“Send Me!”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is today’s Old Testament Reading, in which the Lord asks,
“Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And Isaiah replies, “Here am
I. Send me!” Our English word “awful” comes originally from the two words
“awe-full.” It means something that fills you with awe and inspires wonder and
amazement. But, there is also an element of dread and terror and fear.
That is the reaction every time in the Bible when someone sees the glory and
majesty of the Lord, or one of his angels. Every time someone encounters
an angel in the Bible, the first words out of the angel’s mouth are always,
“Fear not.” Isaiah’s vision of the Lord is truly an “awe-full” experience,
inspiring both awe and wonder and amazement, but also dread and terror and fear.
“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. 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.’” This vision of the Lord in all his glory and majesty and holiness
strikes Isaiah down with his own sinfulness and guilt and unworthiness.
Moses once asked the Lord, “Show me your glory.” And the Lord replied, “You
cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” Just as you cannot
look directly at the sun without being blinded by its brilliance, sinful humans
cannot behold the glory of the Lord without being destroyed by the burning
radiance of his holiness. That is why Isaiah cries out, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For
. . . my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Notice how even the
seraphs in the vision, angelic beings without any sin, must hide their faces in
the Lord’s presence. And feet in the Bible are symbolic of the way of
one’s life, your “walk” through life,” and so even the seraphs cover their feet,
as a confession that their walk is not worthy of the Lord. “At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and
the temple was filled with smoke.” The smoke in the vision represents the
anger and wrath of God. For, God’s anger and wrath burned against the
chosen Hebrew people. As Isaiah says, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I
live among a people of unclean lips.” God’s anger and wrath burned against the chosen Hebrew people because
they had fallen way from him. Materially, their nation was prospering
fantastically. Under the nearly 50 year reign of King Uzziah they had
become rich and powerful. But, spiritually, their nation had withered and
decayed. Sound familiar? The Israelites had turned either to the false gods of the nations
around them, or made their wealth and possessions into their god. And, so,
the heavenly “temple was filled with smoke,” as the anger and wrath of the true
God burned against their unfaithfulness. Isaiah was being called by the Lord to a very difficult and challenging
and thankless task. For, Isaiah was being commissioned by the Lord to call
these people to repentance for their sin and wickedness. The rest of the
book of Isaiah is the record of how he devoted his life to this very difficult
and challenging and thankless task. Isaiah confesses that he is unfit and unworthy for this great calling
from God. “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips.”
God could have instead sent one of the seraphs to do his will, a perfect angelic
being to carry out this mission and carry forth his message. But, the Lord
wants Isaiah, warts and all. Though Isaiah is indeed unfit and unworthy
for the task, God chooses him, and makes him fit and worthy. “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.’” The Gospel of John quotes from this very vision, and then says: “Isaiah
. . . saw JESUS’ glory and spoke about him.” So, the King, the Lord
Almighty that Isaiah sees sitting on the throne, is none other than Jesus
himself, the divine Son of God, before he came down to earth and was made man.
It is Jesus in the vision who sends the seraph, to touch Isaiah with the fiery
coal and cleanse him of his sin. It is Jesus himself proclaiming the Good
News to Isaiah, “Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” Fire is a symbol of the Holy Spirit’s power, and Martin Luther says
that the fiery coal in this vision represents the Holy Spirit, working faith in
the heart. Just as Jesus sent the seraph to touch Isaiah with the fiery
coal and cleanse him of his sin, through the Word of God and the Sacraments
Jesus still touches YOU with his Holy Spirit, and proclaims to you the same Good
News: “Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” To “atone” means to do something which makes up for some wrong you have
done. Jesus himself “atoned” for ALL your sins and failures and
shortcomings, for ALL the wrong you have done. As John says, “He is the
atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of
the whole world. . . the blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, cleanses us from
every sin.” “YOUR guilt is taken away and YOUR sin atoned for.” “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!’” Cleansing from sin
brings forth the eager response of service to the Lord. As Paul says in
2nd Corinthians, “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for
themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.” “‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ . . . ‘Here am I.
