Isaiah 6:1-8
There
are many details in this story that can be distracting. Who was King Uzziah?
What exactly does a seraph look like?
Why is Isaiah’s call to be a prophet happening six chapters in, instead
of in chapter 1? All of these are good questions, but not ultimately what this
short passage is about.
Isaiah
is in the holy of holies, inside the innermost part of the temple. He is a
having a vision or an experience, where the shapes on the Ark of the Covenant
are slowly transformed until they are no longer carvings, but are revealing to
him the activity that happens around the throne of God.
When
Isaiah says, “Woe is me…” This is not a Charlie Brown-kick-the-dirt kind of
grousing. It’s a gulp of terror. To see God, in Hebrew Scriptures, is to know
that you are about to die. No one sees the face of God and lives. Isaiah has
nothing to offer; yet what happens next isn’t based on what he can bring. It’s
based on what God can do and how Isaiah responds.
God’s
attendants come and purify Isaiah, giving him a real experience of forgiveness
and grace in the presence of God… mercy when he expected to die, absolution
without a sacrifice or offering, righteousness on God’s terms (not human
definitions). Thus, Isaiah is so moved that when God converses with the
heavenly host: Who will go for us? Whom
shall I send?- Isaiah pipes up, “I’ll go! Send me!”- even before he knows
what he will be asked to do or say.
Isaiah
is so grateful for his life and for grace, that he’s willing to undertake a
task from God- the details of which he does not know, but if he thought for a
minute about prophetic history, he’d probably offer someone else’s name
instead. Isaiah realizes that God does not abandon unclean people, but makes
them holy, makes them ready, and invites them into the work that needs to be
done. He says, “Send me”, not because he is an amazing prophet, but because he
recognizes the grace in being involved in God’s work in the world.
How
much of God does Isaiah see? Certainly not God’s face or even God’s hands-
these are not visible. Isaiah only gets a view of God’s feet: “The hem of God’s
robe fills the temple.” Only God’s feet… but it is enough. This experience,
God’s feet and hem, an encounter with forgiveness, is enough to move Isaiah to
gratitude and to action.
In
the coming week, most of us will be considering the things for which we are
grateful. We will listen to others around us say for what they are thankful. Almost
in the same breath, as we speak of gratitude, we will think of new things that
we want or perceive that we need. What if we stopped and just thought about the
hem of God’s robe? What if we became absorbed, like Isaiah, in a vision of
God’s activity in the world, in our communities, in our lives? And what would
happen if we realized that all we are grateful for, all that we are able to
perceive is just the hem of God’s robe?
It’s
not the whole picture. It’s not even half. The grace that we are able to
comprehend is just the tip of the iceberg. And yet it is enough. It is enough
for us to know just this much and to not die. Let this be your Thanksgiving
thought: all that you can think of to list as blessings in your life barely
begins to list all that God has done for you.
So
it is for all people and all creation. Having received more, and costlier,
grace than we can comprehend through Christ, may God’s Spirit move our
thanksgiving beyond “thank you” to “Here I am. Send me” – a thanksgiving
response to the grace of in being involved in God’s work in the world.
Amen.
Comments