C, The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany - Isaiah 6:1-13 "How God's Holiness Works"
Jesus’ holiness is transacted in a very physical way. Teaching the people at the lake concludes
with Jesus suggesting to Simon Peter to, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets
for a catch.”
(Luke 5:4 ESV)
Completely spent from working through the night and catching
nothing, Peter voices his concern, yet he listens and follows Jesus’ call to
set the net for a catch. What
happens? Completely dumbfounded the
disciples catch fish! So many, the boat
begins to sink. Holiness meets nothing
and it does something. The nothingness
in Peter hears and sees the holiness of Jesus to which he falls in submission before
Jesus and says, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8 ESV)
Paul teaches the Corinthians how the transaction of
holiness works through preaching and receiving so that the hearer can hold fast
to the word which does the work. This is
the same word of God which caused no fish to become numerous fish. The working word exposes the nothingness of
our work without the workings of God’s word through his holiness.
To put this another way, we need a resurrection in just the
same way as Jesus was raised after he allowed himself to become nothing. Jesus did nothing wrong, he did no wrong! By putting aside, the power of his holiness,
his humility allowed others the opportunity to crucify him. Jesus received the cross and was delivered
into death, to be made less than nothing, as it were, so we can believe and
receive his holy work to be delivered from death. We believe we receive the resurrection from
nothing we do, because Jesus was made nothing like us to make us something with
his holiness.
This is how God works holiness in us. He does it completely without our work. In fact, Jesus models this in the
reverse. In his holiness, he allows
himself to be crucified; he does not kill himself! Nor does Jesus bury himself! He does not raise himself, nor does he cause
himself to be seen. No! Although he is God and he had the power to do
whatever he wanted, he put aside that power to be powerless, to be
nothing.
Rather it was humanity who crucified him. And it was the Holy Spirit who led him through
his ministry to his death, through it, and to his resurrection. Even today the Holy Spirit continues to
powerfully enact Jesus’ passivity and powerful meekness within us! In our nothingness, God works his holiness
within us, with the implanted word, the word of God. This is God our Father’s mode of
operation!
The Old Testament reading from Isaiah chapter six shows us
God’s modus operandi very
clearly. In the lectionary today there’s
an option for the reading to end after verse eight, where Isaiah says, “Here I am! Send me.” (Isaiah 6:8 ESV)
There’s a temptation in this day and age to omit the option
to include the seemingly negative words of God, that Isaiah is commanded to
receive and deliver to Israel. Doing so,
however, may appease modern ears, but we need to hear it to learn how God works
his holiness. Without learning how God’s
holiness works, there is the temptation to cheapen God’s work and dilute his
holiness into unbelief and desecration. Or as Paul says, to receive the
preached word only to believe in vain.
However, God does not want that for you! Therefore, I invite you to look at and hear his
word and notice how God’s works are consistent and impartial, so his holiness
remains holy, and he rescues all who recognise they need God to work his
holiness for our eternal recovery.
Alternatively, those who hear in vain will not receive it! Those who look at the word with their own
understanding, see it but know nothing of its work within, because holiness
cannot be understood. Rather, it can only be received and
believed. Therefore, in vanity no one
can hang onto holiness. Also not what
God wants for you!
Isaiah seems like the central figure in this text, but he’s
not! He’s only the recipient and the
deliverer. In fact, Isaiah knows his
nothingness before God, saying, “Woe is
me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of
a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
(Isaiah 6:5 ESV) Isaiah sees God’s glory
and holiness and he knows he is not!
God’s holiness means he is lost to death! His nothingness cannot stand before holiness.
Isaiah knows the words that have come from his lips, have
condemned him in the sight of God. What
he has heard from the mouths of his fellow Israelites is no better. What he has delivered and received in the
past is polluted, and it condemns him in the sight of God’s holy presence.
Despite Isaiah’s and Israelites’ lips being defiled, notice
however, that Isaiah six begins and ends with the holiness of God. This is crucially important for us!
Picture the scene and hear as the seraphim proclaim God’s
holiness and glory, but also see to where that holiness and glory leads.
The foundations and threshold shook as they proclaimed to
each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his
glory!” (Isaiah 6:3 ESV)
And where does this glory find its germination? Not in Isaiah! Not in the nation of Israel! No after Israel’s destruction, after the
nation has been made nothing through fire, a seed is revealed from the
nothingness of a seemingly burnt dead stump.
“The holy seed is its stump.” (Isaiah 6:13 ESV)
This is how God works his holiness! It’s how he worked in creation, creating from
nothing, except his holy word. It’s how
he works with fallen humanity, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It’s how he works with Israel and
Isaiah. It’s how he worked through his
own Son Jesus Christ and continues to work with the body of Christ, his church
on earth. And it’s how he works his
holiness with you and me. God works his
holiness with his Spirit of holiness, the Holy Spirit. God, and his holiness, is the subject or
centre of salvation, not the spirit of Isaiah, nor Israel or humanity.
This is good news for us who having looked into the self, see
and know we’re nothing without a resurrection from death. That we’re in need of God’s holiness worked
through his Holy Spirit, to tune the ear and sharpen the sight, so we receive
Jesus who resurrects life within as the Holy Seed.
See how Isaiah’s lips are healed by the seraph who seared them
with a hot coal! One might think having
one’s lips burnt would render Isaiah mute, and that’s right! Isaiah could no longer speak with his own
uncleanness to those who spoke to him with unclean lips. So, what has happened here?
We hear the seraph say, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt
is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:7 ESV) Not only did God switch off Isaiah speaking
with his own sinful lips, his guilt from speaking, expressed through his woe,
is also, literally switched off, so that his guilt is taken away. And the atoning of his sin is literally
covered and hidden, by the workings of God’s holiness. Just as bitumen covers a rutted road, and a
ransom recovers the lost, Isaiah’s guilt is turned off and his offensive
unholiness is covered.
It's not about Isaiah, but about God’s work with his word
making something out of someone as good as nothing. If it was about Isaiah, how could he
volunteer so willingly to take the message God wanted him to take? Having spoken with unclean lips with those
who knew him and spoke to him with unclean lips, how is it that he can proclaim
God’s desolation to Israel? And do it
with seared lips? Isaiah would’ve known
he would’ve been received as a hypocrite, by a nation of unclean lips and dull
hearts.
The Israelite’s hardness of heart is not licence for us to think
we can go and do the same. Rather, in
seeing we are the same, already, the Holy Spirit works to prepare our dull human
hearts to receive the good work of God’s holiness.
Therefore, allow the Holy Spirit to lead you! So, like the psalmist, you bow down towards
Jesus, our holy temple, and give thanks to our Father in heaven for his holy
name, his steadfast love and his faithfulness, for he has exalted above all
things his name and his word. (Psalm 138:2 paraphrased)
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, you are fulfilling your purpose in us. Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever as the Holy Spirit daily leads us. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, do not forsake the work of your hands. (Psalm 138:8 paraphrased) Amen.
