Purification by Seraph

"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!"  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 6: 5-7

                                                         "Purification"     by Tim Mackie and Jon Colli

Here we have this rather terrifying story of a seraph, a kind of six winged angel, who suddenly flies straight at Isaiah carrying tongs that hold a red hot coal. When the seraph reaches Isaiah, he presses the burning charcoal into Isaiah's lips. It sounds like villainous torture. Imagine his burned lips, the smell of charred human flesh, the blistering and discoloration............. So much for benign angels.

If we get all hung up, however, on the drama being played out in this brutal scene, we might miss the coda. Notice what the seraph says after he sears Isaiah's mouth with the burning coal:  

                    "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." 

It is so easy to miss the Good News! Many Western Christians have a propensity to dwell in the dreary, in the inhospitable, in the subterranean caves of our souls -- and yet, God promises us Good News. The passage begs the questions: 

What is the price we pay for the alleviation of our guilt? 

What is the cost of having our sins blotted? 

And, conversely, what are the costs of holding onto our guilt and sin?

Let our habitual propensity for clinging to guilt and sin never separate us from the love of God and true freedom in Christ.

Whimsy

There move the ships,and there is that Leviathan,
 which you have made for the sport of it.   Psalm 104:26

There is that great Leviathan - the great sea creature - perhaps a whale? 

What, exactly, the Psalmist meant by Leviathan is secondary, really. 

What is important is that God made it, created it, for the sport of it. Whimsy.

As Spring erupts, it's impossible not to marvel at the beauty that surrounds us:  

daffodils erupt into tulips, lilacs replace viburnum, and puppies morph into loyal companions. And the Lord God made them all, as the children's hymn reminds us.

We are taught much about sin, but not as much about redemption. We contemplate the horrors of the crucifixion, and often take a pass on the miracle that is Resurrection.  We remember when God rained down fire and brimstone, yet we are dismissive of the whimsy revealed in the first chapter of Genesis where we experience God as Creator. 

God created llamas, for heaven's sake. Who cannot smile? Where do you experience God as whimsical? God as creating things for our enjoyment, for the sheer sport of it? Look into the faces of those you love. 

Look into the relationships you most enjoy. 

God creates those too - for God's own enjoyment -- and for ours

Lord, You Know My Heart

The Text: 

                  Lord, you know everyone's heart.....     Acts 1:24

                     

                                                        Cristomo                         by Agostino Arrivabene, 2013 

 

The Whispering:

Lord, you know everyone's heart..... Wow. 

God knows. Knows the stuff we do with good intentions, and knows that which we may do with carefully crafted malevolent intent. God knows..

We all keep secrets:  feelings we harbor yet never express; desires for which we may yearn yet never chase, actions we've taken but have never admitted.  And, yet, God knows. 

How much energy do we spend keeping our secrets hidden? What effort, what psycho-social spiritual strength do we expend in order to create acceptable social masks that are congruent with society's norms - or the church's expectations? 

Because God already knows our hearts.

This is the place from which our prayers must commence.                                                 

This is the conversation God yearns to have with us every day. 

Because God knows.  

Choices

The Text:

You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.               John 15:16

                                       The Fruit Bearers                                  by Raymond Cody, c. 1992

                  

We often think of ourselves as choosing God: choosing to become active (or not) in our faith communities. Choosing our careers, choosing our spouses, choosing whether or not we will come to church on a Sunday morning.  We like to have choices. 

How might our lives change if we really understood and believed that God chose us first? Would we put more effort into our endeavors? Might we be more joy-filled?                   Could we live more fully into the idea that we are on a mission from God?

When we make choices on our own that are not "of God" it often feels as though we are pushing water uphill. Certainly we have "free will" and can, at any time, reject God's choices for us, but those choices that are not God borne often feel unsustainable and unwieldy.

What choices have you made that may not be God authored? Do they weigh you down? Are they preventing you from bearing fruit?  The first step into reconciliation is to take stock of those things we have chosen and to examine them for signs of God's authorship. It is only then wherein we can begin to cast away those things that are not of God and become spiritually able to be re-filled with that which is truly life-giving and  fruit-bearing.