In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The account of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke chapter 16 is supposed to teach us about the good life. Jesus tells us a story about two different men, with two very different lives to show us what kind of things in this life actually matter and what things don’t.

If you didn’t know anything else about them, you’d assume that the rich man had a much better life than Lazarus did. After all, the rich man was rich! He was clothed in purple and fine linen, meaning he had a lot of expensive clothing, and he feasted sumptuously every single day. Apparently, the rich man was so rich that he lived in one of those gated communities, because that’s where it says poor Lazarus was laid out on the ground. And speaking of Lazarus, well, Lazarus had next to nothing. His body wasn’t covered in purple and fine linen. It was covered with sores. Lazarus didn’t get to eat like a king. He barely got to eat anything at all. As our text tells us, he longed for even the scraps of food that fell from the rich man’s table. No doubt, the rich man was been a very prominent person in town, and well respected in the community. That’s why it says he got a funeral after he died. But the only friends that Lazarus had were a pack of dogs that would come by every once and a while to lick his wounds.

And yet, where did each of those two men end up for eternity? The rich man we’re told died and went to hell. The body that he lavished in this life with expensive clothing became food for the worms. The tongue that he used to taste so many exquisite foods longed even for a drop of cool water. In this life, the rich man, received his good things, but then all of those things eventually came to an end. Lazarus, on the other hand, when he died, he went to heaven. Even though his life is this world look miserable, when he left this world, the angels came and carried his soul to Abraham’s side. 

So, the first and most basic thing that we learn about the good life from this text, is that it can’t be measured simply by the things that we have like money or material possessions. Rich people aren’t necessarily rich, and poor people aren’t necessarily poor. At least, not in the truest sense of those terms. In fact, if God can take away everything that we own in a moment, then how can we claim that we even own it at all? We don’t. Everything that we have belongs to the Lord. It has been entrusted to us by God, and eventually He’s going to ask for it back. And when He does, He won’t ask for our permission before He takes it.

That teaches us to look at our possessions differently, and use them for godly purposes. God didn’t give us the things that we have simply so that we could spend them on our passions. He wants us to use them for His glory and the service of our neighbor. There are lots of different ways that we can do that, but one of the main ways according to God’s Word is through our tithes and offerings that we give to the church. What we put into the offering plate is a reflection of what we value. “Where your heart is,” Jesus says, “there your treasure will be also.” What we Christians treasure more than anything else is the Gospel. It’s the forgivness of sins in Christ. Not only do we want to have a place to gather together to receive it, and a pastor who is called and ordained to give it to us, but we want that for other people too. We want it for our kids, and we want it for those who don’t yet know it. So, even if it requires financial sacrifices on our part, we are willing to make them, because of the sacrifice Jesus has already made for us. Isn’t it an amazing thing that God gives us the opportunity to participate in the advancement of his Kingdom by the meager amount of money that we give to the Church to spread the Gospel. Money that belongs to God already.

Another thing that we learn about the good life from the story of the rich man and Lazarus is that it’s always defined by faith. How come Lazarus got to go heaven and the rich man went to hell? Well, it wasn’t just because the rich man was rich and Lazarus was poor. Having a lot of money, or not having any of it at all, isn’t by itself the cause of anyone’s salvation. We know that from this text alone, because who was it that was waiting for Lazarus when he got there? It says, the angles came and carried him to Abraham’s side. That’s very interesting. Because Abraham, according to the Old Testament, was not a poor man by any means. He had so many flocks and herds that at one time he had to split off from his nephew Lot, because there wasn’t enough land for them to go around. So, this shows us that it’s possible to have money and still be saved, even if it’s more difficult. Remember what Jesus says about wealth in Matthew chapter 19, “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, then for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” That’s because riches can easily pull our attention away from the things that actually matter. They can deceive us into investing everything toward this life, even though this life doesn’t last forever.

The problem, though, is not with having money itself, but with trusting in your money, and worshiping it instead of Christ. And that’s what the rich man did. The reason why he went to hell wasn’t because of what he had. It was because of what he didn’t have. He didn’t have any faith. We know that the rich man didn’t actually believe in Jesus, and trust in Him for the forgivness of his sins, because he despised God’s Word and didn’t love his neighbor.

