Called by His Name
"A Seraph Purifies the Lips of Isaiah with Coal" by Marc Chagall Click here to listen to this sermon.
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Cleansed by the Thrice Holy God and Sent to Serve
"Isaiah under Divine Inspiration" by Marc Chagall Click here to listen to this sermon. In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for 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!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and...
Created, Redeemed, and Called by the Lord
Click here to listen to this sermon. “But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! We are in the second week of the new year, a couple of days past Epiphany, the end of the twelve days of Christmas. Are you experiencing a little bit of a letdown? The Christmas decorations have been packed away and there’s a bit of a holiday hangover? Or maybe the credit card bills have started coming in and the reality of just how much you got in the commercial spirit of Christmas has come home to roost? Perhaps your struggle to keep this year’s New Year’s resolution reminds you of your miserable failure last year? Maybe your family gatherings were not so much like those painted by Norman Rockwell, but more like an episode of Jerry Springer? And then there’s the weather that’s generally so cold...
You Turn Things Upside Down!
The Bible Turned Upside Down The text for today is our Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 29: 11-19, which has already been read. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Like the plot of a good action thriller it goes down to the wire. At the last minute God mercifully intervenes to deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrian horde poised at the city gate. But something is wrong. The people do not see beyond the immediate threat they have just avoided. They fail to recognize the hand of the Lord or their sin and idolatry that brought them so close to utter ruin. God’s deliverance does nothing to turn them to repentance and the promises of the Messiah. And so the deliverance will only buy them a few more years until the Babylonians come and destroy Jerusalem and the temple. Now that’s judgment! But Isaiah reveals another aspect of God’s judgment: He will give the people of Jerusalem what they w...