Here I Am; Send Me

Sermon delivered at Lake Waccamaw Presbyterian Church

June 22, 2014

(Scripture follows the sermon)

Our text this morning is a strange passage, Isaiah has this vision of seeing God in the temple high and lifted up – seated on a heavenly throne and the hem of his robes filled the temple and some kind of strange creatures were flying around him. Isaiah called the creatures Seraphs and said that they each had six wings two covered their eyes so they did not look directly at the purity of God, they flew with two wings and this translation it says that the last two covered their feet. Now in the Bible feet are often used as a euphemism for a person's private parts. When Ruth went to Boaz to seduce him as he slept on the threshing floor the book of Ruth says she uncovered his feet – well this was a discrete way of saying that she uncovered more than his feet. So these strange creatures were flying around covering their privates with one set of wings, covering their eyes with another set and using the third pair to fly with and all the time singing to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.

Now lets be honest – what kind of reaction do you think you would get if you told your neighbor that you saw something like this? Most folks would want to know what you had been drinking, what kind of medication are you taking, what kind of drugs have you been smoking or shooting. Go and tell your doctor you saw something like that and the doctor would probably send you for a blood draw to see what is going on, what is off balance in your body, and for good measure he would probably give you a referral to a psychiatrist of psychologist.

We live in a society that no longer believes in dreams or visions. I am not saying that people do not have dreams and visions, in 45 years of ministry I have had many people confide in me and tell me about their dreams and visions, and even more often had people tell me about hearing voices that they were certain came from God. What I am saying is that the prevalent social attitude in our secular culture regards any spiritual experiences with skepticism at best, or at worst as signs of mental illness.

I am sure that the majority of his contemporaries who heard about Isaiah's vision did not think it either strange or sick. In their society people believed in dreams and visions. What Isaiah is describing is a vision, an inner spiritual event. If I had been with Isaiah when he saw these strange things I probably would have seen nothing out of the ordinary except that Isaiah might seemed to be asleep, or in some sort of a trance. God was getting something over to Isaiah, he was calling Isaiah to accept his vocation to be a prophet – to speak God's word to the people and to the king, to call the nation to repentance and to show them that the consequences of their rebellion against God would be the the destruction of the nation.

Our culture has changed, but God has not changed. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost he quoted the prophet Joel who said that God will pour out his spirit on all flesh and young people shall have dreams and old people will have visions. God did not stop communicating with people after the New Testament was written, God continues to reveal God's self in a variety of ways, and one way is through dreams and visions. People today continue to have dreams and visions, and some of them come from God. The problem is that in our society most people don't pay attention to their dreams and those that do read books that supposedly tell them what their dreams mean without considering that God may be speaking to them through their dreams. And visions – well we don't talk about them because we are concerned about what people might think about us.

But Isaiah paid attention to his vision and He wasn't ashamed to write about what he saw. In the vision God was calling him to do the work of a prophet. But something was standing in the way of his responding to God's call. It seems very common for those who God calls to find all sorts of reasons not to respond to their call. Moses said who is going to pay attention to me. I am a murderer and I am hesitant of speech. I am no kind of leader of people – I'm better at leading sheep than people. Jeremiah told the Lord that he was too young to be a prophet.

Isaiah's problem was the problem of guilt. Standing in the presence of God, the almighty, the Holy the perfect one he was sure he was going to be stuck dead because no one could look at the face of God and live. He 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!”

So God dealt with Isaiah's problem and sent one of the seraphs to touch Isaiah's lips with a red hot coal from the fire on the altar and the seraph said “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then the Lord spoke and said “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”

There are many of us who are like Isaiah. We know that God has a job for us, God has work for us to do, but we are hesitant to answer God's call because we feel we are not up to the task, we feel unworthy, we feel sinful. I will never forget one man in my first Church, Archie Cross. Archie was an old man, must have been well into his 70's is not over 80. Archie started out coming to Church occasionally, then gradually he became one of the regulars. Now Archie knew everyone in the Church, his wife was one of the regular Church ushers, but when he came he always sat in the back pew. He wanted to stay as far away from the preacher and the choir as he could be and still be there. But he came every Sunday. He had never been a member of anyone's Church. Archie had never even been Baptized. Of course once he became a regular attender people begin to ask him when he was going to join the Church. I visited with him more than once and ask him why he didn't come down the aisle and join the Church. We opened the doors of the Church and had an altar call every Sunday, invited people to come forward and join the congregation. But Archie clung on to his back seat Sunday after Sunday. He told me, Terry I have been a very bad man. Well I didn't know what all he might have done, he was probably once a gambler, probably had been a womanizer. Might even have committed violence when he was younger, but Archie wasn't that way anymore. Annabell Riley told me that one of the times she was in the hospital Archie came to visit with her and before he left she said that Archie said the most moving prayer with her. But Archie said I have been a very bad man, and sat in his back pew. I knew there were dozens of people praying for Archie every time I gave an altar call, but Archie held on tight to that back seat in the Church. We kidded about wiring up that back seat so he got a shock when I opened the Church doors and would rise up and think it was the Holy Ghost pushing him down that aisle. But one Sunday the Holy Spirit did touch him somewhere in the depth of his being and he did walk down that aisle, he met with the session, told us he decided he better not wait too late, and the next Sunday I took him down into the Baptizing pool and he was baptized under the water.

Well so much about Isaiah and so much about Archie; the really important part of today's message is about you. Yes you in the front seat and those of you in the back seats and those in the middle. What is God calling you to do? What is the work that God is calling you to do? Is God calling you to teach Sunday school, is God calling you to sing in the choir. Is God calling you to visit the sick and shut in members of this congregation? Is God calling you to feed the hungry and help provide housing for the homeless? Is God calling you to be reconciled with that person who you have had a falling out with? Is there some member of your family you are not speaking to? Is God calling you to be reconciled with that person who has offended you, or with the one you have offended?

I am convinced that God is calling each one of us to do something. Perhaps you know what God wants you to do, but you are resisting saying yes to God's call. Is it guilt or a feeling of unworthiness that is keeping you from responding? Or do you not know what God's call to you is. Perhaps you need to pay attention to your dreams. Maybe that thing that you have been dreaming about is exactly what God wants you to be doing. Perhaps you need to pay attention to see a vision of what you could be doing for Jesus and for this Church. God speaks in dreams and visions, but God also speaks in a still small voice, a voice we need to listen carefully to hear and understand.

If you know what it is that God is calling you to do, let this be the day when you say yes to God. If you truly do not know what your calling is then let this be the day you begin to listen carefully and deeply to hear the voice of God. Let this be the day when you say I am yours Lord, I will follow you where ever you lead me. I'll do what you want me to do, I'll go where you want me to go. Our Hymn is Jesus calls us o'er the tumult of our lives' wild restless sea, day by day his sweet voice soundest, saying Christian, follow me.

Scripture text for the sermon

Isaiah 6:1-8

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs 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. 3 And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5 And 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!”

6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The 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.” 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!”