St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Epiphany 5 – February 5^th and 8^th, 2004

Isaiah 6:1-8

¹In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ²Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

⁴At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

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."

⁶Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." ⁸Then 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!"

Dear People of God whose lives have been made free by God’s grace,

The movie is the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy has traveled the yellow brick road through the various stops while picking up friends the whole way. They are on their way to the great and all-powerful wizard who will be able to get Dorothy and Toto home. He will also be able to give the heart to the Tin man and courage to the Lion and a brain to the Scarecrow. As a little kid I can remember them all walking down that long hallway to see the Wizard. They were all afraid and didn’t really know hat to expect. They then came to the big room where they heard the voice of the Wizard and saw the smoke and fire billowing upward. What a sight for them as they entered into the sight of the great and all-powerful wizard. Does anyone remember the reaction of the Lion when he heard and saw this wonderful sight? He ran out of the room and down the hall and dove right through the window because he was so afraid. But as we all know the wizard was just am ordinary man and the machine was making all the noise and things that were scaring the people.

Today as we look at the prophet Isaiah, we can see Isaiah as he entered the throne room of the great and all-powerful God of the universe. What a sight it must have been as he was given this vision which allowed him to see a glimpse of the glory of God. Isaiah was also afraid in the sight of God, not because of the fire and smoke, but because he was a sinner who didn’t deserve to be in the presence of the almighty Savior. But Isaiah didn’t run away and hide. Instead God came to him as he comes to us. He came and called him. That is going to be the theme for us today.

Theme: The Lord Calls Us
1. He calls us to faith
2. He calls us to share his forgiveness with others

These words are from the prophet Isaiah. The ministry of Isaiah spanned 45 years, from about 740 to 695 B.C. His service began during the reign of Uzziah and stretched across the reigns of "Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah" (Isa 1:1). During Uzziah’s reign agriculture flourished and so did commerce. The age created a sense of national pride. It was a time of prosperity. The Northern Kingdom also experienced a period of national independence and power. During this prosperity, Isaiah is mentioned as the recorder of the events of Uzziah’s reign (2 Ch 26:22).

Our text places itself during this very specific time period. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple." Isaiah dated his call to a specific event, Uzziah’s death, which was the beginning of the end for Judah. Outwardly, of course, all seemed to go well, but judgment was on the way. The Assyrians would bring an end to the Northern Kingdom in 721 B.C. Judah would endure the Assyrian invasion and survive, but another judgment awaited her. The Babylonians would destroy Jerusalem in 587 B.C. With such gloomy judgments in the background, Isaiah sees a glorious and wonderful vision: the Lord seated on his throne. Isaiah identifies him as the Lord, emphasizing his authority, superiority, and power. Later the seraphim will identify him as Jehovah, the I AM God.

What did Isaiah see in this throne room? "Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke."" Now Isaiah sees high-ranking angels called seraphs near God’s throne. Seraph can mean "a fiery being." What an awesome and yet terrifying sight! We don’t know much about seraphs, since this is the only reference specifically to serpahs. We do know they are angels, messengers of God. But it is the actions of these heavenly beings that are more important than any speculation about their position among the other angels. As they hover above the throne, they cover their faces and feet. They demonstrate great reverence for the One on the throne and great humility in his presence. They call to one another in a great and powerful hymn of praise.

Isaiah was permitted to experience with all his senses the glory of God in heaven. Just the praises of the seraphs were enough to send massive tremors through the entrances to the foundations of heaven itself. Isaiah could see the glory of God, hear it, feel it, and perhaps even taste and smell the smoke. What was Isaiah’s reaction to all of this?

"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." A great separation exists between God and man. God is perfect in every way, without sin, and powerful. Every human is far from God. We are imperfect, flawed by sin, and weak. Isaiah knew, as every sinner knows when confronted with the searing honesty of God’s law-mirror, that he was by nature sinful. Isaiah reached the conclusion that every human must reach: "Woe to me! . . . I am ruined!" God’s holiness separates God from every sinner. God’s almighty power threatens every sinner with eternal separation and punishment. Isaiah had nothing to offer God that would appease him. He was empty-handed. He had no words to speak that could change the situation. Isaiah’s best was nothing in the presence of God’s absolute holiness and power. Isaiah was afraid because his eyes had seen the Lord, and he knew that no one could see God and live..

