows and puppy dogs from then on out. He still had plenty of troubles ahead. But standing there in the Divine presence… with all of the distance from God in body, mind and spirit removed… with his relationship with God perfectly repaired… not by anything Isaiah had done, but by God making it right with that hot-coal kiss… Isaiah was changed. Now, that’s all wonderful for Isaiah of course. He goes on from here to get a huge three volume Biblical book deal. But the question you and I have to ask ourselves today is what does Isaiah’s experience with the Creator of the Universe meeting him at the office have to do with you and me, here today? 

Now, I can’t speak for you, of course, but maybe you can relate a little to my experience, because you see, I’m a lot like Isaiah. I preach about Sabbath and don’t do it very well. I appreciate the benefits of coffee in the morning and while I walk to work instead of drive, beyond those few, very superficial differences, I walk in here in the EXACT same way Isaiah walked into the Temple. I walk in here NOT expecting to see God’s toes up close and personal. I expect to see just what I always see… things like the paraments, pews and prayer books. I NEVER expect to see seraphim with a burning hot coal heading for my face. Like I said, I can’t speak for you, but perhaps part of that is true for you as well.

And because of that, I think maybe what this lesson is trying to suggest to us, is something Richard Rohr is fond of saying. And that is, that it’s not God’s PRESENCE that is missing from our lives, but the AWARENESS of God’s presence that is missing from our lives. So, could it be that wasn’t the one morning God was present in the Temple for Isaiah, but for whatever reason, THAT was the one morning Isaiah DIDN’T look past God like he had done a hundred times before? Because the truth is… GOD IS ALWAYS PRESENT. Right where we are. All the time and not just in churches and Temples. But most of the time we simply look past the ever-present Divine presence in the same way we look past the ever present paraments, pews and prayer books and so many other things that just fade into the background of our everyday lives.

I think that this lesson is asking US to stop and REALLY SEE, even if like Isaiah, it’s for the very first time, that God is ALWAYS… ALWAYS… RIGHT our midst. And while we might not have hot coals crossing our lips in church today, we DO have the Body and Blood of Christ crossing our lips, doing the same thing that the Seraphim’s coal did for Isaiah… erasing the distance between us and God and repairing our relationship with God and each other, through Christ, forever. 

I think the take-home for today is that God is here! Emmanuel, as we say at Christmas… God with us! God is here… with us… right here in THIS awesome little boat we call Christ Trinity, asking you and me to row out just a little further and cast our nets of unconditional love and radical inclusion right out there into our little corner of the world, casting just a little further every day until God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. So, take an energizing shower, rub the sleep out of your eyes, don’t forget deodorant, grab an extra large coffee and really, REALLY SEE!  God is with us.  And God is looking for “someone” to volunteer.  Amen.