There I am again, sitting at yet another funeral and/or wedding luncheon, lonely because no one dares to come and talk to the pastor. Oh, occasionally you will get the obligatory, “good sermon, thank you” speech, but no one comes over to actually sit down and talk. Alone I eat my scalloped potatoes, roast beef, and apple pie. It is the curse of the collar.
I do not mention this luncheon neglect to make people feel bad for me. “Oh, the poor pastor who has to suffer through yet another free meal surrounded by kind people…that’s just terrible.” But, I do mention it because there is something very interesting going on at those funeral/wedding luncheons. You can correct me if I am wrong, but I think that I understand what is going on.
First, I think that some people are probably just as uncomfortable as I and simply do not have much to talk about with strangers. I understand that is going on for many people. However, I also think that people are afraid to speak to the pastor because their words may carelessly reveal who they are.
I do not know if you have noticed, but people try to act Holy while around a pastor. Most of you, of course, have thrown that façade out the window because you intimately know my own lack of holiness, but people who are not a part of the church do not. And, the scene always plays out something like this: a man comes over to say, “Thank you for the kind words,” and as he says it his son comes up and gulps down an entire glass of punch in one swallow. Trying to be funny the man says, “Woe, slow down son,” but the man does not expect his son to respond, “why are you worried about me, you can put away a six pack in one sitting.”
I see the look in the eyes that says, “Oh, I’m in deep, deep, water!” The man’s sin has been exposed, in front of a man of God no less…in front of someone with the main heavenly phone line…their unclean lips, or unclean livers in this case, have been exposed, and no one wants that to happen. And, so people stay away.
That gets me to wondering, if that is people’s experience with a pastor, imagine how much more people try to stay away from God. To stand before God must be infinitely worse.
Isaiah has been there, and it does not look pretty. He is thrust into God’s throne room to speak face-to-face with God. It is not a meeting of equals, God is so great and powerful that the hem of God’s robe stretches as far as the eye can see. When Isaiah looks up he cannot even see up to God’s face. Quite frankly, God could squash him at any moment.
As if those were not frightening enough possibilities, God has flying seraphs attending to God’s every need. No, they are not cute chubby babies with wings. They are elephant sized snakes with six wings who are circling all around, screeching their high pitched songs of praise to God, and now swooping very near Isaiah.
Taking a look at his situation Isaiah remarks, “Woe is me,” or as we might say “I’m in deep water;” if we are in church we would say that. If we were outside of church we would say something else. You may fill in your own favorite, “Oh, I’m in deep trouble exclamation.” Like the man whose drinking been exposed by his son, Isaiah has nowhere to hide. When in front of God, we have nowhere to run…nowhere to hide.
Of course, Isaiah feels unclean and unworthy and is afraid that this very sight will cause instant death! The prophet's words are to quite so straight forward. Is Isaiah “lost” or “ruined?” I’m going to go a little pastor geek on you here because the Hebrew word in this case has three meanings. The word can mean "to be destroyed," or "be brought to silence," or "made in the likeness of God." One commentator from workingpreacher.com says that “It is possible that all three are meant because each tells a truth about humans and God. God can destroy us; an encounter could stun us into silence; and even when unclean we are still made in God's image.” The commentator finds it interesting that the word for "unclean" here is a word that implies that the prophet did not properly prepare for this encounter.
Perhaps, the guy at the funeral would have talked to me if he had thought to prepare himself…go to church a few times…do something nice for his neighbor so that he would feel pure enough. But, just as I don’t require people to clean up their lives in order to eat with me at a luncheon, neither does God wait for us to "get clean" before coming to us.
In fact, God acts just the opposite. Rather than waiting for Isaiah to get prepared, God sends over a Seraph with hot coals who touches Isaiah's lips and burns his uncleanliness away. God makes sure that he is prepared. What we understand deeply about ourselves is that we cannot properly clean and prepare ourselves. But, God can prepare us, and God does. Think of it; rather than waiting for us to clean up our acts, God sends Christ to forgive us. We have no reason to fear God. How easily we forget.
Maybe, we have no reason to fear God, but the story does not end there. The Lord is not done. We have been prepared for a reason. And it is not long before God reminds us of something very important...something from our distant past that we may have forgotten: our call. The Lord gives Isaiah his call, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And, Isaiah said, "Here am I; send me!"
You were not created to live with no purpose. You were not created by a mistake of a one-night-stand. You were not the oops of your parents. I do not care what some of you have been told. From the foundation of the world, you have been created and called by God for a purpose. A commentator reminds us that, we may of course, "resist our call, but the truth is that we will not be whole until we answer God and become what we are created to be and do."
This truth is powerful, but it can also strike up another type of fear. Answering God’s call may no longer bring fear of God, but it does bring fear of failure, fear of being unliked, fear of being unfit, and fear of the unknown. God’s call will not necessarily make you into a rock star. It may be hard. Isaiah’s own call was to proclaim something hard to the nation which had the possibility of making him hated and lonely. God’s call is not necessarily the ride of your life, but it is the reason you were created. It may strike fear, but at the same time, following the call will feel quite natural. Again, we can resist the call, but we will not be whole…we will not be who we were created to be…until we answer it.
Is there really any other choice, than to say, “Here am I; send me!”
Cited commentary is by Beth Tanner, Assistant Professor of Old Testament at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Brunswick, NJ and can be found at: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=2/7/2010
All Scripture quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyrighted, 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and is used by permission. All rights reserved.
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