Isaiah 6:1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we are celebrating Trinity Sunday. It is the day that we remember the doctrine and the reality that our God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, and yet one God, united in divinity and majesty, not three parts, or three gods, or any of all of that stuff. Just Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, one God. Two of our readings highlight the work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the world and in action within the church. Our second reading from X has Peter talking about the salvation we receive through Jesus Christ, with respect to the Trinity, he says that the Father sent the Son with the full plan and knowledge that he would be trade, crucified, die, and then rise from the dead to bring salvation to all, and that the Holy Spirit came to the church on that day, the day of Pentecost, to proclaim this mission to the world. The Trinity in action. Our gospel reading has something similar, summarized in the verse that I think most Christians know, For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life, which may or may not be what the version that our reading has. It's the one that I memorized when I was about that tall. And the Holy Spirit is in this passage as well, when it talks about us being born of water and the Spirit, in Holy Baptism. This is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we know that this, this trinity is at work among us, as the Holy Spirit comes to us through the means of grace, to deliver the salvation of Jesus Christ to you, as we hear his word, and we receive His sacraments. To have these readings talk about our subject for the Sunday, but one does not. And as you know, I am preaching through our Old Testament readings this year, so which means I get to talk about that reading instead. But what it does talk about is the amazing power of God, and the experience of Isaiah. You see, this is a pretty intense moment, for the Prophet. It is his origin story. It's like the radioactive spider that came to Spider Man. And it's the suit that Tony Stark built to become an Iron Man, or the spaceship that flew from the planet Krypton all the way to Earth, and revealed Superman to the world. Isaiah, steps into the Holy of Holies, and sees God. How do we know that? Well, Isaiah gives us some hints at where he is. He says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him the stood the Sarafem. To understand what's happening here, you need to know how the temple was built, and what is going on. So let's start with how the temple was built, all the way back when they first build the tabernacle, and then later on the temple. It was always divided into three sections. The first section was the courtyard. This is the sort of like an outer wall around the building itself. In this area, you found the sacrificial altar. This is where they would have killed the sacrifices offered to God. They also had the Brazen Altar, also known as a really big grill. And then there was what they called the bronze See, which was a vessel law that would hold water for ritual washing that was large enough to make our swimming pools seem small. This was the courtyard. This is where Jewish men and priests only could go and offer their sacrifices. Everyone else had to be outside where the Gentiles or Jewish women would be. The next step was entering into the actual building of the temple. You go into there, they called it the holy place, only priests could go into this section. Inside the holy place, there was a table where they would put the Showbread. This was bread that they baked every single week, and would set out as a display to God. And at the end of the week, the priests would take the old bread and eat it. There were also candelabra. In the in the tabernacle, there was just one, but in the temple, they built more because it was bigger. And then finally, the incense altar, this would have been at the far end of the holy place, place that held burning coals that you would then place incense into as part of the daily worship of God in the temple. That is what Zachariah would have been doing. When he saw the vision of the angel Gabriel, who told him he would have a son named John that we know of as John the Baptist. Now there was a dividing line at this point. And on the other side, was a room called the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies was a simple room with only a couple of things. The most important one was the Ark of the Covenant. If you've watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones, you know exactly what it looks like. They did a pretty good job, right. And so it would be placed in the middle of the room, above the Ark of the Covenant, and to the sides were to Sarafem. Angels. And they stood with their wings out. So that one touched the wall. And the other touched the wing of the saref next to him, and then the other, touch the saref. And the wall. The Holy of Holies was the place where God was. And the Ark of the Covenant was his throne, sometimes called the mercy seat. This was the place where God lived among his people. It was also a place where only one person could go once a year, and the high priest would go in on the Day of Atonement, and he would go in with fear and trembling. And the stories are that they would tie a rope around his waist and put bells on his robe. So that just in case, if he saw God and died, they would find out by the lack of movement, and they could pull him out. It was a scary place. Because being in the presence of God, seeing God meant death. Because God was holy, and the people were not. That's the whole reason they had a temple. In fact, when God came to Moses on Mount Sinai and told him to build the tabernacle, he said that he would do it so that he would not lash out with His Holiness and destroy the people. All of the sacrifices, all of the rituals, the tabernacle, and everything else, was designed to keep God's people safe from his holiness. Because if they came in contact with him, they would die. Holiness, and unholiness cannot stand each other. So we see Isaiah, his eye he is either in reality or in a vision. In the Holy of Holies. The Sarafem are now animated, and flying above the throne crying out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory the Holy God
