After Pentecost
Isaiah 6:1–8
1In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" 4And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" 6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." 8And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am! Send me."
"With angels and archangels,... and with all the company of heaven,... we laud and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and saying: 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of power and might: Heaven and earth are full of your glory.'" (LSB: Sanctus). In our Communion liturgy we join Isaiah and enter into this eternal song of the angels praising the Glory of the Triune God. This Old Testament text is not about Isaiah, it's about us. It's about what we are doing right now in church. It's about what we are going to do a few short minutes from now as we come to the altar! If God opened our eyes to show us what is really taking place here in church during the Divine Service, like he did for Isaiah, we would see the Glory of God sitting upon his throne, high and lifted up; we would see the train of his robe filling this place of worship. We would see the great multitude of saints, our forefathers, Abraham and Moses, Elijah and Isaiah, Mary and Joseph, Peter and Paul, Martin Luther and C. F. W. Walther, your mother or father, husband or wife, perhaps a son or daughter, who are today clothed in white gathered here with us today around the throne of the Triune God, and we would hear the angels sing: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of power and might: Heaven and earth are full of your glory." As we sing this song in the Communion liturgy we are joining our voices to this same Te Deum being sung in heaven, day and night, forevermore. (Revelation 4 and 5).
The Divine Service, our liturgy of worship of the Triune God, is no mere trifle, it is no mundane thing, it is not just an experience, or something we make up fresh and new each week. Rather, it is standing with Isaiah in awe as we behold the glory of the Lord which fills this holy place like a thick smoke, and "the foundations shake at the voice of him who called"; that is, the Word of God who spoke you and me into existence and created life; the Word who was made flesh and died on a cross and rose again; the Word who gives us life today as He speaks to us in the liturgy of the Divine Service. This liturgy joins us to the eternal song of the church, "Holy, holy, holy," which is sung past, present, and future, and is today, at this very moment, being sung by the cloud of witnesses, the multitude of saints clothed in white around the throne of the Most High in the heavenly places.
"The whole earth is full of his glory," sing the angels. "The heavens declare the glory of God," sings the Psalmist. Man, made in the image of God, reflected his glory... at one time. But now, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We no longer reflect his glory, but have chosen of our own free will to reflect the death and darkness of the devil. We have chosen to live, not in the kingdom of God's glory, but in the kingdom of Satan's darkness. Death is our destiny, for the wages of sin is death. Don't blame Adam and Eve for your plight today. No one has ever forced you to sin. There is not a single person here today who has not sinned of his own free will. Every one of us is a sinner and has chosen the path of sin of our own free accord. Death would be our destiny, hell our future, except for Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can change our destiny.
We are sinful and unclean. Isaiah recognized that when he beheld the glory of God. That is what we recognize when we come into the presence of God's glory in this holy place in the Divine Service. This is holy ground, and we enter here in reverence and respect. "Woe is me!" we cry with Isaiah. "For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts!" Coming into the house of the Lord, this holy temple, filled with the smoke of God's glory, is no little thing. We are sinners, and must enter in fear and trembling. God is holy, and no sinner can stand in the presence of God's holiness and live. Dr. Martin Luther tells us that we are to "fear, love and trust God above all things." Yes, he means "fear" God, fear his wrath, fear his punishment. Luther says, "From such fear the heart avoids everything that is contrary to his will, lest it should move him to wrath."
So we too, along with Isaiah, dare to enter here only with the fear of the Lord in our hearts and confession of sins on our lips. As we approach worship and the Holy Sacrament, we bow to confess our sin, for we are sinners and we dwell among sinners. Notice, sin is not just an individual thing. We are not just responsible for our own actions and words, but as a community, as a family, as a church we confess our corporate sins, our joint rebellion against God's holy will; our lack of showing the glory of God in our lives and deeds in our congregation.