First, the rich man despised God’s Word. Even after he died and went to hell, he still didn’t think that God’s Word was something worth listening to. That’s why he told Abraham to send someone one from the dead to try and get his brothers to repent, and argued with him, when Abraham said that they didn’t need them because they still had Moses and the Prophets. The rich man didn’t think that was good enough. He thought that the written Word of God was useless and that his brother needed something more if they were going to be saved. But God’s Word is the only thing that can save a person’s souls. God’s Word is the exclusive tool that He uses to bring us to faith. It’s the instrument that the Holy Spirit works through to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian Church on earth. If someone won’t listen to God’s Word, then there’s nothing that be done to help them spiritually. And on the flip side, as long as a person is at least open to hearing what God’s Word has to stay, there’s still hope for their salvation.

You can almost image exactly what kind of guy the rich man was like. He was like one of those people who comes to church maybe once or twice a year just to keep up appearances. But when the pastor preached about repentance, forgivness, and feeding your faith with the Word and Sacraments, he didn’t pay any attention. Oh yes, he nodded along with the sermon, as if he cared, but when it was over, he went right back to his same old life of selfish ambition and neglect for the means of grace. Once a year seems like plenty of church time for someone who doesn’t think that they’re that big of a sinner. But how could that be enough if you know the true depravity of your condition?

The other reason why we know the rich man didn’t have any faith, was because of how he treated his neighbor. Every day the rich man had an opportunity to help poor Lazarus who was laid at his gate, but the rich man refused to take it. Maybe he thought that Lazarus deserved to be there. Maybe he thought that if he helped him, Lazarus would never learn to help himself. Who knows how the rich man rationalized his greed and convinced himself that what he was doing was actually a virtue. But God saw right through it. What does Saint John tell us in his first Epistle? “If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him.” The rich man closed his heart to others, because his heart was not open to the love of Christ. You can’t give what you have not received, and the rich man had not received the Gospel. He didn’t know what it was like to be saved by grace, and have all of your sins forgiven even though you don’t deserve it, so he withheld things from others when he thought that they didn’t deserve too. But he didn’t deserve what he had either. And then, he got what he deserved for good, which was God’s eternal punishment.

Compare that, though, to what we hear about poor Lazarus. Our text makes it clear that even though he was poor, Lazarus never wanted to be like the rich man and trade places with him entirely. But that’s how it is for a lot of poor people. They’re in the same spiritual condition as the unbelieving rich, because even though they aren’t rich, that’s all that they want to be. Instead of spending their life protecting what they have, like people who have a lot, they waste aways their life wishing that they had more. But not poor Lazarus. All that Lazarus wanted, we’re told, was to eat the scraps of food that fell from the rich man’s table. He would have been content with next to nothing, because Lazarus already knew that he had everything. Even though his body was covered in sores, he knew that in God’s eyes he was clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness that covered all his sin. Even though he didn’t have any earthly bread to eat, he knew that he had full access to the Bread of Life Himself. Unlike the rich man, Lazarus trusted in Jesus. He knew that when you have Christ, and the forgivness of all of your sins, you have everything worth having, even if you have nothing else.

There’s only one thing in this life that can’t be taken away from us. That’s what the story of the rich man and Lazarus is really about, and that’s how we know what really counts as the good life. The only thing that can’t be taken away from us, is the salvation that God gives us through Jesus. It’s the promise of eternal life that belongs to all those who put their trust in Christ, and rely on Him for forgivness. Remember what Jesus told Mary and Martha that one time that He came into their house and did a Bible study? Martha, we’re told, was busy with much serving, while Mary sat at the feet of the Lord and listened to his teaching. So, Jesus said to Mary, “She has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

There’s nothing in this life that can’t be taken away from you at any moment. You could lose your house. You could lose your health. You could lose your spouse or your children. You could lose your own life. But if you’ve already died with Christ, if you’ve been joined to him through a living faith, that relies on His Word and clings to His promises, you’ll be raised to new life again. No matter what kind of life God gives you to live here in this world, you’ll enjoy never-ending life with Him in eternity.

