Sermon-A Message from Isaiah

"Four Prophets Speak to Our Day:
A Message From Isaiah"

Dr. James L. Mayfield
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

November 21, 1999

Text: Isaiah 6:1, 5-13

In the sermon today I am going to share what I think the Isaiah who wrote the words we read today might say to us if we asked: "Isaiah, tell us about your ministry as a prophet." What I am about to share is not merely the product of my imagination. It is rooted in my understanding of the writings of the early Isaiah.

"Isaiah, tell us about your ministry."

Well, I suppose it all really goes back to that powerful religious experience I had when I was a young man. It happened the year King Uzziah died. I was in the temple worshipping, and I was overwhelmed by a very personal and very profound awareness of the presence of God. It was an indescribable, awesome experience. The reality of God filled the temple. I knew I was in the presence of the one true and only God of the entire universe. This was the God of purity and power, ultimate wisdom and justice. The God-ness of God was overwhelming. I cannot describe what I felt. I was overcome by a sense of awe.

I remember being clearly aware of my sinfulness. When I have told this story before some well-meaning friends have tried to tell me, "Isaiah, I do not know why you were so upset by your sinfulness. There are many people, probably most people, who have committed worse sin than you."

But you see, they did not understand. Sin is sin. If I am separated from God by only a half inch, I am separated from God. The fact is that whether the extension cord to my lamp is only a half inch or a half a mile from the electric outlet does not matter when it comes to empowering the light to come on. Separation from the power source is the key issue, not how near or far the extension cord is from the outlet.

In my powerful awareness of the presence of God, I was very much aware I was living my life disconnected from God. Oh, I was not doing terrible deeds. I was in many ways what society would call a good man. But in the presence of God it was clear to me my life was not what God intended. I was living disconnected from God.

This is why I cried what I did, and I never meant any words more. "I am a man of unclean lips, and I live in the midst of a people of unclean lips". In that experience I knew with powerful and devastating clarity that I was a sinner—and not just me but all the people I live among. I was aware as never before just how far I and the people of my nation were from being the persons God intended. As never before, I was painfully aware that my life and life all around me was going the wrong direction. We were lost, even though we were seldom aware that we were headed the wrong direction.

It was then something amazing happened. In a special way that does not make sense to us, I became aware there was even more to the awesome God of purity and power, ultimate wisdom and justice whose very presence made me aware of my own sin and the sin of the world. This God of purity, power, ultimate justice and wisdom is also the God of ultimate mercy. The life-giving message of healing and hope came into my soul: "You are forgiven. Your sin is blotted out." It was as if the angels of God picked up my disconnected extension cord and plugged it into the merciful, transforming, redeeming power of God.

You people sing a song about amazing grace. I am here to tell you I know firsthand what you are singing about.

Then, I became aware of something more. I became aware of God asking: "Whom shall I send?" I became aware that for reasons I do not understand, God has chosen to use human beings in doing God's work. "Whom shall I send?" God was asking. I suspect that is what God is always asking: "Whom shall I send?"

In that special moment, out of that special and profound experience I had the audacity to respond: "Here I am; send me." I understood I was not merely volunteering to run some sort of errand for God. I understood God was asking for more than a favor. I understood God was really asking for my life. This was not a request to run to the grocery store or merely to prepare a meal for someone. God was asking for someone who would do his bidding 24 hours a day, seven days a week as long as she or he lived. "Whom shall I send?" God asked.

And out of that powerful moment of being aware not only of the power, wisdom and justice of God, but also and most especially being aware of the tender, healing love and mercy of God, I volunteered.

Well, to put it mildly, I did not realize what I was getting myself into. You've probably read some of what I have written. My congregation was primarily the leadership of the country. In your nation today that would be like saying my congregation was the president, his cabinet and the members of the House and the Senate, as well as the Supreme Court.

However, the essence of my message was and is relevant to all of the people. And that message is that we are to focus on being faithful to God, not merely being clever in obtaining our own personal or nationalistic objectives and goals. I warned the leaders and the people against assuming God would bless them and whatever they wanted to do just because they went to worship services. I tried to tell them that what God wants is for all people and certainly the leaders earnestly to seek God's will and then strive to do it.

The place where I ran into trouble with them was when it became clear that doing God's will was not in keeping with their national pride. I ran into trouble with them when they began to catch a glimpse of what being faithful to God would cost them. I ran into trouble with them when what I am convinced is the truth God wanted me to say was at odds with what they wanted to hear.

Well, to put it mildly, they were upset with me. The truth is their anxieties and fears got in the way of their ever really understanding what I was trying to say. They stopped listening. When I tried to show them what I was really talking about they refused to see.

You know, looking back on my ministry as a prophet it seems that right after I said: "Here am I; send me," that what God said was, "Go butt your head against a stone wall. (Or as Jim Morris said, "Go scratch an anvil.") You will talk and talk, but the people you are talking to will not understand. You will try again and again to show them, but they will not see."

Finally I said: "How long must I keep trying?" And God said: "You've got to keep trying until it truly is too late. You've got to keep trying until their own sinful pride destroys them. You've got to keep trying until the tree is cut down and all that is left is a stump."

Then I heard God say something else, and in my imagination I could see tears of frustration and pain in God's eyes, but there was a trace of a smile on God's lips. God said: "The holy seed is its stump."

Even when it appears to be over, it is not over. There is a remnant. The holy seed is its stump. As Ezekiel learned, by the grace of God, there can be renewal even when all that seems to remain are dead, dry bones.

Persons, societies, nations may perish because of the consequences of refusing to live as God intends. But their death is not the death of God, nor is it the death of hope. From the remains—from the stump—God will cause a new shoot of life to grow, develop, and mature.

That is the story. It is a story that can tell us about the God-ness of God, the awareness of sin, the gift of mercy, the response to God's call, the cost of faithfulness, and the gift of new possibility even in the midst of suffering the consequences of our sin. It is a sermon about God's grace coming into our lives as both judgment and mercy. May we hear what Isaiah was trying to say and see what he was trying to show us.

God, heal the deafness of our souls and the blindness of our hearts so that we can become and be the persons, the nation, you want us to be. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer:

God, many of us are here today with a heavy burden of grief because we knew some of the young people who lost their lives or who were hurt in the tragic accident at A&M. All of us are saddened and bewildered by this and other tragedies that have taken the lives of young people. We especially need your help because our grief has a double burden. Not only have we lost these people, but we have also been robbed of their fulfilling the potential that was theirs.

God, we need your comfort. Give us what we need to face what must be faced and give us the power to move on with our lives.

And yet, in the midst of all the agony of this week, O God, we were inspired by the outpouring of love and concern for the young people who were hurt, their families and for the families of those who have died. We are grateful for the way your grace was at work through the words and deeds of so many people.

We trust you will bring healing to those wounded in body and soul. We trust that your love will continue to uphold each of us as each of us deals with the agenda life has placed before us.

In this Thanksgiving week, we are most especially grateful for this gift of your sustaining grace. And in gratitude we pray the prayer Jesus taught us: "Our Father …"

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