Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

September 11th, Pearl Harbor, Auschwitz, Space Shuttle Challenger, Capture of Saddam Hussein. All I have to do is say a few words, and countless memories and images fill your head. You can’t help it. I don’t have to explain myself to say, for instance, the morning of the eleventh of September, 2001, in rural Pennsylvania, lower Manhattan, New York, and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. You already know all the necessary details, and still, they can make your heart sink.

That is why Isaiah only said those few words, “In the year that King Uzziah died…” What a horrible experience for the kingdom of Judah that was! It was an event that everyone would probably want to forget. For Isaiah referred to an event after which the city of Jerusalem would never be the same. Uzziah began his long reign as king at the age of sixteen, as 2 Chronicles 26 has it. For 52 years he led the nation under God’s blessing and with relative peace. The Philistines were still around, but they were not nearly so powerful an army as in the older days when the young man David killed Goliath. King Uzziah was a famous and strong ruler, he set in motion a technologically advanced defense weapons program that designed some device that was a cross between a catapult and a crossbow, and because of him, Jerusalem was probably the safest it ever was, or ever will be in the Middle East, even to this day.

Then the horrible event happened. All the peace and favor of the Lord shattered to bits, as though it were wiped out by something as devastating as a terrorist attack. Uzziah was riding high on his fame as a powerful king and he thought he was invincible, even bigger than God Himself. So he took it upon himself to bend the rules a little bit and introduce an innovative new worship practice: he would offer the incense in the temple that only the priests were authorized to burn. He dared approach the presence of the Lord without the blood of sacrifice on him to take away his sins. King Uzziah deserved to suffer the full wrath of God and be instantly condemned to hell, but the Lord instead mercifully struck him with a skin disease and made him a shameful, lonely, unclean outcast until he finally died and the country was suddenly under the rule of a young, inexperienced king.

That was the horrible event that made Isaiah and everyone else in Jerusalem cringe at the very thought of it. Someone you thought was a righteous, upstanding, faithful ruler, living under the smiling face of God and then, boom, he enters into His holy presence and the guy suffers the drastic consequences. You don’t easily forget something like that if you were to live there at that time. Isaiah had a powerful image in his mind that spoke loud and clear that you don’t just walk in on the Lord unforgiven. Maybe the next person to do that wouldn’t be so lucky as King Uzziah.

But in that same temple where the king met his fateful doom, not far from the very spot where God’s fearful judgment took place, Isaiah was confronted with a vision of the Lord in His full glory. There He was on His throne and the perfect six-winged angels were covering themselves in reverence as they flew around before Him. And there poor Isaiah was, he was sure he was about to suffer punishment just like his king did. When God in all His power and might shows up, the only reaction you can have is, “I’m a goner. Woe is me, for I am lost! 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.” The perfect, utter holiness of Almighty God can do nothing else but reveal the ugly, stained sinner that you are. And when the bright, pure light of the Law shines on your doubting heart, it cuts you down so that you despair of any possible way to escape the punishment you deserve.

Isaiah felt this, and so did Peter. Jesus finished His sermon from the boat and worked the miracle of catching all those fish. And anyone in the business can tell you it usually takes Divine intervention to have a successful day fishing in the first place. That’s why Peter finally got it that he was actually standing in the presence of Almighty God. Immediately, he feared for his stubborn, sinful soul, because the Lord who knows the thoughts of every heart had every right to rub him out once and for all. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” That guilty feeling has been in the heart of man ever since Adam, while chewing a mouthful of forbidden fruit, stopped dead in his tracks when he heard the sound of God walking in the garden.

It is a shame that you cannot ignore or explain away. Still, you try to turn attention away from your spiritual uncleanness. The class clown puts on a performance, the worker who gets caught slipping up just once points the finger to someone else who continually breaks the rules and gets away with it. You may have thought, I may have some flaws I have to work on, but someone else deserves more of the blame for what I’m going through. But the guilt of God’s law remains, it does not go away, and Isaiah and Peter at least admit that for themselves. You need that same law and God’s threat of punishment to bring you to your knees every day. You are no better, and yet here you are in the presence of the Lord Almighty. Do you dare refuse to admit your sin to the face of your all-powerful Judge? Repent.

Though Peter and Isaiah were crushed down low when they realized their sinfulness, the Lord raised them up again with His forgiveness. The fiery seraph flew to Isaiah with a hot coal straight from the altar of sacrifice. His lips were purified so that he could preach God’s Word as His holy prophet. Jesus comforted Peter with His Divine, forgiving Word, saying, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching men.” And with that, Jesus created within Peter and the other disciples their desire to follow Him and begin their seminary education.

Whatever vocation God has given you to do His holy work, He forgives and strengthens you just like He did Isaiah and Peter. After His law has impressed upon you the fact that you are a poor, miserable sinner, Jesus speaks His loving, uplifting and forgiving Word of Gospel to restore you. He may not send an angel to burn your lips or fill your boat with fish, but He will drown your sinful nature as He brings you back to your baptism. Though you are crucified and killed along with Christ your Lord, you are also raised up to life with Him in order to live the way He originally planned for you. Right into your mouth He places the Body and Blood that He gave up on the cross in order to win you back for your heavenly Father. He admits you with open arms into His holy presence, you are no longer forbidden because the Blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, covers you. You no longer have anything to fear, for your sin is taken away. As terrible as your past may have been, as far as your Lord is concerned, it is forgotten. That is what God’s forgiveness is all about.

It is a forgiveness that prepares you for eternal life. Beginning from the moment of your baptism, from that point onward you are declared innocent, no, actually perfect in God’s sight because of Jesus, while at the same time the Holy Spirit is helping you in your fight against Satan and even your old sinful self. While you are still on this earth you will continue fighting, you will continue confessing your sin and hearing the mighty Word of absolution. You always do that here in church, but you can also do it in private so that your pastor can announce that forgiveness especially to you. However you hear it, though, it still is the Word of Jesus for you to pick you up and send you on your way as you live out the calling in life that God has given you. Just as it did for Peter and Isaiah in the Bible, so that Word also strengthens you, for He is stronger, even stronger than any memorable tragedy of this world. And armed with His strength, you are able to rise from the destruction of sin and by His grace alone, move forward in fulfilling His mission.

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Readings:
Is. 6:1–13 Holy, holy holy is the LORD of hosts
Psalm 138 You have magnified Your word above all your Name
1 Cor. 14:12b–20 do not be children in understanding … in understanding be mature
Luke 5:1–11 from now on you will catch men