Simon Peter in our gospel reading for today could sympathize with Isaiah’s feelings of ruin. We remember that the Lord told Peter to "put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch" (Lk 5:4), despite a long night of hard work, Peter obeyed. But when he saw his own and his partners’ boats beginning to sink from all the fish, he felt his own soul sinking into the depths of despair. "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" he pleaded (v. 8). Both Isaiah and Peter were "righteous" men in a community sense. They were hardworking and religious. Yet their personal "righteousness" could not hold up before God. It is impossible for any sinner to stand in the presence of the holy God unless the Lord removes his sin.

"Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Immediately, help comes for Isaiah from the altar of God’s grace. How comforting to know that our Lord does not wait to send his comfort and aid in our every need. No human hand could reach out to a holy God. The difference between sin and holiness is too great for human effort. God must reach across the differences between his own holiness and human sin. The Lord sent one of the seraphs and by word and action dissolved the great separation. Forgiveness and atonement are God’s works, not man’s. By grace God forgives. Isaiah did nothing; God sent his love by the action and message of the seraph.

Nothing has changed. We too are forgiven by an act of God’s love. "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Ro 5:8). Then God dispatched his love to us in Word and sacrament. We are cleansed. The words "your guilt is taken away" literally mean "your guilt has been removed". This is a completed action. And the words "and your sin atoned for" literally mean "your sin is being thoroughly covered." This indicated a continuous action. God gives sinners just the cleansing they need, with guilt gone forever and all new infractions against God’s law covered with more grace. And note clearly that up to this point, Isaiah has not done a thing except cry out in anguish at his sinfulness. This all-around cleansing, hot coal of the gospel from God’s altar would keep Isaiah faithful for 45 years of difficult prophetic work. In fact, it sets his heart afire with the love of an eager volunteer. Now all God has to do is ask.

2. He calls us to share his forgiveness with others

"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!" This is Isaiah’s commissioning, in which the Lord (v. 3) calls him directly into the public ministry of the Word. Isaiah wasn’t looking for this call or campaigning for this call. As the Lord says through the writer to the Hebrews, "No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was" (5:4). Martin Luther often remarked how comforting it was that he did not choose the ministry for himself but that God called him through his church. Otherwise, pastors and teachers would constantly have to ask themselves, "Why did I get myself into this?" But when the Lord calls his workers through his church, they can be confident the work is the Lord’s and the Lord will supply the strength to do the tasks required of them.

When the Lord asks, "Whom shall I send?" Isaiah responds, "Here am I. Send me!" This same man only a few seconds earlier had said, "Woe to me! . . . I am ruined!" He was filled with fear and a sense of his own unworthiness. Now he shows courage and willingness to serve. He doesn’t know anything about his call. He will be told in the following verses of its difficulty. Here the prophet expresses a zeal to go for the Holy One of Israel. What is responsible for the change? Forgiveness had worked a miracle inside the prophet. Courage replaced fear. Willingness replaced a sense of unworthiness. Having heard and seen a most vivid sermon of law and gospel in God’s throne room, Isaiah responds to the Lord’s call to be a volunteer top preach law and gospel.

As we look at our lives, we soon see the strong similarities between Isaiah and us. God has confronted us with our sins and we have cried out in despair as we see those sins piling up. We have cried for God to have mercy on us. But just like Isaiah the Lord has come to us with the pure and comforting gospel message of full and complete forgiveness. He ten calls us to do the work in his kingdom of sharing his Word. What is the answer that we give when God calls out, "Whom shall I send?" We can think of all kinds of excuse on whey not to go. We can list all the things that would make it hard or difficult for us to go out into the world. But the fact is that God has given us all the great and mighty privilege of sharing God’s Word. We may not be doing it from the pulpit on Sunday morning. We may not be doing it as a teacher in our Christian Day School. We may not be a Sunday School teacher or a member of the outreach Committee, but God has called us to do his work. And we can answer as Isaiah did, "Here am I send me." It is this gift of forgiveness that gives us the courage and desire to take his Holy Scriptures into the entire world and share this wonderful good news with others.