How can we escape the wrath of God? How can we stand in this holy place without being annihilated by God's fire? God's Son is our only salvation; he is our only way out from beneath God's destroying wrath. For when Adam and Eve sinned, God said, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us to save these people?" God's very own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, stood up and said, "Here am I! Send me, send me." God's Son volunteered to come and bear the fiery wrath of God's anger for us. God's Son was subjected to the fire of God's anger, and he become the burning coal whom the angel takes and places upon us in Word and Sacrament. This burning coal atoned for our sins by his fiery ordeal on the cross. This burning coal takes away our guilt and sterilizes us from the contamination of sin. This burning coal is God's Word, Jesus Christ, who "bespeaks you righteous."
This burning coal is what God's angels, his messengers, place on your lips today, as they minister to you with God's Word and his Holy Sacraments. As you join Isaiah in your worship each Sunday, God's angels, his ministers, touch your lips with the burning coal of Jesus' death on the cross when these lips of yours receive Christ's holy body and blood. Your sins are atoned for, that means paid for. Your guilt is taken away. That fiery wrath of God which ought to scorch you like a burning coal, scorched Jesus instead, and now, like a refiner's fire, it burns away the dross of your sin and guilt.
This is God's glory that fills the whole earth! God's greatest glory is to save us sinners. God's glory was fully revealed on the cross. The death of God's Son for the atonement of your sin is God's greatest glory. This is the glory that Isaiah beheld; this is the glory that you and I behold each and every time we come into this place to be in the presence of the Blessed, Holy Trinity.
"Holy, holy, holy!" is our God, and as you now behold his holiness and live in his presence and He in you, the holiness of God now defines you; holiness is what gives you your identity as God's children; set apart from the world to be a holy nation, a royal priesthood.
"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Today he sends his Holy Spirit to you in the ministry of Word and Sacrament. It is not enough for your salvation for Jesus to live a perfect life and receive all power and glory at the Father's right hand. If Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension are to have any meaning for you, then he must send forth his Spirit who, through the ministry of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, Christ's life becomes your life; for you are sinful people who have fallen short of the glory of God, but by the work of the Holy Spirit, you now shine with the glory of God wherever we go in all the world. He says, "The whole earth is full of his glory." This becomes a reality through you. For it is God's glory to take sinners who fell short of his glory, and remake them into his glorious image.
God asked, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" and like Isaiah, you too respond in your Baptism, "Here am I, send me." Renewed in faith and recreated as God's holy people, God sends you out of this holy sanctuary and into the world to embody the Word of God in your life. God sent Isaiah to the house of Israel. God sends you to your family, neighbors, friends, and co-workers. There you live the Bible. So that now, bought with the blood of the Son and made new by the Holy Spirit, you reflect the glory of God in all the places where you go. For everywhere you are, in the office, in the market, in the school, in the community and in the home, in the nursing home, in the hospital, there is the mercy and compassion of Jesus, helping, healing, comforting, bringing a ray of joy and love into people's lives. For, as Luther says, you are little Christ's spreading his love and compassion in every corner of the world where you go. It can be truly said that the glory of God fills all the earth, for you, his church, are in all the world.
How is God's name glorified among us? What is it that glorifies God? Luther tells us, God's name is glorified when "the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we as the children of God also lead holy lives in accordance with it. To this end help us, dear Father in heaven."
In other words, the true believer strives to live in accordance with the will of God, that is, the Ten Commandments, love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. As we live out our lives in obedience to the Ten Commandments, the glory of God shines through us. Luther states in his Large Catechism: "Now we have the Ten Commandments, a summary of divine teaching about what we are to do in order that our whole life may be pleasing to God....apart from the Ten Commandments, no work or thing can be good or pleasing to God, no matter how great or precious it is in the world's eyes." If you want to glorify God in your life, look to the Ten Commandments. "There you will have your hands full and will have enough to do to keep these commandments: meekness, patience, love towards enemies, chastity, kindness, and other such virtues." "Such works are not of value and make no display in the world's eyes, for...they are common, everyday, household works that one neighbor can do for another. Therefore they are not highly regarded...." by the world. But these works shine with the glory of God. And by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us, these are the works that fill all the earth with the glory of the one, true God, the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Soli deo gloria. To God alone by the glory. Amen.