And Isaiah sees him. So he cries out, Woe is me. Because Isaiah knows the stories. He knows that when the high priest had two sons, who went into the temple and offered a kind of worship, that God did not command, God did not go to them and say, now they're there. Here's what I actually said, Let's try better next time. But that's not what happened. They died. Isaiah knows that when David decided to move the Ark of the Covenant, by placing it on a cart instead of following God's instructions. And when the carts wheel broke, this poor priest who's decided he was going to keep the Ark of the Covenant from rolling into the mud, and he went, put out his hands to stop it. Poor guy died. He knows that even Moses at the top of Mount Sinai, when he said, Show me your face. And God said, I can't do it. You can see my back. So he covers Moses up, and passes by. Sea and God meant death. And so Isaiah says, Woe is me, for I am lost. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. He's terrified. He knows he's a sinner. And he knows that he is a member of a country of sinners. And that when the unholy meets the holy, the weaker one loses. But something amazing happens when one of the Sarafem grabs the tongues and pulls a coal out of the altar and touches Isaiah with it, right on his lips. This is so hot that the Sarafem actually takes the tongues and yet it doesn't burn Isaiah his mouth. Instead, behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atone for the voice cries out Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? And then I said, Here am I send me. What an experience right? Can you imagine? I can't like nothing could give me the kind of insight to be able to know what was going on for Isaiah, and what he was experiencing in that moment. What a holy experience. Now you may have noticed that going through all of this, we see this, this back and forth of judgment and then there's grace and then ascending to serve. So far, it doesn't really have anything to do with what the title of my sermon is for today. If you've got a bulletin, you'll see that it is Wait a second. law and gospel in Holy Communion. You may have noticed that there's no bread or wine in this passage. It doesn't even mention Jesus Christ, or communion. That's because there is a passage in here that is associated with the experience of God that we have as we come forward at this altar. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. It's the song The Serafin sing. And it's the song that the Christian church has sung just before communion for about 1400 years. The earliest records that I could find of singing this song before communion, go all the way back to 600 ad, in a record of what they call the gallican. Mass. The church from that time has sung, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And then they add, bless it is he who comes in the name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest. The song that the people saying as Jesus entered into Jerusalem So since the very beginning, Christians have applied this passage to Holy Communion, to help us understand what is happening. When the bread and wine that are Christ's body and his blood come to his people in our sanctuary is actually helped to design to help invoke this image to, you may notice that we have a division of two parts. There is, well, there's the world out there, right. And then you enter into what might work is kind of the holy place where you are all seated as priests of God. And then we have a second section where the altar that is a table stands. And Christ comes with his body and his blood. And here is an encounter with the Holy God, whose true body and True Blood are in the bread and the wine. Now, if you've been a Lutheran for long, you have known that this comes to you in this special gift that Jesus offers himself for the forgiveness of sins. And you see the amazing power of forgiveness. And we Lutherans are so comfortable with that, that sometimes we forget about the holiness of God as well as sometimes and that that's kind of a good thing. It's a piece of that says that you are so in touch with God's love and His grace for you, you would never think of an encounter with him as being of one of judgment of a holy God coming to a sinful people in a way that could be dangerous, if done incorrectly. Some of that is good. But sometimes, we lose the fact that it is the same kind of encounter that Isaiah went through. When Christ comes with the bread and the wine, this becomes the holy of holies in every church that celebrates communion with Christ's Body and Blood. And when God comes down to be with his people, there is both grace and judgment available. Grace for those who are seeking forgiveness, for those who are united with us, in this unity meal, in our doctrine, and our teachings, but judgment for those who come without looking for this forgive judgment for those who do not examine themselves, and are not united with us. This is why St. Paul tells the the Corinthians in First Corinthians chapter 11, that everyone who comes to the altar must examine themselves first, or else they may eat and drink judgment on themselves. He says, and that is why some of them were sick, and some had even died. Like Ooza, touching the Ark of the Covenant, like Aaron's sons entering into the Holy of Holies unbidden. That means is, we needed to examine ourselves, as St. Paul says. What that means is, we need to be reminded of this every once in a while. This is why our congregation does not invite our guests to hold the community. We ask them to refrain. Because what is what what kind of host would we be if we ask someone to come forward, not knowing what they do, and maybe eating and drinking judgment. Right. This is why we examine ourselves before taking community. We ask ourselves, Am I a sinner in need of God's judgment? Do I come to Holy Communion, not as a reward for being good but as someone who needs grace? Do I believe that Christ's Body and Blood are there for me
that as my Savior, He died for me and rose for me to give me life am I united with all the people who are here, both in life and in doctrine and not bringing division to this unity meal? We ask ourselves these things, because we are looking for the grace that comes through this, this gift. And we don't want to receive the judgment. And so even though most of us have been doing this well, sometimes for longer than I've been alive, it is still good to remember that when the Holy God comes to us, he can come in grace or in judgment. We want to receive grace. In Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai