Text: Isaiah 6:1-8
Some people see things you and I don't see. I remember a girl, who was on an email list with me once, who said she saw numbers as colors. Then she proceeded to describe the color of each number. It was the most amazing thing I ever heard, but apparently there are a lot of other people who see things that way.
Listen to this testimony from a girl named Carol:
"I came back from college on a semester break, and was sitting with my family around the dinner table, and -- I don't know why I said it -- but I said, 'The number five is yellow.' There was a pause, and my father said, 'No, it's yellow-ochre.' And my mother and my brother looked at us like, 'This is a new game, would you share the rules with us?'
"And I was dumbfounded. At that time in my life I was having trouble deciding whether the number two was green and the number six blue, or just the other way around. And I said to my father, 'Is the number two green?' and he said, 'Yes, definitely. It's green… You know, the number four is red, and the number zero is white. And the number nine is green.' I said, 'Well, I agree with you about the four and the zero, but nine is definitely not green!'" (1)
Here is a sample of how she might have seen the letters of the alphabet:
There's even a name for this ability; it's called synesthesia. The definition of synesthesia is "a neurological condition in which a stimulus in one sense modality is involuntarily elicited in another sense modality." For instance, someone with synesthesia (called a synesthete) may be able to see sounds, taste shapes, or read printed words in color. Synesthesia is thought to occur in about one in 1:300 people. (2)
At the Vanderbilt University web site, there are several testimonies of people who have synesthesia, like these:
"Zero is usually black for me, sometimes its clear, every now and then green, 1 is black, 2 is purplish, 3 is orangish - yellow, 4 blue, 5 is red, 6 is light green, 7 is a deep red, 8 is grass green, 9 is the same as the 6."
Another testimony says, "I have perfect pitch. I can tell you what notes I am hearing by 'sensing' what color they sound. The note F, and songs in the key of F, sound like a reddish shade of rust. The note A flat, and songs in the key of A flat, are navy blue. B flat, however, is baby blue, etc. All keys have a color, although some colors are so similar, it's hard for me to describe the difference, but I hear the difference. As I hear music, I just get a sensation of a certain color. It's as if I'm looking through glasses of that color." (3)
I am amazed at these stories, and can hardly believe them because I never see such things. But the testimonies of so many people convince me it must be true. And I guess I'm jealous; I wish I could see that way.
I believe many spiritual experiences are exactly this way. One person comes into the sanctuary out of habit, noticing that the flowers are not centered, that the Communion ware has a smudge on it, and that a lady across the church has a purse that doesn't match her dress. Another person comes into the same place, and sees the presence of God, hears the message of God, and leaves transformed by the experience. Faith is a matter of seeing. Some do; some don't.
Our passage of Scripture from Isaiah is exactly this way. It is one of the classical texts on true worship, and I want us to look closely at it to find an unusual time, an unearthly vision, unconditional humility, unimaginable grace, and an unavoidable mission.
First, it was an unusual time. The text begins by telling us that it was "the year that King Uzziah died." This, of course, gives us a clue to the exact date of the experience. Most scholars say that King Uzziah died between 742 and 736 B.C.
King Uzziah was one of the greatest kings of Israel, second only to Solomon in splendor. He reigned for 52 years. King Uzziah was considered everyone's hero because of all the good that he had done. 2 Chronicles 26:4-5 says, "He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done. He set himself to seek God…; and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper."
But because of a incident of pride in which he wanted to burn incense to God where only the Levites were allowed to do so, he was afflicted with leprosy. His last years were spent in isolation. Nevertheless, the death of such an admired king left Isaiah in grief and the nation in turmoil.
In response, Isaiah made his way to the temple to worship. There we find our second point because Isaiah saw an unearthly vision.
The words of Isaiah begin, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple."
Most people went to the Temple and saw the sacrificial system at work. They may have seen the priests doing their many tasks. They may have enjoyed the beauty of the elaborate Temple, but Isaiah saw the Lord. His hour of despair had become his hour of blessing.
His vision of God was so grand that only the hem of God's robe completely filled the Temple. But Isaiah was amazed to even get a glimpse of the hem of the robe of God. He had come into the temple grieving over his human hero, King Uzziah, but he was treated to a view of the divine hero, God.
We should never despair when our human heroes fail us for we have a Divine hero who never fails. Any time we make the mistake of so adoring our human heroes to the point that we worship them, we will always be disappointed. Never worship anyone but the true hero, and that is God.
And we should remember that our purpose for entering God's house is to see the Lord. True worship involves only one thing – seeing God. We are here to meet God face to face, and to hear a message from God. Never forget that we come here to meet the living God.
Next, Isaiah saw and heard unbroken praise. The text says, "Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.' The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke."
This is the only mention in the Bible about the seraphim. They were beings with six wings. With two they covered their feet, with two they covered their eyes, and with two they flew. They are mysterious attendants around the throne of God, and they praise the Lord with a hymn of praise.
Everywhere that the Bible describes such a scene in heaven, we always find the heavenly beings offering their praise to God. Worship is about praise. We too need to sing, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."
The volume of the singing shook the doorposts. When did you last hear singing like that?
Back in Arkansas, there was a member of our church who sold automobile sound systems. His business slogan was, "If your windows ain't shakin', then you got taken!" Perhaps you have heard young people driving down the road with a "thump, thump, thump."
The sound in the temple of Isaiah's day must have been something like that. The doorposts shook, and the room was filled with smoke.
For my fourth point, we find unconditional humility. Verse five says, "And I said: 'Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!'"
Here we find another element of true worship for when we truly see God, we see ourselves. In the light of God's presence, our sinfulness and selfishness make us feel an overwhelming sense of our unworthiness. We know we are unfit to meet with the holy God.
When I was a small boy, I didn't like to take baths. It seemed that every time my mother forgot to make me take a bath, she had always changed the sheets that very day. A dirty body on clean sheets drives me crazy. That's the way it is when sinful creaturs come before a holy God.
Such confession is a vital aspect of our worship. Every time we come into God's house, we must confess our sins. We must be honest with God for there is one thing God cannot stand and cannot deal with – a person who is dishonest with God.
God wants no excuses. God doesn't want to hear about our unfortunate circumstances, about our difficult upbringing. God doesn't want us to offer the excuse of our environment. God wants us to honestly confess our sin.
This brings us to our fifth point, for in worship we find unimaginable grace. When we confess our sin, God offers forgiveness. He cleanses and heals. He restores our soul.
Verse six says, "Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."
Isaiah was given the gift of cleansing and forgiveness. His guilt was taken away; his sin forgiven.
This is a beautiful picture of the church. We are a fellowship of the forgiven. We are people who have confessed our sin, and found our joy and peace in God's forgiveness and cleansing.
But this is the end of the story. Isaiah was not allowed to rest in his forgiveness. He was given a mighty task to perform.
As our last point, we find an unavoidable mission. Verse eight says, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I; send me!'"
When we look closely at this text, we discover that God was not directly commanding Isaiah. In fact, it is merely that Isaiah overheard God's voice asking, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" Isaiah heard the need. To hear God's call we must come within the hearing distance. God is always calling, but most of us are not listening. We can't hear because we haven't come close enough to the presence of God to hear. It is only when we come close to God, have our sinfulness and our selfishness cleared away, that we are ready to respond, "Here am I; send me!"
This passage provides the supreme model for worship. We come to see God, offer praise, confess our sin, find grace and forgiveness and finally respond.
In our worship, we always end with an invitation hymn, which recognizes our need to respond to God at the end of worship. When we have learned who we are and whose we are, then we are ready to perform the work of God.
God wants us to spend our lives in service. When we have received a great vision of God, we are then given a great task to perform. Our true worship is just a beginning; it is an introduction to God's call and claim on our lives.
Isaiah was called to a difficult task. He had to bring a message of judgment to a people who didn't want to hear it. Israel would be destroyed and the people taken into captivity, but in the end, a faithful remnant would return. It was not an easy task, but Isaiah knew with God he could never fail, and without God he could never succeed.
We would do well to find such an experience at the end of our worship. We,too, should hear God say, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" and respond, "Here am I, send me." Remember with God we can never fail, without God we can never succeed.
We may not be able to see numbers as colors, but all of us can see God, worship God and say, "Here am I, send me."
Endnotes:
1) (http://web.mit.edu/synesthesia/www/carol.html Retrieved 7/14/04.
2) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/synesthetes/. Retrieved 7/14/04.
3) http://www.psy.vanderbilt.edu/faculty/palmeri/synesthesia/synesthetes.html. Retrieved 7/14/04.
4) Apples of God by Lowel Atkinson. Lima, Ohio: Fairway Press, 1986, pp. 178-181.