Wholly Human and Holy Human

In Isaiah's call scripture (Isaiah 6: 1-8), 8th century prophet, Isaiah comes into God's mighty and holy presence in the Temple in Jerusalem.  There he encounters the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, and the hem of God's robe filled the Temple.  The seraphs attending the Lord proclaim God to be holy, holy, holy - foreshadowing our understanding of the life of God as being a trinitarian relationship:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - or - Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. The seraphs (6 winged creatures) also declare that the earth is full of God's glory.

In contrast to Isaiah's understanding of God's almightiness, have we lost our sense of awe as we behold God?  Have we undermined or de-valued the sense of the sacred and holy?  If we stand in God's presence, would we, like Isaiah, cry out our distress - "Woe is me!" - as we become aware of the great gulf between God's holiness and our all-too-real wholly humanness?  Today we use the word awesome to describe someone's outfit or latest haircut or tattoo.  Recovering our awe in the face of the sacred and holy is a challenge for us today.  Just as our trinitarian God is in a mutually loving relationship of Love/Beloved/Lover, so God wants to be in relationship with us.  Our role in responding to God initiating a relationship is to confess our human tendency to sin by commission or omission.  If our lips (or heart) burn within us as we confess, perhaps God is in the act of cleansing so that our guilt may depart and our sin be blotted out.  Holy is wherever God is present.  Our holiness depends on our forgiven and grace-filled presence to and relationship with God.

But staying in God's presence and praising God's name is never enough.  Our response to God's grace is to hear God sending us forth - to answer with "Here am I.  Send me."  Being sent can be scary because God is rarely about the easy tasks in life of saving people and building a kingdom of love, peace, and justice.  Again - the importance of the Trinity.  As God sends us - commissions us - Jesus will walk alongside our very human selves and the Holy Spirit will equip us for the tasks unique to our call.  Thanks be to a God who loves us enough to send God's Son into the world so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life (John 3:16).

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley