pray that holy water
don't go dry
However you’re hearing this sermon, it isn’t in the way you’re used to, is it? And, however you’re hearing this sermon, you’re also hearing it amidst uncertainty and unrest. Aren’t you?
Now, if you’re anything like me, it’s all a little unnerving.
…But, what if everything that has you unsettled is actually the best thing for your faith???
After all, it made a prophet out of Isaiah!
…When we hear the word “prophet,” we tend to imagine the likes of John the Baptist, living out there, unkept in the wilderness.
Isaiah, though, was probably much more ordinary. He likely came from a good churchgoing family, with kin on the synagogue-charter, and a mother who served as Shabbat-school superintendent a time or two.
Isaiah was the type to have good attendance in confirmation. And to hang around afterward, too. Even becoming a regular in the church.
That’s why, in due time, he was asked to help lead the services.
Isaiah wasn’t someone who was out of place in the temple.
Especially that year. That year King Uzziah died. That year of uncertainty over who would rule next, and what it would mean for the nation.
That year, Isaiah undoubtedly looked forward to sitting in his regular pew, saying “good evening” to the usuals, and singing through the familiar liturgy.
On that fateful evening, though, nothing was familiar or ordinary…
Instead of seeing the regulars, Isaiah saw the temple filled with smoke and the trimmings of a robe far too large to be contained by the massive walls of the temple.
Circling high above it all were seraphs; these frightening, fiery, serpent-angels. And although they were singing from the tried and true service in the old SBH, the effect was altogether alarming. They screamed the “holy, holy, holy.” Their voices were so loud they shook the temple to its very foundation!
And Isaiah to his, too.
In the blink of an eye, while the congregation sang about God’s holiness, Isaiah found himself face to face with it! In a moment he realized what he said to pass confirmation, ‘no one can look upon the glory of God and live,’ was true all along.
That night Isaiah saw worship, not from his own expectations, but God’s.
He came to worship looking for a little normalcy, and instead got the exact opposite thing. But, hidden among it all was what he had always been searching for, the holiness of God!
…It’s not hard to relate to Isaiah these days. Is it? We know what it’s like to worship amidst turmoil. We know what it’s like when worship goes off the rails, too. The thing, though, is that everything that’s got you off balance is what God stands most firmly upon!
We like to tell ourselves we’ll get right with God once we’ve got our lives in order. What Isaiah’s call reveals, though, is that it’s precisely the other way ‘round! God comes to you when your world is upside-down! God comes to you when worship doesn’t go the way you expected!
When nothing went the way Isaiah planned, it all brought him in the presence of the Lord. And it is no different for you, either!
Life itself, and even worship these days, are all bringing you to your wit’s end. Aren’t they? But, when you’re down to nothing, God is everything! This is what it means to experience God’s holiness! To experience the presence of God in the last place you expected. In the last way you imagined! Not when everything goes as planned, but when nothing does.
This sense of being out of control you’re so afraid of is the very same thing Isaiah experienced when he cried out, “Woe is me!”
But, it didn’t consume him, did it? No, it cleansed him! It sanctified him. It remade him!
So completely undone and redone was Isaiah by this whole affair that before it was over, he wound up, not hiding from God, but volunteering to God!
…And so will you.
Everything that has your nose out of joint is really just the ingredients of holiness! This painful process of being ground down to nothing is really the experience of God becoming your everything. This feeling of powerlessness you’re fighting is really just the might and glory of God!
In other words, you are experiencing the very holiness Jesus let loose from the cross in all this! The Holy Spirit is transforming this moment into a cross-shaped one! Giving you God’s greatest gift, the power of the cross at work in your life!
This may not be what you expected or even wanted, but one day it’ll leave you, like it did Isaiah, singing, “holy, holy, holy,” and shouting, “here I am, Lord!”
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