Epiphany C – 5, ‘19
Isaiah 6:1-13; Luke 5:1-11
2/10/19
Trinity Lutheran Congregation
 
Every Sunday we sing the song of the seraphim.  Did you hear it?  In the first reading we heard their song, “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”  In just a few minutes we’ll be singing a slightly different translation of it, “Holy, Holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.”  
 
Those angels, those seraphim knew something about God’s desires for the world and about people and about life and the world.  And it seems they did not hesitate to Sing about it or to get someone to change things.
 
These words from Isaiah are his telling of his call story, when he heard God’s call in person. Isaiah had actually seen the Lord, which is pretty amazing.  God had told Moses that no one would see God and live.  No wonder Isaiah wanted out.  His vision was unusual and dangerous.           These seraphim are not those chubby, winged, cupid-like creatures that you often see floating harmlessly in the corners of baroque paintings.   These seraphim are fiery creatures filling the house with smoke as they sang.  And they would have nothing of Isaiah’s attempt to get out of the job God called him to do.  One of the seraphs flew down to Isaiah and touched his lips with a live coal to remove his guilt and blot out his sin.  When God calls him again, Isaiah answers, “Here am I, send me.”

Texts: Luke 4: 21-30, 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

“The more we curve in on ourselves, the more we stick to our own notions of what is good, the more we desperately need God to break in from the outside. The more cracked open we are, the more room for God to flood our lives with an expansive, unfathomable Love that we could never concoct for ourselves.

That’s good news, I promise, although it might not seem like it at the time—when reality as we conceived of it slips through our fingers and we are left only with our breath and open hands. It’s good news that was so hard to hear that Jesus’ friends and neighbors drove him out of town, intending to shove him off the cliffs.”