Pastor Chris Matthis Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado The Holy Trinity, Series B Saturday, May 30th, 2015 Sunday, May 31st, 2015

Sermon: Texts:

“Holy, Holy, Holy!” Isaiah 6:1-8

Focus: God forgives our sins by his Word of absolution so we can stand in his holy presence. Function: That they would rejoice in the gift of God’s holiness and tell others the Good News! Structure: Story-Interrupted Locus: “Confession has two parts: first, that we confess our sins; and second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself” (SC, Confession). Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts,” declare the seraphim in Isaiah’s vision. “The whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isa. 6:3, ESV).1 We sing the same thing in our favorite hymn for Trinity Sunday: Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee; Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity!2 And we’ll say the triple holy again when we sing the Sanctus during our celebration of the Lord’s Supper: “Holy, holy, holy Lord/God of Sabaoth adored.”3 So, after today’s worship service, if there is one thing you can say about God, it’s that he is holy! But what do we mean when we say that God is holy? What does the word “holy” really mean? I always like to poll my confirmation students about the definition of “holy” and “holiness.” Most of them say that holiness means that something is “pure” or “good.” That sounds like a nice, pious answer, but it’s pretty far afield. Adults will often define something

1

All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Reginald Heber, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” in Lutheran Service Book (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2006), 507:1. 3 “Sanctus,” in Lutheran Service Book, 208. 2

Matthis 2 holy as something that is “sacred” or “important.” That’s getting closer. Even better I like the response that “holy” means “special.” Now we’re getting somewhere! Quite simply, “holy” means “set apart for a special purpose.” If something or someone is holy, then it is “set apart.” God is holy. That means God is “set apart,” completely other and totally different than us because we’re sinners. God is holy; we are not. But a holy God is deadly dangerous to unholy sinners like us, which is why, in our Old Testament lesson, Isaiah cries out in fear and dismay, “Woe is me! For I am lost”—literally, “I am undone and destroyed!”—“for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isa. 6:5). It was known in ancient Israel that no one could see Yahweh and live. God himself said as much to Moses: “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Ex. 33:20). That’s why, throughout the Old Testament, whenever people encountered angels of theophanies of God’s glory, they freaked out and fell to their knees in fear, cowering and covering their faces. The same thing happened in the New Testament at Jesus’ Transfiguration and at the beginning of John’s Apocalypse. Isaiah was no different! When he saw the Lord “sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up” with the train of his robe filling the Temple and the glory cloud using up all the air, Isaiah realized that his privileged vision could spell disaster. “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” (Isa. 6:5). Face to face with the holy, holy, holy Lord, all that Isaiah could feel was his own unholy, unworthy, wretched condition. Even though he was a mighty prophet of God, Isaiah was still a sinner, and sinners in the presence of a holy God have a thing or two coming to them! You cannot see God in his glory and live!

Matthis 3 Maybe that’s why people often keep away from church when they’re feeling particularly guilty about their sin or embarrassed about a family situation. We don’t want God, the pastor, or the Christian community to know exactly how human we really are. We’re ashamed of the fact that we are “poor, miserable sinners.” We worry about going to holy places to worship and praise a God who is “holy, holy, holy,” because we’re afraid that if we get too close, we’ll get burned or, worse, thrown out on our face. Not only do we wonder what other people will think of us, but we worry about what God will think of us. Nothing drives a wedge between us and God like unconfessed sin or a burden of guilt. And even though we know that everyone’s a sinner, it doesn’t change the fact that on a personal, individual level, we often feel as though our sins are worse than everybody else’s. How sad! Which is why one of the seraphim—the fiery, six-winged angels (seraph in Hebrew means “burning one”)—took a burning coal from the altar and touched it to Isaiah’s lips. Ouch! Fire is a beautiful picture of God’s holiness because fire burns. Fire consumes and destroys. But fire also purifies and refines. And, yes, sometimes we may get burned when we come into God’s presence, but if he wounds us, it is only to heal us; and if he kills us, it is only to make us alive again (Deut. 32:39; Hos. 6:1-2). The seraph touched the burning coal to the prophet’s mouth and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for” (Isa. 6:7). In other words, “Do not fear, Isaiah! You are forgiven!” Through the angel, God spoke a Word of absolution to the prophet, not unlike the word spoken by Nathan to King David— “Yahweh has taken away your sin. You will not die” (2 Sam. 12:13, CSM). “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” This absolution is also like the words of absolution spoken by the pastor in the Lutheran Divine Service: “Almighty God in

