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Bible Passage: Isaiah 6:1-8
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date: May 30, 2021
The Bible clearly shows that God is triune, which means he is three distinct persons in one being—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is beyond our understanding, but what a blessing it is that God has revealed himself in three distinct ways so that we can better understand him and relate to him, even though he is holy. There has been a conscious movement within American Christianity to make God more relatable, which in many ways is a good thing. We can have a close relationship with God through Christ. But there comes a point where this “relatable” aspect is emphasized to distortion. For instance, we say that God is our friend, but be careful how you understand that. How many other friends do you have that have ultimate authority over your life? How many friends do you have that decide your eternity? Which of your friends created you and knit you together in your mother’s womb? How many of your friends do you worship? I don’t have any friends on earth like that. I don’t have any friends that can compare to God, because he is, as we heard in Isaiah 6: holy, holy holy and I am not. That’s what I want to talk about today. On this Holy Trinity Sunday we look at Isaiah’s vision and, specifically, God’s holiness. I want to show you how God’s holiness determines what we mean when we say we have a relationship with him and why it is so incredible that we are cleansed and called by the Holy Trinity as his people.
Do you ever think about the significance of God’s holiness? It may sound a little abstract, and sort of doctrinaire at first. But if your God was not holy, he would not be worth worshiping. I’m not talking primarily about holiness as an ethical quality. That’s usually what people think holiness means: sinlessness, being perfect in a moral sense, etc. But that’s not the main meaning of holiness in the Bible. The main Hebrew word the angels were chanting in our first lesson is qadosh, it’s the word we translate “holy.” Forms of it appear some 830 times in the Old Testament. Interestingly, each occurrence has something to do with God himself or things in association with him. In fact, nothing and no one in the entire Bible is ever said to be holy in and of themselves except God. There is no holiness independent of God. And that helps us get at what holy really means.
The root of this word for holy means to be “to divide,” “to withdraw,” or “to separate.” The root has also been traced to the meanings of “brightness,” “brilliance” and even “fear.” All this means God’s holiness is so much more than the fact that he’s sinless. It means he is incomparable, completely different and separate in terms of power, wisdom, knowledge, timelessness, goodness, and love from anything and anyone else. That’s what you read in Isaiah 40:25. “To whom will you compare me that I should be like him? says the Holy One.” Or consider Hanna’s words in 1 Samuel 2:2 “There is none holy like the Lord. There is no God besides you; there is no rock like our God.” Holiness is really the “godness” of God. It’s what makes him who he is. Remember what the Lord said to Moses when he asked what he should call him? He said, tell them “I am who I am.” In other words, God cannot be described by words because we have nothing to compare him with. He is holy.
All of these concepts were experienced by Isaiah in chapter 6. In Isaiah’s vision, the distinction between the earthly temple and God’s heavenly throne room becomes blurred. Isaiah sees the “the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.” (Isaiah 6:1). God’s throne was “high and exalted,” that is, soaring separate, set apart from everything below. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. (Isaiah 6:3). The name “Seraphs” means “burning ones,” as in these heavenly creatures radiate like a blazing fire. But what is much more incredible is how God himself was emitting a brighter, purer, more intensely terrifying light which caused the burning seraphim to shield their faces from him with some of their wings! They also covered their feet, a sign of humility and submission. And then these great burning seraphim began to sing: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Can you imagine the sound?
So how did this encounter with the holiness of God affect Isaiah? We read, ‘When Isaiah saw this he shouted, “Wow! This is so cool. I wish I could experience this all the time!” No, that’s not right. I’ll try reading it again, ‘When Isaiah saw this he said, “God you are just so amazing! I feel so connected to you right now!” Not quite. “When Isaiah saw this he asked God to come into his life and lend more meaning and positivity to his everyday living.” No, not even close. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5) God’s holiness is awe-inspiring, but it is also terrifying. Sure, we worship God for his holiness, but the more we see of him, the more we’re reminded of how unholy we truly are. We understand why he is set apart from us. He is holy and we are not. It’s not a comfortable thought. Just ask Isaiah. We can’t relate to his holiness. The juxtaposition of God’s holiness exposes the dark, ugly imperfections in us. Isaiah knew inherently that he was unclean, unfit for God’s presence.
