Trinity Lutheran Church

“Send Me”

Isaiah 6
(Isaiah’s Commission)
 1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
       “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
       the whole earth is full of his glory.”
 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
      And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
 9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
       ” ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
       be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
 10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
       make their ears dull
       and close their eyes. [a]
       Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
       hear with their ears,
       understand with their hearts,
       and turn and be healed.”
 11 Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?”
      And he answered:
       “Until the cities lie ruined
       and without inhabitant,
       until the houses are left deserted
       and the fields ruined and ravaged,
 12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away
       and the land is utterly forsaken.
 13 And though a tenth remains in the land,
       it will again be laid waste.
       But as the terebinth and oak
       leave stumps when they are cut down,
       so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

 
So…you wanna be a prophet?

 A couple of weeks ago, our Bishop, Bishop Hoover, came to Trinity to meet with some pastors. We had invited him to let him know that he has our support and thanks.

 Being Bishop is a lot like being president. When things are bad; it’s your fault. Even if the problems are beyond your control or traceable to the actions of others. When things are good, you get credit even if all you do is put a suit on in the morning and do photo opts with the family dog.

 And in our conversation, one of the things the Bishop said was, “I never wanted to be Bishop.”

So…you wanna be a prophet?

 Today we hear the call of Isaiah. One of the greatest, and most mysterious occurrences in the remarkable collection of family stories we call our Bible. We see Isaiah transported in a vision to the throne of God. Maginficent, fearsome winged creatures…God’s pets in many ways…are flying about his throne proclaiming “Holy, Holy, Holy…”

 The scene is remarkable and beautiful and humbling. And almost immediately, Isaiah recognizes he is unworthy. That he is a sinner from a sinful people in a place where nothing less than pure will be tolerated or even allowed to survive. He is literally, shaking in his sandals. “Woe to me! I am Lost!”

So…you wanna be a prophet?

 The call of Isaiah is something of a model for the call of a prophet. And the model it presents, is present or hinted at in the story of almost every prophet.

 First the call comes uninvited. The glory of the Lord comes to those who otherwise are not likely expecting it.

 Second, the call is not entirely welcome. Isaiah hears it and fears for his life. Jeremiah whines and complains and reminds God he is just a kid. Amos confesses he’s a simple foreigner—a herdsman and dresser of sycamore trees who really would just as soon be home. Jonah just wants to see the rotten Ninevites die. Ezekiel’s spirit feels bitterness at the call of God, but God’s spirit is stronger…

 All of these thoughts ran through my head when I heard our Bishop the other morning, when I heard him complain of having to leave his church, change his life, change his plans…all of these thoughts ran through my head as I heard him say, “I never wanted to be Bishop.”

 And my heart proclaimed: Which is precisely why you should be bishop.

So you wanna be a prophet?

 We have a lot of people in our times who think they are, or who want to be prophets. They want to spread the word to others. Often the words they are spreading are political, but almost all of them spread the word and proclaim, in some way, or insinuate that the word they are spreading is in line with the will of God.

 But almost none of them fit the biblical model of the prophet in one, extremely important regard. Almost none of them approach the task at hand thinking—“maybe I have been, or I could be wrong.”

 The prophets of the Bible realize a very important thing before they ever open their mouths. They recognize that they are part of the problem. They are sinful. They are not worthy before God and they are not worthy to proclaim God’s truth. They recognize that the truth is bigger than they are.

 A lot of you send me stuff on the internet. I find it entertaining, so continue to feel free to share. It’s either from the right or left of the political spectrum. Some of it’s pretty funny. But, in truth, most of it is pretty bad. I don’t usually say this because I don’t need you mad at me, so I figured I’d tell you all at once at a point in the sermon where you’ve probably fallen asleep.

(LAUGHTER) Uh oh…

 What almost all of it is lacking is humility. It seeks to be prophetic, but never acknowledges that the speaker might, in fact be wrong. It assumes anyone on the other side is the sinner, or just plain evil. It never begins with a recognition of personal sinfulness. It begins with an air of indignance and an assumption of infallibility. And woe to anyone who says otherwise.

 What separates our prophet-wanna be’s from the real prophets is this. They never recognize their fallen state. They wanna yell and scream, while the real prophets, are brought in by God yelling and screaming. There’s a big difference.

So you wanna be a prophet?

 Then maybe you shouldn’t be.

 But…if you wanna speak a word of God, or even a word of truth, because God is ALL TRUTH, let me give you a few hints from our Bible and tradition and even from the prophets that might help all of us do a little more effective job of joining in the debates of our time….

Let’s Call Them: Speaking a Word of Truth: 1.01

1. If God has blessed any political system in the Bible: It’s the Monarchy
 My point here is not to promote monarchy. I think monarchy’s are silly, unless Jesus is King (hey—I got Christ the King in there!)

 My point is we treat democracy as though it is God ordained. It’s not—at least not biblically. Democracy ensures freedom—it’s not alone among systems of government in that, but this is its greatest strength. Otherwise, democracy is like all human systems of government: flawed. Yes, it is my favorite, but remember the big rule of prophecy—we need to remember we might be wrong. And democracy simply means we might be wrong together. Henry David Thoreau looked at democracy and proclaimed it failed because, “the majority is always wrong.” That’s a head scratcher. And I have to admit it’s something I always think of on Good Friday when Jesus is up there—with public approval—on the cross. 

 So remember, God has not blessed any political system over others…but there are expectations of our political systems for us wanna be prophets, expectations included in rule number two!

2.  God has not ordained any economic system over another.

 We all love capitalism when it’s working to our advantage, but truthfully, the prophets were called largely by God because Israel became capitalistic—and with that, invented the rich and the poor in their society. And for God, who wanted Israel to be family, the inequity created by rich and poor was unacceptable.

 Yes, St. Paul states quite clearly that a worker is worth his or her wages, but the entire Bible proclaims that a society that does not care for the poor is a society out of alignment with the will of God. Whether or not we are lifting up the downtrodden, and bringing life to the poor is the single most important factor in determining if an economic system is in line with the will of God.

3. When our proclamations seek to demonize others and be self-serving, they are not of God.

 When we demonize others, we place them below us. We fail to recognize, to quote those prophets “INXS,” the devil inside. After that, it’s hard to say much of anything that’s useful.

4. Truth that is really truth must fall in line with the Old Testament prophetic mandate:

 And what is that? “But to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

5. Truth that is really truth must fall in line with the New Testament prophetic mandate:

 Love the Lord your God…and your neighbor as yourself.

When you take all of this into account, becoming a prophetic voice looks a lot more daunting. It’s a lot harder than making fun of Obama’s ears or GW’s patterns of speech. But while humor has its place, being a real voice for truth—which is never separate from being a voice for God, is a lot more fulfilling. It is also healing.

 I think the biggest reason most prophets are dragged into the business is because of this. They are called to be prophets precisely because they don’t want to scream and yell. For even though that’s part of their task, even though they proclaim that the Lord is bringing punishment, part two of their call will be to bring healing. God’s healing. And if they have not acknowledged their own need for healing, they will fail when part two of their job description comes along.

 Let’s be voices of truth. Let’s call for change, God’s change, and let our voices be voices of healing. And one hundred years from now our children’s children will look back to our times and proclaim: “There were prophets among them.”