January 14, 2007 Sermon

Undone
Isaiah 6:1-8

We just Isaiah’s account of how God called him to become a prophet. He describes an overwhelming vision in which he experiences the presence of angels and of God. Smoke and the pungent aroma of sacrificial meat roasting on the altar of heaven rise to meet his nostrils. Seraphim with six wings flank the throne of the Almighty. The voice of God thunders. Isaiah responds understandably: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Instead of “I am lost,” some Bible translations have, “I am undone,” or, “I am ruined.” When Isaiah enters the presence of God—even in a vision—he has an overpowering sense of his own unworthiness. Note that he feels unworthy even before he learns he will become a prophet. Isaiah feels unqualified to experience the true presence of God. When was the last time you felt ruined/lost/undone by an experience of God? Hear the call of Isaiah: Welcome ruination. Worship God.

Anybody who had a vision like Isaiah’s would feel paralyzing fear. He and his fellow Jews in that long ago age believed that any person who saw God would surely die. This explains his extreme reaction. But it goes even deeper. An angel plucks a burning ember from the fire beneath the altar with tongs, flies to Isaiah, and touches the blazing coals to his lips. What does this mean? This ember comes from the fire used to make offerings to the holy God. The Jews believed that sacrificing animals and burning them on the altar purified their meat, making it holy enough to satisfy even the Almighty. This ember therefore symbolically purified Isaiah’s lips. “Now that this has touched your lips,” the angel tells him, “your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.”

Because he believes he now can speak with holy lips, Isaiah volunteers when God asks for a prophet. He goes from ruination, from being undone and lost, to having the confidence to accept the prophetic office. Throughout the Bible, God leads people through ruination to empowerment. Today we apply this pattern to our worship. Accepting that we are sinners, unclean and unworthy, is a necessary step toward worshipping God with power. Again we say it: Welcome ruination. Worship God.

I grew up in the Presbyterian Church. I have served it my entire career. I can tell you that only rarely does a Presbyterian welcome becoming undone. Presbyterian churches generally do everything in their power to stay “done”. I knew a Presbyterian missionary who wanted to pastor a church, but could never find one to call him. He was a charismatic, a man with powerful spiritual experiences that led him to worship in ways most Presbyterians find over the top. He felt it was vital to be honest about this with churches that interviewed him. When nobody would call him to pastor a church he went to Bangladesh and preached the Word to people grateful to hear it without caring about done or undone.

This fear of becoming undone does not happen only among Presbyterians. The Quakers arose in the 17th century, when a few English Christians started having powerful worship experiences. They had received an inner light, a powerful taste of the Holy Spirit. It made them shake, or quake, hence, “Quakers”. The Presbyterians and Anglicans who ran the English churches ran them right out of England, all the way to Pennsylvania. Ironically, today the Quakers generally share our aversion to becoming undone. They cultivate silence in their worship services.

Must we become undone in order to worship God? No. We can and do worship in all attitudes. Joy can also help us worship God with power. So can fear, as every man who has ever prayed in the midst of battle can attest. But since we resist becoming undone, we must hear this word of encouragement to welcome it. An elder in this church told me this week that he appreciates watching those few people in our church who raise their hands as they sing praise music. He laughed that he raises his hands inside. Sometimes he even lifts his arms about three inches. But as a lifelong mainstream American Protestant Christian he cannot bring himself to do more.

We need to learn to raise our arms all the way up. We need to get over our fear of looking funny or foolish. We need to get undone.

I am intentionally using “get undone” in two ways. One comes straight from Isaiah: becoming undone through a sense of our sinfulness in the presence of the holy God. This attitude of humility gives us one of the most effective ways of entering into more spiritually powerful worship. The other usage of “get undone” has to do with letting loose while worshipping. The first starts before worship. The second happens during worship.

Get undone. Let yourself experience the full force of the holy presence of God. Get undone. Let yourself go while worshipping. Prepare for worship by listing your sins in a prayer of confession before even coming into the room where we gather to praise God. Then worship God with abandon. Clap. Move. Say “amen!” Do whatever the Spirit leads you into doing.

Why bother to worship if we will not throw ourselves into it? Can we even claim to worship God if we hold ourselves back? Will our worship matter? A survey of Americans who do not regularly worship at a church revealed that the most common reason they cited was not that they did not believe in Jesus. No, people do not worship because they find it inconvenient. We live in the age of Customer as King. We have grown accustomed to having what we want, when and where we want it. Now along comes a preacher who says to get over yourself and worship the King of Kings. Will you do it? If you will not, your worship will never become spiritual enough to make it worth sticking with it.

Welcome ruination. Worship God. Get undone.