7 June 1998
We live in a world that is marked in many ways by change. Some of them are tremendous and wonderful, others are frightening and ominous. As we read the papers and look at CNN and Headline News, wherever we turn, we see the world filled with smoke. There is war and rumor of war. There is sudden death in Germany. The newspapers speak of that horrible tornado in South Dakota, most recently, and all over the southeastern United States this year, the number of unusual deaths that have occurred as a result. We have the renewal of a nuclear arms race on the Indian subcontinent — a day that we thought we had closed the door on. We read about corruption in governments.
As we see these things going on, as we read about them, God often seems to be remote, if not absent. The things of God seem to be concerned with the ethereal, with some kind of spiritualism that takes us out of this world and away from it. It is easy to hear the thunder of current events. It is not so easy to hear the voice of God.
This is not new. We live in a world very much like that of Isaiah. Isaiah is about 28 years old. He grew up under the reign of King Uzziah, and now Uzziah is dead and the new king has come to the throne. The new king is about 28 years old — a contemporary of Isaiah. Those of us who have lived through the rise of leadership in our country know that when the new leader is our age or younger, it comes as something of a shock. And so it did for Isaiah and he says today: "I saw the Lord high and lifted up. His train filled the temple! I saw the Lord. He is out there. The train of his robe filled the temple!" But the angels come and say: "No, Isaiah, you have it wrong. The Lord is not confined to the temple. He is not out there someplace, but instead, the whole earth is filled with His glory!"
The angel comes to Isaiah today and says to him, "God's place is in the institutions of life." Isaiah's response is very much like our response, "No, it cannot be, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips. God cannot be found here, and yet, I have seen the Lord! It is impossible to find God here." But the angels say, "Oh yes, it is possible, for this is, in fact, where God is to be found."
When the prophet goes to the temple, he finds things not the way he expected them to be. The great carved stone seraphs are flying! We do not expect them to fly. Neither did Isaiah. Those huge stone walls of the temple in Jerusalem, six feet thick, solid stone, are trembling. And Isaiah says, "Destruction is upon us! Everything is corrupt; the people, the worship of the people, it is all corrupt!" And as he goes into the temple, the angel goes to the brazier where the eternal flame is kept burning and with tongs he lifts out a flaming hot ember. He approaches Isaiah with it aimed straight for his lips.
In this interchange, Isaiah's perspective changes. The smoke is not the smoke of destruction - it is the smoke of worship, the smoke of incense. The hot burning coal is not the fire of destruction — it is the cauterizing flame that heals. The trembling of the temple is not the result of an earthquake - it is caused by the footsteps of God. Isaiah discovers that the thunder is not the thunder of the storms of life, but it is indeed the voice of God speaking, and that voice says, as He says over and over again throughout the history of the people, "Who will go for me? Whom will we send?" And Isaiah responds, the way the people of God so often respond - in fear and trembling, "Here am I, Lord, send me. I will go."
Our time, our life, is made up of similar events to those of Isaiah. We, too, see God high and lifted up. We, too, would prefer to have God a bit remote, a nice relationship to have on Sunday morning during the Protestant Hour, but not so close and intimate that He gets into our businesses and into our relationships. We seek a God away from current events. We seek a God outside of our institutions, and the angel says, "No! The whole earth is filled with His glory!"
We turn to the Bible and we want a Bible that is chiseled in stone, that means the same yesterday, today and forever — a Bible for which interpretation is not required because we learned it at grandma's or dad's knee. We learned it in confirmation class as children. And so, why go back and study it again? It hasn't changed. We would rather have that than the living word of God opened for us, and proclaimed to us, and illuminating our lives.
We want a church that is changeless, predictable — where the liturgy never changes, where the music is familiar, where the preaching is brief — comfortably fitting into an hour. We are not interested much in the living body of Christ.
But in Jesus Christ, God declares again and finally that He is to be found in this world. In Jesus Christ, God declares that He is to be found in the institutions of this world and in the nations of this world. He is to be found in the people. In Jesus Christ, God declares that the old truth which has served well in the past, give way, day by day, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit to unfold for us new and deeper truths. Jesus says to us today, "You are not bright enough to handle it all. You are not open enough to handle it all. You are not sophisticated enough or simple enough or whatever it takes to hear the word of God." But Jesus says "I will send you the Holy Spirit who will come to you and open God's word for you over time, as you are able to comprehend it."
The Christian message is always unfolding. It is a journey that takes us into new situations, that helps us to meet new people and to find new insight and meaning in new cultures and structures of society. It is simply not enough to repeat the words of Jesus "back then," but to hear those words as new, to be open to Holy Spirit of Christ to show us the way in our new times. We abide in the truth only if we are a learning church. We abide in the truth only if we are seeking God in the institutions and peoples of our times.
It is very tempting to retreat from the current times. It is very tempting to hide ourselves in the stone walls of a cathedral or in the leather binding of a Bible. But the angel comes to us and declares the whole earth is filled with His glory. Jesus speaks to us today and declares the truth of God will unfold more and more as you are led by the Holy Spirit. And while we may recoil like Isaiah and declare, "No, for we are men and women of unclean lips, and we live in the midst of a people of unclean lips." The angel still comes to cleanse our lips and to open our hearts, to let us receive the grace of God that is coming to cleanse us.
Let us be sent as Isaiah — willingly, even with fear, but willingly — into the world to both give and receive the word of God. With each other, and with all the nations to share with the world around us, the riches of the one who has come, the riches of the one who is to come.
AMEN
The Rev. Dr. Robert Certain
rgcertain@stmargarets.org
7 June 1998