Matthis 4 His mercy has given His Son to die for you and for His sake forgives you all of your sins…” (LSB). When sin gets in the way of our relationship with God, God puts away our sin. He forgives it and gets it out of the situation—“as far as the east is from the west” (Ps. 103:12). God does not deal with us according to our iniquities. He doesn’t give us what we deserve. Instead, he gives us mercy and grace. That’s why Jesus bore our sin on his back to the cross. Jesus bore the curse and punishment of our sin. “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Gal. 3:13). Jesus even went so far as to become sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). When Christ was nailed to the cross, he left our sin right there: nailed, dead, crucified, “finished.” God in his grace doesn’t allow for our sin to get in the way of having a relationship with him. He invites us to draw near to his throne of grace with boldness and confidence because of the blood Jesus shed on the cross (Heb. 4:16). Our holy God sent his holy Son, Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel, so that we could be saved and made holy. God’s expectation is for his people to be holy too! “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2). We worship a holy God—“holy, holy, holy Lord”! And he wants us to be holy too. Yet apart from faith in Christ and God’s word of mercy and grace, there is no hope for our holiness—only sin and death. There’s only one way for something profane to be sanctified and set apart for God’s purpose. Something of overwhelming holiness has to touch us to make us holy. In Isaiah’s case, it was the burning coal from the altar in the Temple. In our case, it is the blood of Jesus. Hear Jesus’ Words of Institution anew in light of Isaiah’s vision: “Take and eat, take and drink. This is my body given for you. This is my blood poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. See, this has touched your lips! Your guilt is taken away, and

Matthis 5 your sin atoned for.” For, as Luther writes, “whoever believes these words has exactly what they say: ‘forgiveness of sins’” (SC, Sacrament of the Altar). In the Apostles’ Creed, we confess our faith in “the communion of saints.” Saint doesn’t mean only dead people in heaven. A saint is a holy person—any Christian believer, living or dead, made holy by the blood of Christ. The original Greek text is unclear whether it is the communion of holy things or holy people. So in the Creed do we believe in “holy things” or “holy people”? Why not both?! For we cannot be holy people without the holy things of God: Holy Baptism, the Holy Gospel, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion. Holy things make holy people. Which is why going to church is such a wonderful idea: you don’t want to miss out on what God is going to give you when you come to worship! When the holy things of God touch our lips, our ears, and our hearts, then we become holy because the holy, holy, holy Lord comes to us giving gifts of holy things to make us holy as he is holy. He declares us holy and makes us holy by his Word, by his Spirit, and by the blood of Jesus. And for these wonderful gifts, God is worthy of praise. So together with angels and archangels, saints and martyrs, and all creation, we cry out together and sing, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isa. 6:3). But holy people do more than worship and praise the Holy One of Israel. Not only do we hear God’s Word of forgiveness, but we also hear his Word of invitation—his call to mission. “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me’” (Isa. 6:8). After Isaiah sees his terrifying vision and receives God’s grace, he hears the call and answers it. Isaiah is not the only one who needs to hear God’s Holy Absolution. Neither are we. Repentance and forgiveness of sins need to be preached in Jesus’ name to all nations (Luke

Matthis 6 24:47). The whole world needs to hear the Good News of God’s love and mercy in Jesus Christ. Every person on this planet needs to be touched by the holy things of God so that they too can be made holy and worship the holy, holy, holy Lord forever in heaven. Salvation leads to proclamation. We cannot keep the Holy Gospel to ourselves. We believe in holy things—not for ourselves only, but for the life of the world! Holy people also have a holy calling. We are holy—“set apart for a special purpose.” Our purpose is to tell other people the Good News of Jesus. The call goes out: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (Isa. 6:8). Isaiah said, “Here am I! Send me.” And what about you and I? What will be our reply when we hear the call of Christ? In the name of the Father and of the Son and of T the Holy Spirit. Amen.