So, don’t waste away your life on things that don’t matter. Invest it in the things that do. Don’t skip church. Never miss out on hearing God’s Word with your brothers and sister in Christ, and don’t neglect taking Communion. Read your Bibles at home and say your prayers every night. Be generous with what you have, and gladly tithe your income. Love and serve the people around you through your various vocations, and tell them why you’re doing it. It isn’t because you’re trying to earn your salvation, it’s because you already have it. It’s because Jesus gave everything that He had to save you, so how could you withhold anything that you have from others?

The good life is the life of faith.  It isn’t measured by how much money you have.  It doesn’t come by getting a bunch of stuff.  The true value of the good life is hidden in the life of Jesus Christ. It’s revealed to us in God’s Word, which tells us about how the Son of God suffered and died in our place. When you listen to what God’s Word teaches, you know what it means to be truly rich. You know that when you have the forgiveness of your sins in Jesus you are rich even if you’ve lost everything else. You know that when you a clothed with the righteousness of Christ through faith you are precious in the sight of God even if you are covered with sores inside and out. You know that when Christ has washed you clean in your Baptism, and purified you with His blood in Communion, you’re a child of Abraham, and someday you’ll enter into an inheritance that is far better than anything this world has to offer. Because even if you find yourself lying on the ground, beaten down by life, when you die, the angels will come and carry your soul to heaven. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A few years ago, I had a short conversation with a family friend of mine who left the Lutheran church and started going to a large non-denominational church instead. When I asked her what the reason was for her leaving, she told me that it was because she just didn’t feel like she was being spiritually fed there. Now, I had a hunch about what she might mean, but in order to be safe, and not put any words into her mouth, I asked a follow up question about whether or not her old pastors were faithfully preaching God’s Word and if she had still been getting the forgivness of her sins through the means of grace each week. I think, if my memory serves me right, I even pressed her a little bit more by specifically asking whether or not her new church taught, for example, that her baptism actually saved her or that the Lord’s Supper wasn’t just a symbol. Her response was very telling. She didn’t accuse her old Lutheran pastors of teaching any false doctrine to her, and she didn’t deny that she had been getting God’s forgiveness through the Word and Sacraments. But what she said was the same thing over again, “I just didn’t feel like I was being spiritually fed there.”

That conversation, which I’m sure you’ve had your own version of with others over the years, or maybe you’ve played out in your own mind before, brings up a very important topic that’s intimately connected with what we’re celebrating in Church today. This morning is the Feast of Pentecost. It’s the day when we give thanks to God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and His continued presence among us. But how exactly is the Holy Spirit present, and what are the ways that He really feeds us?

The dominant perspective in our time, and sadly, I think this was probably true, at least, in part, for that family friend of mine, is that the real mark of the Holy Spirit in our lives has to do with the way that we feel. Remember what my friend said, “I just didn’t feel like I was being spiritually fed.” But what we do or don’t feel in a given moment, doesn’t necessarily change what’s actually going on there. And more importantly, it’s not always a good indicator of the Holy Spirit’s presence in a specific place. 

Take, for instance, what happened on the day of Pentecost. Yes, there were some very spectacular things that took place that day. There was a sound of a mighty rushing wind, tongues of fire came and rested on the apostles’ heads, and God gave them the special ability to preach the Gospel in languages that they had not previously learned. But what did Saint Peter still call the people’s attention to in the midst of all of that? He said, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.” Peter didn’t direct the crowd just to what they saw, and certainly not what they felt, instead he pointed them to what was spoken. All of those other things only happened to serve the purpose of getting people to listen to the most important thing, God’s Word. 

Then Peter preached a very simple sermon based off of one text from Scripture, and three thousand souls ended up getting baptized and being saved. More than the entire population of Denver, Iowa, converted to Christianity from a single instance of hearing God’s Word explained and applied to them. Every single one of them, was filled with the Holy Spirit. Remember what the Bible says elsewhere about who has the Holy Spirit. It says, “no one can say Jesus Christ is Lord, expect by the Holy Spirit.” So, it wasn’t just those who spoke in tongues that day who had Him, it was everyone who believed the Gospel.

