The Elements of Worship: God’s Love and Our Mission
Sycamore Creek Church
December 19, 2010
Isaiah 6:1-8
Tom Arthur
Peace, Friends!
Today we wrap up our series on The Elements of Worship. Throughout this series we’ve used a definition of worship to guide us: Worship happens most fully when the community gathers to encounter God and respond with everything we’ve got. Worship is first and foremost about God and not about what we get out of it. Worship is fullest when it is communal. Worship compels us to respond with everything: time, talents, treasure, testimony, prayers, presence, gifts, service, heart, mind, soul, strength. Everything!
Our scripture text each week has been Isaiah 6:1-8. Here we read about Isaiah’s encounter with God and his response. Let’s hear God’s story again.
Isaiah 6:1-8 (NLT)
1 In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. 2 Hovering around him were mighty seraphim, each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with the remaining two they flew. 3 In a great chorus they sang,
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty!
The whole earth is filled with his glory!”
4 The glorious singing shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire sanctuary was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said, “My destruction is sealed, for I am a sinful man and a member of a sinful race. Yet I have seen the King, the LORD Almighty!”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew over to the altar, and he picked up a burning coal with a pair of tongs. 7 He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” 8 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go for us?” And I said, “Lord, I’ll go! Send me.”
This is God’s story for us today. Thank you, God!
Along with this scripture text we’ve been using a different element from the periodic table each week to explore a different character trait of God that we encounter in worship and our corresponding response. We began on the first week with carbon as known in the beauty of a diamond and God’s glory and our response of praise. Then we moved on to hydrogen, a very explosive and potentially dangerous element, and God’s holiness and our conviction and confession. Last week we looked at copper, a very flexible metal which has no “gotcha,” and God’s mercy and our response of thankfulness and forgiveness of others. Today we finish the series with lithium and God’s love and our response of mission.
Let’s bring back to mind some of the characteristics of lithium. Lithium is probably best known in our day in the form of lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries power our cell phones, our computers, our cameras, our gadgets, and our cars. In this form lithium provides the energy for action. Lithium also is used to treat bipolar disorder. It evens out the highs and lows of mania and depression. So now that we know a little bit about lithium, let’s look again at the text from Isaiah and see what we can learn from it about God’s love.
Love is the action of God which balances between God’s glory and holiness and God’s mercy. On the one side, God’s glory and holiness, we’ve got a rather one-two punch of God’s power and beauty and purity that we don’t really measure up to. On the other side we’ve got the flexibility of God’s mercy. The balance between the two is God’s love.
Consider again lithium. It balances out the mania and depression of bipolar. Or consider the lithium-ion battery: “A lithium-ion battery is a family of rechargeable battery types in which lithium ions move from the negative electrode to the positive electrode during discharge, and back when charging” (Wikipedia). So lithium-ion batteries have this movement back and forth between two poles: negative and positive. The movement provides energy for action.
We could say that God’s love balances or moves back and forth between the two poles of God’s glory and holiness on one side and God’s mercy on the other side. If we read back through Isaiah 6:1-8 we see that Isaiah encounters God’s glory and holiness and says in verse five, “Woe me!” Then Isaiah experiences God’s mercy in verse six and seven and then says very literally in verse eight, “Whoa me!” The movement from “Woe me” to “Whoa me” is God’s love. The two poles of God’s character work together in harmony for action.
Let’s look at some practical examples of how something fairly unbending works with something more flexible to produce a helpful action. Take skiing. Skis are pretty firm and unbending. Downhill skis have a sharp edge that can be somewhat dangerous if you don’t treat it properly. While skis are rigid and stiff, skiing takes place on something rather flexible: snow. Snow, especially powder snow, is light and fluffy. Snow is much more giving than say ice. I know because when I was learning to ski I hit an ice patch and went down hard and scraped up the side of my face. A rigid ski on rigid ice is no fun. But a rigid ski on soft snow gives you the action of skiing. God’s glory and holiness on one side are balanced by God’s mercy on the other side by the action of God’s love.
