Send Who?

Psalm 138

Isaiah 6: 1 – 8

February 9, 2025

Can you think of times of great transition in your life? Can you look back in your mind’s eye and remember the great redefining times when all of the routines and habits that you had embraced were challenged by new realities? Some of these are places of natural change: getting out on your own after high school or college; getting married or having your first child. Certainly, these are significant times of change and transition.

But as significant as these are, there is a normalcy to them, an ability to anticipate at least some of the changes that now impose themselves upon your life. Many of these changes will be welcomed and embraced. Some might take a little time before they are accepted and comfortable. But, with good intentions and maturity, these times of transition tend to work themselves out.

But what about those other times of transition, those times that are imposed upon you? I remember the difficult transitions that came to our family after my father was killed in Viet Nam. The military let us stay in our home until the school year was out, but then we had to leave. We spent two months back east amongst relatives wondering if we were going to move there. We came back to San Diego functionally homeless – all of our belongings were in storage, and we stayed in the homes of friends for several weeks while our mother sorted out our housing. That was a painful time of transition for us.

Maybe its 9/11. Those that are younger will probably have no knowledge of how life shattering the events of 9/11 were for us. It was our Pearl Harbor – the first time of any real significance that the continental United States had been attacked to devastating effect. Becky and I had friends in the Twin Towers – they have nightmares to this day. Many communities surrounding Manhattan have memorial parks commemorating those who died on that day. First Responders today are dealing with illnesses brought on by their fire fighting and rescue efforts that day. The months and years after 9/11 were significant times of transition for our country.

The Pandemic was certainly a time of great transitions. Churches cross the country continue to struggle with the new normal created by the loss and isolation associated with that event.

Perhaps you can think of both those natural developmental transitions like graduation, marriage, and childbirth in your life and those times of calamitous change imposed upon you. Transitions are rarely easy. There are often great understandings and changes that come with transitions.

Our scripture lesson from Isaiah comes at a time of great transition for the southern Kingdom of Judah.

The people of God are in the midst of overwhelming change and transition in their national life. Our text from Isaiah comes to us at a time when the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah have been split for roughly 200 years. In just a few years, the northern Kingdom of Israel will be swept up by the conquering armies of Assyria and most of the northern ten tribes of Israel will be swept off into exile.

The southern Kingdom of Judah has been governed by King Uzziah from 790 BC until his death in 739 as mentioned in our text. Uzziah had been a good king. Following in the footsteps of both his father and his grandfather (kings who had both been assassinated while in office), Uzziah was a good and great king.

He rebuilt and strengthened the walls surrounding Jerusalem, including great towers in the walls for military defense. He equipped and trained a great army – seen as necessary for defense against the Assyrians to the north and the Egyptians to the south. In 2nd Chronicles, Uzziah was a man who “loved the soil” and so he built up the agricultural capabilities of Judah. Uzziah reigned for over 50 years and was a king who did “what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”

But eventually, Uzziah grew in love with his position and power. While king, he had no authority over the operations of the Temple. When he tried to assert his power and conduct a sacrifice of incense that was the biblically authorized work of only the priests, Uzziah was struck with leprosy and spent his final years in isolation and was not allowed to enter the Temple.

Our text opens in a time of transition – great transition. The armies of Assyria are threatening in the north. A once great king, but now leprous Uzziah has died. Israel will soon be gone. It is unknown if the new king – Jotham – will follow righteously in his father’s footsteps. Life in Judah is a mess and the future is uncertain.

In the midst of all of this uncertainty, in the midst of all of this fearfulness, in the midst of all of this political jockeying for position and power, in the midst of corrupt spirituality and faith compromises a certain and faithful God calls Judah out of its unfaithfulness, out of its political turmoil and back into a right relationship with God.

The question is, “How?”

Believers in Jerusalem had lost their way. They had forgotten themselves as – first and foremost, the covenant people of God. In the chapters prior to our text, God calls the faithful to, once again, be faithful. Cease to do evil, learn to do good. Seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

The people needed to remember who they were. The people needed to remember that faith informed politics – not the other way around. This was a time of spiritual transition – or at least it could be. A spiritual reframing, a regaining of the faith that they have seemed to have lost. Transitions -change - can be for the good.

Are we not in a similar time today? A time of transition? Are we not in a time when we are reframing our personal and national sense of self? I am not here to argue red or blue, left or right, progressive or traditionalist. I am here to suggest that these are secondary definitions. I am here to suggest, and perhaps to remind, that faith directs our politics, not the other way around. Far too many of us look for spiritual proof texts that validate our preexisting political positions.

I think we need to be reminded of the call of Isaiah. I think we need to be reminded of the foundation of Isaiah’s work.

Our text opens with a majestic picture of the holiness of God. Not humanity – God. God is seated on a throne. God is seated on a throne that is high and lifted up, sovereign and transcendent, and yet the majesty – the power, the sovereignty of God – overwhelms and overflows this transcendent place so that God’s majesty flows into the Temple itself.

In the face of this stunning, overwhelming encounter with a holy and righteous God, Isaiah says, “Yep, I belong here.” In the face of complete and overwhelming holiness, Isaiah says, “Yep, isn’t God lucky I am on his side?”

No, in the face of the holiness of God, Isaiah is reminded of his corresponding complete and utter lack of that same holiness. Isaiah is reminded that he, as good as he might be, as faithful as he might be, is not the standard of holiness to which he is held accountable. It is the holiness of God that is the standard, not our own

Isaiah is overwhelmed by the realization of just how far his personal righteousness is from God’s standard. He is overwhelmed, and in the encounter, Isaiah is driven to his knees. But then an amazing thing happens. In the midst of this encounter, in the midst of this devastating reminder of the distance that exists between divine holiness and human self-centeredness, one of the winged seraphim take a coal from the alter and encounters Isaiah in two positions.

First, he is face down in a position of humility, confession, and repentance. When Isaiah is confronted with the holiness of God he is driven to his knees, face down, in a position of remorse over his own waywardness.

But then he has his heart open to receive the grace, the mercy, the forgiveness, the empowering love of God. Having received that newness of heart, when God asks, “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah responds to the holiness and sovereignty of God by saying, “Here I am Lord, send me?”

Folks we are in a tremendous time of transition. I am not here to offer commentary on how our national transitions are occurring. We have church family members on all sides of these political transitions.

But I am here to ask that we face the ebbs and swirls of this transition with kindness and grace. I am here to remind us that only God is sovereign over every area of our lives, EVERY area. It is God’s righteousness and holiness that is the standard for our conduct. I am here to remind us that in great times of transition God is looking to empower people and voices who will be advocates for God’s righteousness, not some political party set of talking points. I am here to remind us that it is the voice of Scripture that should be setting our personal agendas, not some talking head on the television or radio.

Friends, we have kingdom work to do. God’s kingdom. We have prophetic and scriptural voices to listen to that define the reach and posture of God’s kingdom. Will we be doing justice, loving kindness? Will we let God set the agenda? Will we be the ones that God sends? Amen.