Epiphany 5C

Isaiah 6:1-8

¹In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of God's robe filled the temple. ²Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. ³And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of God's glory." ⁴The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

⁵And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" ⁶Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. ⁷The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."

⁸Then 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!"

Epiphany 5

The Epiphany season continues with its focus on revelation, light, and Jesus for all people and all creation. God self-reveals in many different ways—scripture, circumstances, dreams we have when we sleep, dreams and visions when we're awake, memories, hopes, creation, sacraments… Epiphany also is about God's people in turn revealing God's ways of inclusive grace to the world, which makes stories of God calling people so appropriate to the season.

Isaiah is 66 chapters long; it spans at least two centuries with writings from at least three different people. Today's passage is from early in the first section of the book from the writer we refer to as Isaiah of Jerusalem or First Isaiah. Like Jeremiah's call we discussed last week, Isaiah's call is mostly about God's action.


Today's Reading

Seraphs or seraphim are snaky creatures with wings; elsewhere in the bible, cherubs or cherubim have lion faces. Neither one is the chubby baby angel figure of Renaissance and other paintings, of Christmas and Valentine's Day greeting cards.

Although this is one of the texts for Trinity Sunday, Holy, holy, holy in this passage is not trinitarian—it's an artifact of Hebrew and other semitic languages. English adjectives have basic, comparative, and superlative forms, so we say good-better-best, pretty-prettier-prettiest. If I were speaking Hebrew or Aramaic and really enjoyed a meal, I might say it was good-good-good or tasty-tasty-tasty; In English I'd tell the chef or my lunch companion today's menu was the best or the tastiest. In the first reading for today, God is holy-holy-holy or The Holiest.

This scripture outlines some essentials of worship:

• Proclamation of God's holy and glorious presence throughout creation: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of God's glory."
• Isaiah's confession of sin: "Woe is me! I am lost; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"
• Absolution: "The seraph touched my mouth with a live coal and said: 'Your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.'"
• Invitation/call: "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?'"
• Response: "Here am I; send me!"


COVID. The Future.

As COVID_19 remains a thing worldwide, like all people and every organization, the church needs to trust God with the future God has been preparing for us. Jesus Christ's life, death, resurrection, and ascension along with the witness of scripture are our main guides as we pray and hope into the unknown. In exactly the same way a holy God met Isaiah in the temple in linear time – "the year that King Uzziah died" – God meets us in particular longitude and latitude, year, month, day, and hour. Right now it's "In this name of place in the beginning of the third(!!!) year of the worldwide COVID pandemic." God self-reveals in scripture, circumstances, dreams, memories, hopes, creation, sacraments… How is God calling the church into the future?

At the start of Leviticus we hear, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: "Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy." Holy people? Holy God? Leviticus 19 then outlines the Ten Commandments, with added details. The baptismal hymn in 1 Peter announces to us:

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, people of God's possession,
So that you may proclaim the mighty acts of God who called you out of darkness into marvelous light.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people;
Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9-10

Epiphany reveals Jesus as light of the world, Jesus as savior of all. Epiphany is about us in turn revealing God's inclusive grace to the world. For us as holy people of a holy God, holiness means being baptized, set apart, and called; holiness means being pure or forgiven; holiness means responding with loving, merciful, justice-seeking lives.