PURIFIED BY FIRE
Our worship text this week was Isaiah 6:1-8. Isaiah encountered God at the Temple in a dramatic vision. God’s feet were on the temple like a footstool, God’s presence overflowed the temple, and wild, flying, six-winged flying serpents swirled around the throne shouting, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts!”
The year is 739B.C.E. A new force was rising on the Eastern horizon. The Assyrian Empire had conquest in its blood and had set its sights on the West. Within a few years the Assyrians would march into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and completely destroy them. The Assyrians were ruthless conquerors. They were the type that would impale the bodies of their victims on stakes and line the road leading into the defeated town with them.
When Uzziah died Assyria was on the move and everybody knew it, and they were afraid.
The year 2020 is not that much different. No, we don’t have a literal Empire lurking on the horizon, but we have been living with multiple forces that have changed our society: COVID-19, Political Division, and violent protests around social injustices, to name a few.
The world is changing, a like Isaiah’s generation, we are afraid.
There are three postures that Isaiah takes. First, he is “undone” or “ruined” by the holy presence of God. He recognizes all his shortcomings and falls on his face and confesses, “I have unclean lips, and my people have unclean lips.”
The second posture is painful and purifying. One of the seraphs takes a burning coal from the altar and places it on Isaiah’s lips. The fire purifies him. This is a gift from God.
The third posture is one of openness and surrender to God. “Here I am,” Isaiah says, “Send me.” Isaiah is ready to do whatever God asks of him. His life now has clear purpose.
Our current circumstances in 2020, can be used as a purifying moment in our lives, if we let them. Like Isaiah, we must become undone before we can be cleansed with these fires and repurposed.
Where are you today? With which of these three postures do you most identify? Are you in the undone phase, still reeling in the chaos? Are feeling the pain of the experience but recognizing their cleansing power? Are you open to the new world that will emerge and ready to join God in what God is going to do?
Gracious God, grant us the willingness to surrender our need to control and open our hearts to whatever cleansing you show us today. Amen.