Or take a tire. A tire is filled with pressure. Pressure is what keeps the rubber off the road. But a tire isn’t filled with the pressure of, say, concrete. No. It’s filled with the pressure of air. Air, last time I checked is pretty flexible. We walk through it all the time. It is much different walking through air than say walking through a concrete wall. One will hurt you but the other will allow you to move effortlessly from point A to point B. If you don’t have pressure and air working together you’ve got a flat tire. I’ve only had one flat tire on my current car. It was on a Sunday morning. I came out to go to church and found that my tire was flat. I was a little excited. I hadn’t changed a tire in a long time. So I opened my trunk to pull out the lug nut wrench and jack. There was one significant problem. My car didn’t have a lug nut wrench! I had owned the car for almost ten years but had never needed to look for the lug nut wrench. I had no way of fixing the tire. I missed church that morning. It’s the only time I’ve ever been thwarted from going to church. I didn’t have the balance of pressure and air to help my tire with the action of rolling. I was dead in the parking lot.
Or take parenting. On the one hand parents must have rules. Rules are fairly rigid and unbending or they wouldn’t be rules. And yet every parent must know what battles to fight and what battles to dodge. The end result of the balance between these two poles of being firm and flexible is the action of forming a child well. The action of balancing between being firm and flexible is the action of love.
Woe me! God’s mercy. Whoa me!
The natural response of encountering God’s love in worship is joining God’s mission. Let’s go back to lithium again. One form that lithium comes in that I haven’t yet mentioned is lithium grease. It’s a great lubricant for household products because it resists heat and moisture. Interestingly enough, lithium grease is made up of two things you don’t usually consider putting together: oil and soap! Lithium lubricates for action by putting together two things that sometimes don’t go together well.
Joining God’s mission means walking people through the balance of God’s glory and holiness on the one hand and God’s mercy on the other hand. Let’s go back to Isaiah 6 and look at the verses that follow the first eight. God asks who will go for God and Isaiah responds saying, “Whoa, send me!” Then something very unusual happens. We read what God tells Isaiah to say to the people:
Isaiah 6:9-10 (NLT)
And [God] said, “Yes, go. But tell my people this: ‘You will hear my words, but you will not understand. You will see what I do, but you will not perceive its meaning.’ Harden the hearts of these people. Close their ears, and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn to me for healing.”
Whoa! Isaiah is to preach God’s glory and holiness through God’s judgment. You’ll see but not understand. You’ll hear but not listen. Your hearts will harden. Your eyes will shut. Your ears will close. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Yikes!
This is God’s firm glory and holiness. It is a message that most of us are not very comfortable sharing with others, but this is part of God’s love and our mission. You can’t know God’s love until you have fully experienced God’s glory and holiness first. But thankfully that’s not the end of the story of our mission or Isaiah’s.
If we continue to read Isaiah we come across a distinct change in Isaiah’s message in chapter forty. Many scholars think that this part of Isaiah comes after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. The people of Israel are now going to encounter God’s mercy. Isaiah says:
Isaiah 40:1-2 (NLT)
“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and that her sins are pardoned. Yes, the LORD has punished her in full for all her sins.”
This is God’s mercy. This is God’s flexibility. Thank you, God! But we can not fully experience God’s love until we move first through the firmness of God’s glory and holiness and then into God’s mercy. And likewise, our mission to others must help them experience the balance of “woe me” and “you are forgiven.” In this way we are a come as you are kind of church (God’s mercy), but not stay as you are (God’s glory and holiness), so that we can reach people where they are (God’s love).
So how do you do this in the next week? Let me offer some suggestions. First, you have an opportunity today to join in God’s mission here at SCC by delivering a food basket to a family who has requested one in our community. This is a time to share God’s love with someone in need of a pretty basic thing in life: food. Take some time, as you sense it is available, to talk a little with the family you are delivering the food to. We’ve included a prayer card for you to pray with them. Invite them to church. Offer to pick them up! Join in God’s mission and God’s love today in this way.
Second, most of us tend to err on one side of love’s balance equation. We are either too firm or too flexible. You know what side you err on. And maybe you err one way or another depending on the context. With your children you are always too flexible. With your co-workers you are always too firm. With your boss you tend to be too firm. With your friends you tend to be too flexible. So this week err on the other side. If you are usually too flexible with your kids, be more firm. If you are usually too firm at work, be more flexible. Be firm (God’s glory and holiness). Be flexible (God’s mercy). Do both and you’ll be sharing God’s love with your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
Thankfully we don’t do this alone. When we worship God we encounter God’s love and we respond by joining God’s mission. God’s love, God’s balancing act between God’s glory and holiness and God’s mercy rubs off on us. God’s Spirit helps us to balance between being firm and being flexible. God’s Spirit helps us love the way that God loves. Thank you, God!
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