The first point that I’m trying to make here is that we don’t locate the presence of the Holy Spirit simply by the way that we feel. We locate Him in what we hear. We don’t know that we’ve found Him simply by feeling something. We know that we’ve found Him by listening to something. He’s present and active wherever the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity. 

Here are some other great passages from the Bible that prove that the true mark of the Holy Spirit is not tied to some kind of emotional experience, but bound up together with the humble proclamation of God’s Word. How about our Gospel lesson today from John chapter 14? There Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep My Word, and my Father will love Him and make our home with Him.”  After that Jesus adds, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I havesaid to you.” Notice how Christ links together the presence of the Holy Spirit, and God making His home in us, with the teaching and hearing of God’s Word. That’s how we know the Holy Spirit is active in our lives. It’s not when we get goosebumps on our skin, or butterflies in our stomach, it’s when we are listening to the Bible.  

Or how about what Saint Peter tells us 2 Peter chapter 1, “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place… For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”  Peter specifically tells us in these verses that the thing that we’re supposed to pay attention to as Christians is the Scriptures. It’s what’s been written down that’s inspired by the Holy Spirit, not necessarily all the feelings that we have. We can’t always trust the way that we feel about something, but we can trust what has been recorded for us in the text of the Bible.

And here’s another good passage about the Holy Spirit being present and active through God’s Word. Saint Paul tells us plainly in Ephesians chapter 6, “Take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” So, the tool, or the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to protect us from other spiritual attacks is the Bible itself. That’s where He’s found. That’s how He works. That’s how He feeds us. And that’s where we need to go if we want to find Him.

The people who are critical of our traditional Lutheran worship services, because they don’t make them feel a certain way when they leave, don’t understand how the Holy Spirit really works. If they did, they wouldn’t be so critical of what happens here. You can crack open your hymnal right now and pick out any service you want to, and on the right side of the page, in the margins, you’ll see a reference to where everything comes from in the Bible. Most of what we say and do in church are literally just direct quotes from the Scriptures. “O Lord open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” That’s Psalm 51. “Make haste of God to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord.” That’s Psalm 70. “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.” That’s what blind Bartimaeus cried out to Jesus in Mark chapter 10. “Our Father who art in heaven hallowed by Thy Name,” “Take eat this is My body, take drink this is my Blood,” “The Lord bless you and keep, the Lord make His face to shine upon and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” We could go on and go.  And that’s how we know that the Holy Spirit is really here today, and every time that we gather together for worship even if we can’t see Him or feel Him. We know He’s here, because we’re gather together around God’s Word, and that’s where He’s promised to be at.

Recognizing that the Holy Spirit promises to be present in God’s Word and Sacraments, and not in your feelings, isn’t just important because it’s true, its important because of how it protects our faith and gives us comfort.

First, this recognition guards our faith and keeps us from falling into false belief and error. How many different churches in our time have defended their bad theology because they had a faulty doctrine of the Holy Spirit? Just the other day I was talking with someone who belongs to a UCC church. I didn’t know much about what they taught, so afterward, I went online and looked up their denominations’ website. Besides the rainbow flags and the trans visibly promotion, which was right on the first page of the screen, I came across this interesting quote in their “what we believe” section. It said, “Never put a period where God puts a comma,” which apparently means, as they went on to explain, that they think the “the Holy Spirit is continuously guiding the Church forward into new understandings of faith and grace.” And what are those new understandings of faith and grace? Conveniently, they just so happen to contradict the “old” understandings that we get in the Bible. God’s Word might say that all sexual activity that isn’t between one man and one woman, who are married, is sinful, but not the UCC. The Scriptures might repeatedly say that only men can serve as pastors, but not the UCC. Jesus and the Apostles might say that God created them male and female, so there are only two genders, but not the UCC. So, who has the Holy Spirit and who doesn’t?

The same thing, by the way, can apply to individuals. If a person thinks that God talks to them directly, and reveals things to them through their feelings and experiences, instead of just the Bible, lots of times that can lead them into making decisions that are completely contrary to the Bible. What if you feel like you should leave your spouse, because you’re just not really getting along with them anymore? And what if you just so happen to meet somebody else that you do get along with way better? Is that God telling you to marry them? Is that the Holy Spirit giving you permission to “follow your heart?” No, it is not. That thought didn’t come from God. It came from the devil. And the way that you know it did, is because it doesn’t agree with the Bible.