The truth is that we often grow too casual in our approach to God and his Word. If the seraphim need to cover the eyes and feet in God’s immediate presence, perhaps we ought to think through the implications of an irreverent approach to worship and life as God’s children. If God isn’t holy, then we fail to realize our sin and our need for forgiveness in his presence. If we don’t see God as holy then we won’t mind skipping worship or neglecting prayer, because just like a good buddy, he doesn’t mind. If we fail to see God as holy we deny his authority over our lives. We will not fear his power. We will not submit to his wisdom. And worst of all, we will not value his mercy. In the end, we may worship something comfortable and relatable, but it will not be the God who is “holy, holy, holy.” May God forgive us for the times we have taken him down from his throne and relegated him to just one box in our schedule. May God forgive us for the times we have tried to tame him, to domesticate him, in order to make ourselves more comfortable in his presence.
To truly love and worship our Holy LORD, we must embrace the reality that he is totally different from us, bigger and better than anything we can comprehend. (Isn’t that the kind of God you want to worship?) We need to get beyond trying to explain away the parts of him that surpass our understanding and rejoice in the holiness that makes God God.
Remember God’s holiness includes more than just his sinless nature. Appreciating God’s holiness leads to a better appreciation of all his attributes, including his love and kindness! Talk about incomparable, talk about holy: How about the love of God? Isaiah experienced it like this: Then one of the seraphim 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 seraph approaches with a live coal from the altar, from a place of sacrifice. Apparently, the coal was too hot to touch even for a seraph so Isaiah 6:6 mentions a “pair of tongs.” Imagine the biting pain of placing a coal on your lips. Imagine taking some glowing embers from a campfire and pressing it to your own mouth? The cleansing of sin is not easy. But the pain had a purpose: Isaiah was forgiven, his sin was atoned for. The cleansing of our sin was not easy or painless either. Christ took the coals from the altar of the cross and burned himself in our place. Our holy God, without compromising his holiness, has given us the holiness of Christ as an atonement for our sin. This high and exalted God has come down to us in the person of Christ. This separate and set apart God has pulled us to himself and made it possible for us to be close to him through faith. In his eyes, we are forgiven and, yes, even holy as his people! The Triune God has cleansed us and called us, just like Isaiah.
This is how the prophet was called: 8 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!” Interestingly, God does not command Isaiah to do anything. God speaks out loud and Isaiah overhears the conversation. Nonetheless, overwhelmed at having been forgiven and permitted to live, Isaiah cannot help but reply: “Here am I; send me!” The more I think about it, it doesn’t seem like Isaiah is that kid in the class waving his hand, “Pick me, Pick me!” No, it is more that he realizes that he cannot help but serve the Almighty God. Regardless of what comes, regardless of the assignment, he must serve God. He cannot help but give himself in service to this Holy, Holy, Holy God. That should also be true of us: The Trinity is holy, holy, holy. If you understand that, he can’t just be part of your life, he must be your purpose in life.
I had a conversation with a pastor while I was in High School. I told him I was serious about becoming a pastor. And the first question he asked was “Why?”I said, “Well, I think it would be fun, I think I have some specific gifts, and the like… And he said, “Some of those are good reasons, but you shouldn’t become a pastor because you think it will be fun because often it isn’t.” I don’t know if he was at a particularly difficult period in his ministry, but it stuck with me. I think what he wanted me to consider was whether or not what I did in life was going to be based on my own happiness or for God’s purposes? I soon realized that for me, it wasn’t so much a desire to be a pastor as a realization that I had to be one. It was the clearest way, for me in my mind, to serve God.
Now, you don’t need to be a pastor to serve God, because you are called, wherever you are, to speak for God. Every day you are faced with the question: Will you serve yourself or will you serve the Holy Trinity? We read that “at the sound of the voices of the seraphim the doorposts, the thresholds of the temple itself shook and began to tremble” (Isa. 6:4). Inanimate, lifeless, unintelligible parts of creation in the presence of the holiness of God had the good sense to be moved. How can we be indifferent or apathetic gathered here in his presence today? The Holy Trinity asks: “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Let us respond with Isaiah, “Here am I. Send me!”
Amen.