As I went down to the river to pray...

6.03.12

Isaiah 6:1-8

Romans 8:12-17

Did you hear how Isaiah, a regular 'ole man of faith walked into the sanctuary (maybe not so unlike this one) and saw God – God! Seated high and holy on his throne, God was so vast, so huge that just the hem of the robe filled the room...just the hem, that little bit at the end of your sleeve – filled the entire room.

And then there were these strange, sci-fi sort of creatures (maybe something out of Harry Potter?) flying around and they were screaming words that we sing all the time “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory”but as they flew around the room they were covering themselves – their feet were covered, their hands were covered and their faces. So, these creatures were flying blind, flying by faith, perhaps?

The noise they were making, was it terror? Was is worship? Whatever it was was enough to shake the whole house (maybe like what happened here during SHEBANG?) and smoke was everywhere.

This is Isaiah's vision...but I wonder how much of a vision could this have been? The room was filled with smoke and the hem of God's robe was flowing everywhere and the noise was deafening...what can a person see when entering that scene?

Whatever Isaiah was seeing or hearing or feeling terrified him. His words are “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips...yet I am here, before the King, the God of hosts” The scene was meant to cast Isaiah into the holiness of God, and just like Moses, Jacob, Samuel and so many others before him, it sent him to his knees. Isaiah echos the others who have experienced God up close and personal and said, “I am not worthy, I do not deserve to be so close to God.”

Have you ever experienced this humbling? A holy moment or a moment of such obscene grace that you tremble and know you do not deserve to be there. This scene from Isaiah makes me think of the day when my two sister-in-laws met for the first time; the girlfriend of my younger brother meeting the wife of my older brother. My younger brother was on his way back to Minnesota to introduce his, then girlfriend – now wife – to to the family. While they were still en route my other sister-in-law went into labor and was about to give birth to my precious nephew. So, we were all gathered at the hospital in Fargo when the girlfriend arrived. My family is pretty inviting and open, so of course the girlfriend was invited into the hospital room and we were all sitting and laughing and enjoying the holy moment of knowing that very soon a new life would be among us! Many times the girlfriend, Anna, kept trying to excuse herself saying “I really shouldn't be here, I'm happy to wait out in the waiting area” but the poor girl was trapped by my family and the gracious welcome of the laboring woman who was so interested to hear about Anna and learn more about her.

The laboring was put on hold of a few moments to welcome and include this new face among us.

Well, had we added the smoke and holy seraphs flying around the hospital room perhaps Anna would have found her self on her knees yelling “Woe is me, I am lost, I am not worthy!” who knows? That kind of love and grace can be so uncomfortable...its embarrassing really.

But that is the kind of God we worship. A God who is so great and so vast and so busy creating life and newness all around us – yet that God pauses and brings us into the holiest of places, places we do not deserve to be in, places that feel uncomfortable, places that shine the light on all that makes us unworthy, undeserving, ashamed of our unclean lips and painfully aware of how out of place we really are in God's presence.

Do not worry – just as God did for Isaiah, and just as our family finally did for Anna, God relieves the tension, God saves us from our own uncomfortable squirms. And how does God do that? Well, this is the amazing, holy, incredible greatness of our God – we are not sent away, we are not just dismissed from the pain, we are not left alone to squirm eternally in our unworthiness – God makes us holy too. God yields all the power of heaven and earth and approaches us – purifies us, cleans us, makes us complete right there in the holy place.

The seraph said to Isaiah, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Now Isaiah was free to live in the presence of a most Holy God, and free to answer the call with “Here I am Lord, send me” when God asked who would go.

Just like the laboring woman who took a break from the important and miraculous birthing process to welcome and nervous newcomer, so is our God who does not only sit on a high and holy throne, but bends down to our nervous and scared lives and welcomes us in to the life and love of God.

When and where have you felt close to God? Has there been a moment in your life that you and sensed the Divine? Has there been a person that has brought you into God's presence? Has there been an experience in your life that you can look back on and recognize that God was with you every step of the way? Have you ever felt the grace and mercy of God that was so good, you were embarrassed to receive it? I imagine that whatever your up-close-and-personal story is...there is that uncomfortable and yet reassuring sense that Isaiah had standing before the holy of holies.

God promises to be with us always. But there are times when that promise becomes a bit more tangible – something we can really feel, or see, or hear, or touch or taste. In the church, we call them sacraments. Sacraments are the experiences we have when we encounter something really normal and ordinary – like bread, and it is paired with a promise from God that we hear of in the Bible. So, with bread we come up to the table and eat the bread and hear Jesus' words that promise us something – that his body was given us, for you and for me. God took something so ordinary like bread and made it holy with a promise – a sacrament. Just before we take communion today we'll sing the hymn of the seraphs from Isaiah, “holy, holy, holy Lord. Lord God of power and might heaven and earth are full of your glory!” we sing the hymn of humility before God, we are not worthy to step up and receive Jesus...but God makes us worthy with a promise.

And the other sacrament includes water. God takes something so ordinary as water and sticks a promise in it, a promise that we heard in the reading from Romans...

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ... we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” (Ro 6 & 8)

In this promise we become children of God, adopted into God's family and marked with the cross of Christ forever. God takes something so ordinary as us, simple humans with unclean lips in the earth...and makes us extraordinary in the waters of baptism – children of God, joint heirs with Christ, heirs that receive life instead of death and light instead of darkness.

We're going to get up close and personal today with God – we're going to dive into the waters of creation and speak God's promise onto four ordinary (and still very special) but ordinary young woman. And God, and God alone, will bring holiness, greatness, love and grace that is so undeserved. How dare we step so boldly into the Columbia River? We do so because God has made a way – we do not deserve to be children of God, but God made a away.

It might be a scene as odd and crazy as the scene from Isaiah today – there will be noise and distractions all around, the river will fill and swirl around us just like the hem of God's robe. And just as the seraphs sang their songs of faith, we'll raise our voices to join them! And just as Isaiah was humbled, terrified and unsure of what being in God's presence meant...we'll have some fear and trepidation ourselves.

And God will ask the same thing us each one of you that God asked that day before Isaiah, “Who will go for us? Whom shall we send?” and because of all the promises God makes to you today, because of the gift of faith and the Holy Spirit – you will be able to say – boldly and without fear, “God, send me, I will go for you.”

Today in the waters of baptism, God will take the ordinary and make something holy. And church, the questions will stand before you today, “Whom shall we send” and you will be challenged to remember the promise and power given to you in your baptism...by faith alone may you also answer, “God, send me, I will go for you.” Because being baptized is not only about entering God's family – which these girls do today. Being batpized is also about being God's family – present, supporting, loving one another. Because in God's family we try to replicate that welcome and love of God that is so extravagant that we make one another squirm in welcome and grace.

One of my favorite bands, Mumford and Sons, articulates all that happens in the moments of the sacraments – bread and water and promise and all that happens here in the life of God's family...they write...

Roll away your stone, and I’ll roll away mine; together we can see what we can find.

Don’t leave me alone at this time, for I am afraid of what I will discover inside.

It seems as if all my bridges have been burned, but you say that’s exactly how this grace thing works.

It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart but the welcome I receive at every start.