Text: Isaiah 6: 1-8
Pastor’s sometimes try to come up with something catchy as a theme for their sermons. I remember a pastor who came up with this theme for a section from the epistle of James. Tame your two timing tongue. I am sure the people went home with that theme in their heads.
So for this Word of God I tried to do the same. Let’s see. How about Holy Smoke! Or thinking about those hot glowing coals brought from the altar. How about: Hot rocks to fire you up.
You don’t like those? Neither do I. I thought to myself. How dare I reduce this vision God gave his prophet down to some cute phrases. That was the end of that. So here we go:
HOLY HOLY, HOLY IS THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY
I. His awesome holiness made Isaiah tremble.
II. The Lord’s forgiving grace made him a willing servant.
God is awesome. We don’t need a vision to tell us that. The whole earth is full of his glory, Go to Yosemite park. Go to the Grand Canyon and look across that vast expanse. Go to Alaska which my daughter Katie describe as the most beautiful place she has ever seen. Then go from that majestic place to a hospital delivery room where a new child is welcomed into this world by admiring, awestruck parents.
How small we can feel at a time like that. Our mouths might gape in wonder at what God can do. And just think, those things are only a glimpse of how big and powerful and awesome God is.
So think of Isaiah this day and what God gave him to see in this vision. The Lord sitting high above him on his throne. Mysterious six winged creatures called Seraphs. They worshipped the Lord and served him. And as they did, they covered their faces and feet. Even these remarkable creatures humbled themselves before the awesome One on his throne. And with these words they praised him. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory. The temple doorposts shook. The air was filled with smoke- the glory of the Lord.
How small Isaiah must have felt before the Lord’s awesome majesty. But not just small. Also fearful. The Lord’s awesome holiness made Isaiah tremble.
You see, God is holy, so different from you and me. He is holy, set apart from sinners. We often don’t notice that gaping chasm of difference that stands between us and him. Most of the time it doesn’t really concern us until his holiness reveals what we are.
Think about it. Some of us may not notice our car is dirty. But then we go out to the parking lot and see that car next to ours. It’s sparkling clean. Next to it we see, my car is sure dirty.
Or we may not notice how much we complain. We may not notice that we should be named after one of the seven dwarfs- grumpy. Then we find ourselves with that bright cheerful person. And that person is lying in a hospital bed. I’ve sure got a bad attitude.
Well now Isaiah found himself in the presence of the Lord. You know, the One who says to each of us: Be holy, because I Lord your God am holy. It was like a blurry picture came into focus – a picture that showed him what we are. 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.” Isaiah trembled.
It makes me think of St Peter. Remember when Jesus gave his disciples that miraculous catch of fish. Peter also trembled. He cried out: Get away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.
God’s awesome holiness makes that unmistakably clear. And we don’t have to stand beneath God’s throne. We don’t have to witness an awesome miracle. We need only to listen to God’s holy Law, his perfect will for our lives. For there I see, I am not the father, the husband the pastor the neighbor that God wants me to be. Far from it! Far from it. Woe to me. !
But notice. God doesn’t leave Isaiah to tremble in fear and hopelessness. He could have. You and I give the Lord plenty of reason to turn away from us. But look here. What do we see? The Lord’s forgiving grace. The Lord’s forgiving grace made Isaiah a willing servant.
What a strange scene Isaiah describes. 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.”
I don’t know about you. But every time I think about that red hot coal touching Isaiah’s mouth, I wince. Ow. I think of a big painful blister on my lip.
But in the Bible fire God does not always use fire to burn and destroy. It also purifies what is impure. And so here in this remarkable way God assured Isaiah that his guilt was taken away as if it never existed. His sin was atoned for. It was covered over, hidden away.
Now look at the man. What do we find? Not paralyzing fear or guilt , not trembling, but a new found courage. Forgiven and restored, we find in Isaiah a sudden willingness to share God’s Word, to serve his Savior. And so when the Lord calls for him to serve, to bring his message to some pretty tough customers, he says: Here I am, send me.
Now I want you to notice something so important about this vision. It’s a key to understanding. Where did the coal come from? Isaiah tells us. The Seraphs brought it from the altar. – the altar, the place of sacrifice for sin. But not the animal sacrifices brought year after year by those Old Testament priests. The Bible makes that clear. No, God’s forgiveness would come would come from one special sacrifice offered once for us all. And you know the altar on which that sacrifice was given. ON an altar made from two beams of wood formed into a cross. there on that altar, God himself would offer that sacrifice. From that altar, God’s forgiving grace would come.
But wait a second? What does all this have to do with Holy Trinity Sunday? What’s the connection. In our epistle and Gospel lessons, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all named. The three persons of the one true God. So what’s this about? Did your pastor just pick some random text. No, listen. HOLY HOLY HOLY IS THE LORD ALMIGHTY. Did you notice? There are three holies but one Lord. Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit, three in one.
Well in a real way this Triune God sends you a coal from his altar. God the Father sent his Son to that altar to suffer and die for you. And there Jesus paid the price to set you free from your guilt and the fear it brings. He paid the price to give you a hope you and I don’t deserve.
And now he sends you something that does the same as that glowing orange coal. He sends you the gospel promise that your sins are forgiven in Jesus, his Son. He brings it to you in this Word. He brings it to you in the freeing words of absolution. He brings it to you in the water of your Baptism. And even more remarkable, he brings his promise in that Supper where the Lord gives you his own body and blood.
And there God the Holy Spirit does his work. With that living coal of the gospel, he brings us to faith in Jesus. He takes away our guilt. He calms our trembling hearts. He keeps us as children of our heavenly Father. And he gives us hope.
And just like Isaiah, the grace of our Triune God is not without effect. It makes us willing servants- people who want to please God, people People who wantsothers to know him as we do. People who reflect his love in our lives. For that is the fruit of our Lord’s forgiving grace. For his love does not just save us. It gives us a new heart that says: Here I am send me. Amen.