|
Alone In The Temple
Jerry D. Campbell, President
February 4, 2007 | Laguna Beach UMC
[This sermon was given by Dr. Jerry D. Campbell at Laguna Beach
UMC on February 4, 2007.]
Isaiah 6:1-13
Luke 5:1-11
Psalm 138
In these days and times it is easy to think that the world is out of
control. I mean not just out of control, but out of God's control. It
doesn't help that we are constantly bombarded by all forms of media with
bad news. Good news doesn't sell, doesn't raise ratings. And as if news
sources weren't enough, now the World Wide Web is filled with Blogs and
Wiki's providing access to a vast array of opinions on world issues. With
all of this on our television screens, in our newspapers, on the radio,
and on our computers, more than ever before in history, we are aware of
all the world's problems. What are we to think? It is easy to think that
the world is out of control.
It is also easy to think that God ought to do something about it. I catch
myself wondering how God can let things get out of control, get in such
bad shape. I suppose that should be, "How can God let us put things into
such bad shape?" When is God going to do something to bring humanity back
under control and get salvation history back on track? The most frequently
heard and extreme version of this question today is cast in terms of the
expectation that we will soon see Armageddon. You know about Armageddon:
the forces of evil get so out of control that they can only be put down
by the Second Coming of Christ, precipitating a battle to the finish between
the forces of good and evil. I was recently surprised to see a special
program about Armageddon and the likelihood of its immanent arrival on
CNN. It seems like we are all wondering when God's going to fix things.
Isaiah was wondering something similar when King Uzziah died in 742 B.C.
That would have been more or less 2,750 years ago. Isaiah could see that
things were a mess; the previously united Kingdom of Israel had split
into two kingdoms; Judah in the South and Israel in the North. They were
located in the great battlefield between warring superpowers of that time,
Assyria and Egypt. The new leader of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Ahaz,
would have to decide where to hang the fate of the Northern Kingdom: on
political alliances or on trust in God. Given the political realities
of the time, there was unfortunately no really good, long-term political
solution. But it was hard then and it is hard now for a political leader
to choose God over politics. So Ahaz made some political alliances, a
decision that was ultimately to have a disastrous outcome for the Northern
Kingdom, leading to the exile.
While he was wondering about what God was going to do, Isaiah encountered
God in the Temple. It was a pretty spectacular scene. God on a high throne,
holy robe filling the Temple. These six-winged Seraphs were attending
God, flying around, shouting,
'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.' (6:3b)
Isaiah said, "The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those
who called, and the house filled with smoke." (6:4)
An encounter with God can be pretty awesome. Even this person Isaiah
who we now know as one of the greatest prophets among the Hebrew people
found it a little disconcerting. And he did what most of us do when we
encounter God, think of it as being naked before God, he got his disclaimer
in fast. Isaiah said, "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean
lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…!" (6:5)
I don't blame Isaiah, do you? There he was suddenly aware he was in the
presence of God, and all he could think about was how unclean he was,
how unfit he was to face God. Until that moment, Isaiah was an ordinary
person, like you and me-ordinary, unclean, and certainly unfit to be in
the presence of God, let alone to represent God. Remember the NT reading
from Luke-When Peter, an ordinary fisherman, really recognized who Jesus
was, what did he do? "…when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus'
knees, saying, 'Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!'" (5:8)
We may say that God knows everything, but I bet we all harbor the outside
hope that God doesn't really know EVERYTHING about us. So when we encounter
God, we are overcome with an acute awareness of our own ugly shortcomings
and inadequacy.
The truth is that even our sense of inadequacy may be an example of our
tendency to be arrogant. My sin is so ugly that it would shock God. But
it doesn't. Isaiah no sooner blurted out his disclaimer than a Seraph
swooped down, "holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar
with a pair of tongs. 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.' (6:6-7)
Our sin turns out to be nothing in the face of God's capacity to forgive.
Isaiah's sin was blotted out in an instant. And Peter's sin in the Gospel
of Luke? Jesus dispelled it with humor. To this fisherman he said, "Don't
be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." It appears not to
matter to God how ordinary we may be or just how awful we think we are.
