God’s holiness is both law and gospel. His holiness not only threatens sinners, but it also makes them holy by the forgiveness of sins.
Isaiah 6 deals with the prophet’s ministry from roughly 740 to 730 BC, but more specifically our text deals with his call into the ministry. This pairs nicely with the appointed gospel lesson from Luke 5:1-11 where Jesus calls Simon into the ministry as well. In Isaiah’s inaugural vision, he cries, “Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips,” and Simon tells Jesus the same by claiming to be unworthy and a sinner. Both are appropriate responses before a holy God. There seems to be a common pattern for call/commissioning narratives in the Bible (see Genesis 24:1-9; Exodus 3:1-12; Judges 6:11-16; 1 Kings 22; Jeremiah 1:4-10; and Ezekiel 1-3). These are the literary components of call narratives: Divine confrontation, introductory word (verses 1-2), commission (verses 3-7), objection (verse 11a), and reassurance (verses 11b-13) with an accompanying sign. Now, compare all of this over and against the call of Simon Peter in Luke 5 and you have a nice bookend for preaching which lands you in a story of Christ in the witness of the Church.
When preaching this text, there are many directions you could go, but I would suggest making the most homiletical hay out of verses six through eight. Here, we have the strongest ties to the work of God in atonement for sinners and a sacramental connection that helps us discern the working of God in the lives of His people. In verses six and seven, the burning of the incense protected the priest against the risk of death from the nearer presence of God (Leviticus 16:12-13). Holiness is like bleach to sin; it just goes after it to get rid of it. So, the Lord’s gift of atonement to Isaiah in verse seven also demonstrates Israel’s relationship to God. They are unclean, like Isaiah, and under wrath unless the Lord gives free and full forgiveness. The Lord graciously provided atonement for Isaiah and He does for Israel (44:21-22; 53:5-6) and He does for us as well.
Listen to what Paul says in Romans 3:23-26:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Holiness is like bleach to sin; it just goes after it to get rid of it.
In our reading, notice how God’s holiness is both law and gospel. His holiness not only threatens sinners, but it also makes them holy by the forgiveness of sins. The live coal is “sacramental-esque” in that it is a visible element with the promise of forgiveness attached to it. This little sacramental foreshadowing continues to reveal a God who makes sinners holy through “means,” which we now receive clearly and fully in the font and at the table. In fact, developing a sacramental connection to the Supper may make a meaningful connection between Isaiah and the lives of our hearers. We receive this gift from the altar (not in a “Hiphil”[1] kind of way like Isaiah did) and by this Word of Christ attached to the bread and wine we receive His promise of the forgiveness of sins that sends us out with lives cleaned by Christ’s forgiving body and blood which makes us witnesses to the Word of God and His work among us. However, verse eight makes an even stronger connection. In this verse we see how Yahweh must send us. You cannot send yourself. You cannot appoint yourself. You cannot call yourself. God calls, sends, and equips His people through the Word and Sacraments to witness this work and word to the world.
The best structure to get at this text would likely be a Text Application Structure:
“This structure organizes the sermon on the basis of two experiences most parishioners have as they open up the Scriptures: A desire to understand what the text is speaking of in its own historical context and a desire to hear how God speaks through this text to shape the lives of His people today. With an eye toward these two experiences, the preacher shapes the sermon with a text-application structure.
This preacher divides the progression of the sermon into two portions. After an introduction that raises interest in the text or in a life situation for which the hearers desire a word from God, the first part of the sermon offers textual exposition for the hearers; the second part of the sermon applies the text to the hearers.
In the first section of the sermon, the preacher spends time with the text. As the preacher develops the text, he is careful to focus upon those details that are important for later application of this text to the lives of his hearers. Often, the preacher will be identifying teachings of the faith within his exposition of the text that will later be used in application to the lives of the hearers.
In the second section of the sermon, the preacher examines God’s present work in the lives of the contemporary hearers. In doing this, he could be working with the teaching of the text, the function of the text, or the intention of the writer. Any of these approaches can yield fruitful results in terms of how this text functions among the hearers today. Sometimes, preachers may find it helpful to move sequentially through the four types of discourse in the tapestry of preaching as they move from text to application: Textual exposition, theological confession that names a teaching in the text, evangelical proclamation that centers that teaching in Christ for us, and hearer interpretation that names our lives in relation to that teaching.
The biggest challenges in this sermon structure are finding an appropriate balance between textual exposition and hearer application (for example, avoiding a sermon that is long on textual study and short on application) and maintaining hearer attention during a prolonged section of textual study or application.”[2]
------
Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13).
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13).
Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13).
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
-------
[1] The Hiphil stem in biblical Hebrew generally expresses causative action in the active voice, but it can also express other kinds of verbal action depending on the context and the specific verb.
[2] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/textual/text-application/