Send me!’” God could have instead sent one of the seraphs to do his will, to
carry out his mission and carry forth his message. But, the Lord wants
Isaiah, warts and all. Though Isaiah is indeed unfit and unworthy for the
task, Jesus chooses him, and by his atoning forgiveness makes him fit and worthy
and empowers him to serve. Like Isaiah, YOU are called by the Lord to many tasks in life, to serve
him in many ways with your whole life. Although you too are unfit and
unworthy, the Lord wants you, warts and all. Jesus chooses you, and by his
atoning forgiveness makes you fit and worthy and empowers you to serve. “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Like his call of
Isaiah, the Lord calls YOU to many difficult and challenging and often thankless
tasks. Your family needs food on the table. Like the food replicators on
Star Trek, God could just “zap,” and make the most heavenly meal magically
appear. Or, he could send an angel into your kitchen, a perfect cook—just
imagine what a feast an angelic cook could whip up. And God could send an
angel to be your children’s nanny and maid and chauffer, to change their diapers
and do the laundry and clean the house and mow the lawn and pay the bills and
all those things that must be done for your family. But, instead, God
wants YOU; he chooses to work through you. “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” God calls you to
serve him, through your service to your family. “Here am I. Send me!” Your job, the worldly work you do, may not always seem important in the
big scheme of things. But, you can say about any honest occupation, if
someone didn’t do this work, other people, in some way, would suffer. It’s
easy to think that way about some occupations, such doctors or nurses, that
someone would suffer if they didn’t do their important work. But, that is
how God feels about every occupation. If someone didn’t do this work,
other people, in some way, would suffer. That applies to even what we
consider to be the humblest work. I was talking on this topic once at a youth gathering, the importance
in God’s eyes of every vocation, when a man who worked for the convention center
quietly came into the back of the big room and emptied the trash can. And
it made me think: How many trash cans get emptied every day in America? It
must be tens of millions. But, what if there was no one to ever empty the
trash cans? God needs doctors and nurses, but he needs people to empty the
trash cans too. As Paul writes in 1st Corinthians, “There are different kinds of gifts,
but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all
men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common
good.” And Peter says, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received
to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” Our world is like a jigsaw puzzle, and you are one of God’s
indispensable pieces. Or, our world is like an old-fashioned clock. Open
up the back and there’s all the different gears working together. But, if
you only had IDENTICAL gears, which were all alike, even if you had an endless
supply, you could never construct a working clock. They have to be
DIFFERENT sizes and shapes for the clock to function. In the same way, for
our world and society to work, God needs people with all sorts of different
gifts and talents and abilities, to serve him in many different ways. As
Paul says in Colossians, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as
working for the Lord, not for men . . . It is the Lord Christ you are
serving.” “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” God calls you to
serve him, through your service to your fellow man in your earthly occupation.
“Here am I. Send me!” In addition to your service to your family and in your occupation, there are many other opportunities for you to use your unique gifts and talents and abilities, your particular manifestation of the Spirit, for the common good. For example, serving in the community, perhaps as a coach, or scout leader, or other volunteer work; serving in an elected office, helping with elections; volunteering in school, being a foster grandparent; and on and on. In God’s eyes all of these are a service to HIM, as Paul says in Ephesians, “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.” “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” God calls you to
serve him, through your service in the community. “Here am I. Send me!” And, of course, in the church there are so many wonderful opportunities
to use your gifts and talents and abilities to serve the Lord. Singing in
the choir, Sunday School and youth group, voter’s assembly and church council,
church boards and committees, our upcoming Blocktoberfest. Those are just
a few examples, as we work together here for God’s kingdom. “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” God calls you to
serve him, through your service to your family, in your occupation, in the
community, and in the church. Hark! The voice of Jesus crying, “Who will go and
work today?” . . .
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