Sermon Notes — February 9, 2025
Isaiah 6:1-8
The Gift of Worship
Dr. Craig Goff
February 9, 2025
There are a lot of truly fascinating things happening in our passage from Isaiah 6. There is the hem of God’s rob that fills the temple. There is the movement of kind of scary sounding, mysterious six-winged creatures. Smoke hangs in the air, and probably the sweet smell of incense too, because it’s the temple.
There is a lot going on, a full sensory experience and yet will all the power and wonder that is conjured up in this vision described in our text, the voice of the Lord calls out.
The Lord calls out, wondering where He can get some help.
Given everything that is going on, I would just expect the Lord to just send somebody out to do what needs to be done or to issue a command.
I can imagine God saying something like, “You! Little Isaiah, go out and do what I want you to do. Now!”
But instead, notice what he does…..
God asks for help.
It is easy to get the impression that it is almost a plea, as if God maybe doesn’t expect anyone to answer or know if anyone will answer.
God asks “Who will go for me?”
Maybe I’ve missed something …….maybe that is not the tone.
Maybe there was an army of people there in the temple ready to spring at the opportunity to go and speak for God….who would say, “I’m your man, Lord! Put me in coach!”
But if that were the case I wonder why it is that these words of Isaiah are still ringing down through the centuries.
“Here I am, send me.”
I have tried to imagine how small Isaiah must have felt that day. Here is the hem of God’s robe filling the temple. Then there are angels flying all around. Then there is Isaiah, maybe hiding in one of the folds of God’s robes or behind one of the columns in the temple or outside on the portico.
How does he summon the courage to speak up?
How does he find the courage to say, “Here I am Lord, send me?”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen the hem of God’s robe fill the sanctuary. That had to be pretty impressive. I can see how it might cause a person to clam up rather than speak out…
But somehow little Isaiah finds the courage to speak to God in the presence of all that power and under the weight of such awe and glory and say,
“I’ll go if you need me. I’m pretty small, not real strong and big, I’m not the smartest person here, likely, but I’ll do anything you want me to do.
How does a person summon such courage?
In this reading, the vision of Isaiah isn’t just regal and grand, it is inspiring.
Somehow Isaiah isn’t rendered speechless. He isn’t left mute or dumbstruck. He is compelled.
He is compelled to offer himself to God which is exactly what worship is about.
Worship is about our allowing God to prepare us to go out and speak God’s word in the world.
Sunday is an important day for a church, especially the church staff. We spend a lot of time planning what happens. We spend a lot of time asking God to bless what we do.
We want worship to be inspiring and dynamic and “authentic.” We want the prayers to be heartfelt. We want the music to come together for it to be beautiful. We want the creeds and affirmations of faith to ring out.
We want the service to capture the awesomeness of God and maybe to some degree we want to sound clever and be hip if we are honest.
But whatever we do, and however we do it, what we absolutely do not want to do, is to drown out the voice of God.
We don’t want in any way, to silence the voice of God calling us into action.
And we don’t want to discourage anyone from responding to God’s voice in anyway.
When someone somehow summons the courage like Isaiah to say, “Here I am Lord send me. Put me in coach.” We want to make sure we support them every way we can.
That is what worship is about too.
God calling us and our responding to God and our encouraging one another to respond to God.
When you take away the lights and the paraments and the chalice and the cup and the drums and the keyboard and the projection screens, then you are left with what is truly important, which is the hem of God’s robe.
Do you see it?
And if we focus even just a tiny little bit, you might even hear God say, even if in a soft whisper ask,
“Will you go for me? Will you speak for me? Will you live for me?”
Do you see it?
Do you hear it? Will you go? Will you go?