"A Close Encounter of the God Kind"

     Dear Friends in Christ,  

It’s wonderful to be here isn’t it? Even on those Sunday mornings when it is pretty hard to roll out from under the covers…trust me, I’ve had those too…it is awesome to come here, to God’s house. Here we get to join with other brothers and sisters in Christ to receive ‘gifts’ from God, to join together to worship, praise, and give thanks to God. You and I come into this house this morning and we get to encounter the Living God through Word and Sacrament. And most of the time, I see smiles on your faces when we do so. However, despite all the wonderful ways that God reveals Himself to us, we have to admit, do we not, that we don’t get to see God in all His fullness. Sure, we look forward to the day when we do…that glorious day when Christ comes again to take us home, but for now, we rely on faith. And at times, even those who are known by many as ‘heroes of the faith’, long to see God and when they can’t see Him with their own eyes, encounter stumbling blocks on their faith journey. Remember Jesus’ disciple Thomas? Thomas will forever be associated with doubting…he needed to see and to touch His Savior to believe. But our God responds, “Blessed are those who do not see, yet believe.” But is Thomas really different from us? I want to see God…I long for the day when I will see Him and His outstretched, nail-scarred hands as they take me in a big, eternal bear-hug. But I have to wait.

This morning, however, we hear of a man who did get to see God, the Almighty in all His heavenly glory. Isaiah. Isaiah didn’t enter the temple in Jerusalem that day expecting this to happen. He was living a life of faith…not being able to see, but still believing. In that faith of a loving, merciful, and forgiving God, Isaiah goes to temple in Jerusalem. It would be most likely that he’s there celebrating Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the day when the Jews, God’s chosen people go to the temple, and the priest passes through the general courtyard, into the Holy Place, and then into the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies…into the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept…the place where God promised to dwell with His people. There the blood of the sacrifice would be sprinkled on the ark, and by that blood God’s people, His children, were forgiven their sins and welcomed back into God’s family. But this day was a bit different for Isaiah. For as he is there gathered with the other worshippers to watch as the priest parts the curtain and enters the Holy of Holies, he gets to see what he only was able to imagine…he sees with his very own eyes that which you and I long to see…He sees God…face to face…he sees our Almighty God, Creator of all things, the Great I Am, in all His splendor, majesty, and glory.

What a glorious experience!! Right?! How fortunate…you and I might even be just a bit envious of ol’ Isaiah. Upon the first hearing of this story, you might think that Isaiah would be standing there with a huge smile on his face, struck with awe, and saying, “How awesome is this?! Wow! This is great!” But that is not what he says is it? No, instead of a look of awe, Isaiah is overcome with terror. Instead of ‘wow’ it is ‘woe’. “Woe is me”…essentially “I’m as good as dead.” At that moment, as he gazed upon the tangible majesty of God Almighty, Isaiah remembered all too well the words of Yahweh God to the children of Israel gathered at the foot of Mount Sinai centuries before, “Man shall not see my face and live” (Exodus 33:20). You see Isaiah saw and understood exactly what those seraphim meant when they flew next to the throne singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy is Yahweh the Lord of hosts…the Lord of all the armies of heaven.” He understood that “Holy” meant separate…and they didn’t just say it once…but three times…indicating to Isaiah and to us that our God is absolutely separate, absolutely different from us because He is perfect, He is pure, He is powerful, He is all-loving, all-merciful. And even though the entire temple shook right down to the bedrock of the Temple Mount there in Jerusalem and the entire place filled with smoke, Isaiah could clearly see…he saw what he truly was…a poor, miserable sinner…”a man of unclean lips, living in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” In the light of God’s perfection, Isaiah stood, knowing he was enveloped in the thick darkness of his own sin, and that everyone, all mankind was as unclean as he was. He knew that God’s purity and holiness cannot be near the sin of mankind…that the holiness of God brings unimaginable wrath upon sin. Isaiah articulates so well the fact of the matter for all of us from the moment of conception…we’re lost. Standing in the presence of God and seeing Him face to face was no exciting thing for Isaiah…as He stood in the presence of God, he knew that there was nothing that he could do to save himself from the impending death…even standing there in the Temple as a faithful worshipper, Isaiah knew that he was no different than any run-of-the mill sinner…he could do nothing to appease the wrath of God or earn His forgiveness. There he stood, face to face with His God…feeling naked and ashamed, all of his sin and imperfection exposed…just as Adam and Eve stood in the Garden of Eden…naked in their sin and shame…just like Peter in our Gospel lesson this morning, where he begs of Jesus, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” You see, my friends, this is the reaction of those who get even a small glimpse of the holiness of God. They are crushed by the reality of their sin…they see exactly how dark their souls are, their pride and self-righteousness removed. Make no mistake, for sinners, it is a fearful thing to be delivered into the hands of the almighty God.

But what about you? You have come into God’s house this morning…into His temple, we could say. You come here and you stand this morning in the presence of the very same God whom Isaiah trembled before. Isaiah knew that he was not worthy to join in song with the seraphim proclaiming the holiness of God, he knew he wasn’t even worthy to be standing in the presence of God and to see Him. My fellow sinners, you and I are no different. You and I also are men and women of unclean lips, you and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And like Isaiah you and I are not worthy to even be here in the presence of the Living God. How dare we come into God’s house, into His presence with all of our sin clinging to us. Here in this house this morning as we gather before His altar, you and I stand naked and exposed…all of our sins…even those which we guard so close to our hearts so that no one will ever find about…all of them are evident to God.

Maybe it isn’t so wonderful to be here? Maybe it is a fearful thing to be here. In truth, it should be, it would be, without the mercy and grace of our Heavenly Father. The death sentence promised in Exodus 33 has not been revoked, that law is still on the books, but our Father in Heaven has granted you a reprieve... a pardon. For Isaiah, that pardon came that day in the temple when one of the seraphim went to the altar, where there was still some smoldering coals from the sacrifice that Isaiah had offered earlier and it took one of the hot coals and brought it to Isaiah’s mouth and touched his lips with it. As Isaiah’s lips were seared, his sins were seared…permanently erased from God’s memory…he was forgiven, made clean…made pure and holy and then he could go out to God’s children proclaiming the holiness and the love of God. But we have no seraphim here flying around our altar…it’s not in the vicar’s job description to come this morning and touch your lips with a glowing hot coal…so what about us…what about you…where’s your pardon? There’s no seraphim flying there, but look above the altar this morning…there is your pardon…the cross on which Jesus Christ, the Son of God died. There it is that He died for you…there hung God made man…and He allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross…He pushed His holiness aside and He, in all his righteousness and purity took on your impurity so that you, His brothers and sisters who trust in Him, could come into His and your Father’s presence, not clothed in sin, but in purity and holiness. When God the Father looks down on you this morning and every morning from above, He looks at you through the lens of a blood-stained cross, and He sees not a sinful, rebellious child deserving of death and eternal wrath, but He sees a loving child who is promised the glories and riches of heaven.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, just as Isaiah was made clean and pure by the touching of a coal to his lips, so also you are made clean and pure this day and every day that your lips are touched with the very body and blood of your Savior, Jesus Christ. All the glory and holiness that was and is God is fed to you in this most holy meal. Condemned in your sin no more, you now stand with the angels and archangels and all the saints of heaven, forever glorifying your God with the threefold hymn of praise, “Holy. Holy, holy Lord God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory” (Sanctus from the Divine Service).

      Amen.