O.K., so Isaiah's sin was blotted out, but what did that have to do with
the question about what God was going to do about the mess that the Northern
Kingdom of Israel was about to get into? If ever there were an image of
a mighty God, this was it. Isaiah had come into the presence of a God
who could do something. And what did this mighty God do?
Well, God took action, all right, God commissioned a mighty prophet:
"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? (6:8)
The text doesn't say and we don't know how much Isaiah sweated his response.
Maybe he looked around again and noticed that, not counting God and the
Seraphs, there was no one else in the Temple. He was there alone. We don't
know if he doubted his capacity to deliver, to do what God asked. We don't
know whether like Moses he might have at first equivocated, we only know
he answered, "Here am I; send me!" That's how it happened that God took
action among the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel 1,250 years
ago. And Isaiah the Prophet was active for many years.
Each year during February we have occasion to celebrate the memory and
accomplishments of Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was
also someone disturbed by the world he encountered and by the politics
of the time. He, too, had been wondering when God, when somebody, was
going to do something. Then, somewhere along the way, perhaps on more
than one occasion, King saw the Lord seated upon the Throne. Maybe it
was in the Temple called Ebenezer Baptist Church. But Martin Luther King,
Jr. came into God's presence, and God said, "Whom shall I send, and who
will go for us?" And Dr. King answered like Isaiah: "Here am I; send me!"
Later on, Dr. King would write in his autobiography that he felt "commanded"
to carry a message, to engage in the work we now know so well. And isn't
it an interesting coincidence that he was "commanded" to the world stage
at a time when this nation was ready to listen. And on that stage by means
of both preparation and inspiration, not to mention the natural talent
that lay in his mind and voice, he articulated the message in a way that
gripped the conscience of a generation. And in doing so, for a multitude
of complex reasons most of which lay beyond his own control, he became
much more than simply a Southern Baptist preacher. He became a reformer,
a prophet, who focused a bright light on the inequities that stood between
the rhetoric and the reality of America.
By doing what he did, he stood in a long, noble, and indispensable line
of individuals who, often at the expense of themselves and their families,
have risen to call a culture to task on this important issue. Just as
much as Isaiah in another time and place, Martin Luther King, Jr. answered
God's call for a prophet: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us."
It's not just the well known like Isaiah and Dr. King who hear that question.
There are individuals around us every day who are responding to that question,
uniquely adapted for them. They teach our Sunday schools, serve in the
helping professions, run the soup kitchens, pastor our churches, fill
our volunteer church offices. You know them. There is a high likelihood
that you may be among them.
But we are worriers, and we certainly haven't proven to be self-starters.
We see the problems in the world around us, and we still ask when God
is going to do something. Surely by now we know two things, that God is
already active all around us and that WE are the agencies and means by
which God's action is advanced. When we see good work that needs to be
done or when we can't quit thinking about attending seminary, it is nothing
less than God asking, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us."
If we answer, "Here am I; send me," what then. After we answer, "Here
am I, send me," it is not always comfortable or easy to follow through.
Isaiah delivered God's message for years, but arguably no one listened.
The Northern Kingdom was conquered and its inhabitants taken away. Dr.
King after a few short years was killed by one who opposed the message
he carried for God. So it is also easy for us to think that they failed,
even that God failed. And so, it is easy for us to be afraid to follow
through.
Maybe that is why the Lectionary included Psalm 138 among today's readings.
Recall the last stanza:
Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies;
you stretch out your hand,
and your right hand delivers me.
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O Lord, endures for ever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands. (7-8)
We humans occupy such a short time in the sweep of Salvation History.
We are constantly doubting and questioning. We see such a small piece
of the whole of history, but we want resolution, historically instant
gratification. We think in television time-the story should have a happy
ending in an hour. We can't, of course, know how our little part fits
into the whole; we can't know how what we do makes possible a chain of
events that may stretch into the eons.
But God knows. And what God promises in Psalm 138 is that, "The Lord
will fulfill his purpose for me." God doesn't promise that we will live
to see how our piece fits in, only that if we respond when God needs us,
God will preserve us until our part is sufficiently finished that the
effort will not have been in vain.
As incredulous as it may seem, God's work depends upon each one of us.
God is constantly asking, "Whom shall I send." We need only be willing
to go and courageous enough to follow through.
There, alone with God in the Temple, what is God asking of you?
|
