Thought for the Day – Tuesday 9th June
‘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. 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. 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!” 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.” 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!”’ (Isaiah
6:1-8)
Our reading for today involves another commissioning, this time it is
the commissioning or call of Isaiah.
What a dramatic scene this must have been!
God on the throne, seraphs in attendance, the noise of their voices as
they called out to each other shaking the very doorposts of the temple; the
whole place filled with smoke; Isaiah trembling in fear because he thinks he is
going to die because he has seen God face to face and then that touching of the
lips with the live coals – definitely an impressive scene awakening each of
Isaiah’s five senses as well as a evoking a whole host of emotions within him.
That touching of the lips with a live coal may seem a strange thing to
do to someone but it is symbolic of the live coals which were taken into the
Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement when sacrifices were then made upon
those coals as an atonement for sins and so here as Isaiah is being
commissioned by God to fulfil God’s work he is being forgiven his sins, it is
like a cleansing, like a fresh start for him as he sets out on his new path.
Such is the impact of this dramatic event on Isaiah’s life that when
God says, “Whom shall I send, and who
will go for us?” he immediately, without hesitation Isaiah says, “Here am I; send me!”
God’s call on our lives may not be in such a dramatic way, we may not
be in that room with the eleven disciples and hear Jesus speak those words of
the ‘Great Commission’ to go and make disciples to us personally but as people
of faith we are called by God, by Jesus, nonetheless.
We may not have live coals touched to our lips to atone for our sins
but Jesus was crucified on a cross for us. He was the atonement for our sins,
he gives us that cleansing and that fresh start to enable us to set out on a
new path for and with him.
So when we hear that voice deep within us saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” like Isaiah we should
be unafraid and ready to immediately and without hesitation, say:
“Here am I; send me!”
Prayer
Loving Lord, Deep within us, touching our very soul, you are always
asking ‘Whom shall I send?’ May we listen for your call on our lives and always
have the courage of Isaiah to respond, ‘Here am I; send me’. We ask these
things in Jesus’ name and for his sake. Amen
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