Trinity Sunday 6/3/12

Trinity Sunday 6/3/12 Text: Isaiah 6:1-8 Title: Awed by the Presence of God. As I read theological papers from different Christian denominations including our beloved Missouri Synod Lutheran Church I am afraid that we; Christians in general, have lost or at least have begun to lose the sense of awesomeness; that is, the fear of God. Not that he has become less awesome or fearful, but that we, as a people have started to take him for granted and thus have no fear of him in his Godhood. Until we regain that sense of the awesomeness of God we will not regain the full message of God, as it applies to our lives today and in eternity. Awesomeness, by the way, means to be in reverence of something powerful or fearful; something we know is beyond our knowledge and control; something we should fear. A good earthly example of something awesome is when a big thunderstorm comes through and we stand in awe of its power for we know how quickly it can kill us, if we are hit by lightning, or the terrible winds it can produce. Or another thing would be standing in front of huge wave, knowing that you are in deep trouble. While both of those things are terrifying; that is awesome they don’t even begin, in the slightest to match the awesomeness of God. The God of the Bible is an awesome God who is worthy of fear because our lives are in his hands because he is sovereign; that is, nothing can exist without his authority. But he is also worthy of fear because he demands that we live perfect lives and tells us he is going to punish us with eternal death, that is eternal separation from him, if we break his commandments That is our God, our fearful awesome God, but we have taken that fearful God and either made him into a kindly grandfather who just loves you and tells you that as long as you try he will forgive you. Or, he has been made in to a God whose chief claim to fame is his ability to bring people success in their various undertakings and who for that reason is being sweet-talked and flattered by everyone who wants a favor. Or even worse a God who we believe that we no longer have to obey because Jesus took the full brunt of God’s just wrath when he died on the cross for our not obeying God’s commands; which he did. But does that allow us to ignore God’s commands? NO! The God we must learn to know is the God of the Bible, the God that Isaiah speaks of in our Old Testament reading for today, the one that the Seraphim’s said of, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" Knowledge of such a God cannot be gained by study alone. It comes by a wisdom that we cannot have by our own abilities, no matter how hard we try or how smart we might be. We can’t have this wisdom because it is so great and above our understanding that only God can give it to us. To know this awesome fearful God is both the easiest and most difficult thing in the world. It is easy because the knowledge is not gained by hard intellectual study, but is something freely given to us by faith. Pastor Tozer wrote, “As sunlight falls free on the open field, so the knowledge of the holy God is a free gift to men who are open to receive it. But this knowledge is difficult because there are conditions to be met and the pig-headed nature of fallen man does not take kindly to them.” It grieves me that so many people take God for granted; that they believe what he demands can be ignored, because after all they say, “Isn’t that what Jesus died on the cross for, so we can live our lives, as we desire to live them? That kind of thinking and living is making the costly grace of God, and it is costly, for Christ died so that God could show grace toward us, into cheap grace which if one continues to believe and thus live their lives that way is not grace at all. That is why I am starting this summer’s sermon series on discipleship with the Old Testament reading for today. In the very first verse we read, "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.” Isaiah is describing something way bigger and altogether different from anything he had ever seen before. Up to this point in his life, just like us, Isaiah was only familiar with the creation around him. Now he was in the presence of the uncreated awesome God who has the power to kill and lift up. To Isaiah, the contrast between that which is God and that which is not God was such that his very language suffered under the effort to express it. God was revealing himself to Isaiah in the form and words of the seraphim, who by the way are not angels, who stood above him. “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" and then, as it is recorded the earth shook and Isaiah was terrified, as he called out, “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!" Isaiah could have tried all of his life to reach God by means of his intellect without any chance of succeeding. All of the accumulated brainpower in the whole world cannot reach God. God is greater than anything the human mind can even imagine. But the living God, in the space of a short second of time, revealed himself to Isaiah. He is terrified. He believes he is doomed. That is why he cries out to God, “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!" But God shows him mercy by having a seraphim, a creature of God, take a coal from the altar and touching his lips with it thus purifying him. Isaiah is struck with awe; his whole world has suddenly changed. He has survived the presence of God and the words he will speak will be God’s words to the people. He is now ready to live the life God wanted him to live. His exclaimed to God when God asked who he could send to tell the people God’s words of love, “Here I am! Send me." What had happened? Isaiah, a sinful human being who did not want to be spokesperson for God to the people of Israel had glimpsed the One whose character and nature signaled perfection and was made clean by God, and was now a disciple of God. He couldn’t help himself. He was born again as a disciple of God. My dear brothers and sisters in Christ you too have been touched by our Triune God. You too have been made clean, for as our gospel reading teaches us, you have been born of water and the Spirit. You no longer can joke about “the Man upstairs” or the “Someone up there who likes me.” God is real and you are changed. Everyone one of you have been called by God to be a disciple of God; not a part time disciple, but a full time disciple. Our Lord does not expect us to live like those who do not know him or those who say they know him, but really don’t, whether we became a Christian as a baby, child, teenager, or an adult. He expects us to live as an obedient disciple having our soul, mind, and body, since we now belong to him, open to his calling and direction. We, who believe, are to exclaim with the seraphim "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" as we live our lives through the leading and the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Inspiration for this sermon came from God’s Holy Word and the words of the great man of God A. W. Tozer and his wonderful writings. Tozer, A. W., & Eggert, R. (1998). Vol. 1: The Tozer Topical Reader (313). Camp Hill, PA.: WingSpread.