Now, besides just guarding us against falling into sin and other errors, a correct understanding of the Holy Spirit also gives us an immense amount of comfort. Every time a church gives the impression that “getting excited” or having certain feelings is a mark of the Holy Spirit’s presence, they ostracize and put down everyone else who isn’t necessarily feeling those exact same things. But where in the Bible does it say that we’re all supposed to feel the same way all of the time? Where does it say that experiencing an emotional high is synonymous with encountering God? Don’t you remember the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal?  Those people put on a pretty impressive looking show. They got super amped up and worked themselves into a total frenzy. I bet if you watched the prophets of Baal do their thing, it would have been a sight to behold. But, nevertheless, their god was silent. He wouldn’t answer them, because he didn’t exist. And it was Elijah, who silently went around the altar, carefully and reverently preparing it in the ways that God directed Him, that had his God answer with fire.

Just because you don’t feel like God is with you, doesn’t mean He isn’t. Just because you don’t always feel like your sins are forgiven, doesn’t mean that they aren’t. Just because you aren’t crying, or shouting, or “riding on cloud nine,” that doesn’t mean that you don’t have faith. It certainly doesn’t mean that when you come to worship at a place that preaches the Word faithfully, and gives out the Sacraments according to Christ’s command and institution, that the Holy Spirit isn’t there. 

Who care what you feel or don’t feel. Who cares what other people are doing and what they say is happening. What does the Bible say? That’s all that you need to care about.

Today isn’t just Pentecost, it’s also the day that we recognize and pray for our high school graduates. So, here’s my advice to them, which also applies to everyone else. There are lots of things in this world that look impressive. That’s true when it comes to things in your day-to-day life, and its true when it comes to certain churches. And you have a sinful nature that always wants what looks impressive. Your fallen flesh wants you to evaluate everything you encounter by how it makes you feel and whether or not it’s interesting. Don’t listen to it. Listen instead to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit speaks to you not out of your heart, but to your heart through the Bible. He is present and active only where the pure Word of God is preached and taught correctly. So, that’s where you need to go if you want to find Him, and stay close to Him. If you want to remain steadfast in the faith to very end, then leave everything else behind if it gets in the way of God’s Word and Sacraments. Even if the church doesn’t have any cool programs. Even if they don’t have a pickle ball club and 50 billion small groups. Even if there aren’t a lot of young people there or the music doesn’t give you chills. Who cares. If the Word is there, that’s all that matters. Because if the Word is there, the Spirit is there. And if the Spirit is there, then you’re going to be spiritually fed just fine. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Isaiah’s vision of God sitting upon His heavenly throne from Isaiah chapter 6 is the perfect text for us to hear on the Feast of the Holy Trinity, because Isaiah’s vision reminds what God is like and this is the day in Church year when consider God’s properties and His essence. It’s the day when we Christians think more deeply about God Himself. 

The first thing that Isaiah’s vision reminds us of about God is that He is Triune. To be Triune means to be three in one. God is Three in One because even though there is only one God, the Bible teaches us that there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead. The Father is God. The Son is God. And the Holy Spirit is God. And yet, as we say in the Athanasian Creed, there are not three gods, but One God. When the angles sang to one another in Isaiah’s vision, they said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” The angels called the One Lord, “holy,” three times over, because He is thrice holy. He is Three in One. 

Sometimes it’s suggested that the doctrine of the Trinity is not something that comes from the Bible but something that the Church just made up later on. But that’s not true at all. God has revealed Himself as Triune all throughout the Scriptures in both the Old and the New Testaments alike. In addition to what the angels sang in Isaiah vision, there is also, for example, the way that God spoke about Himself at the very beginning of creation. Right before God created Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter one, the Bible tells us that God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let him have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth. So, God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him.” Notice how in these verses God refers to Himself in both the singular and the plural. That’s because He is both of those things at the same time. He is Three in One. Likewise, we find another reference to the Trinity in the words of King David from Psalm 110. In fact, if you remember, this is the exact passage that Jesus once used to prove His divinity to the Pharisees. David says, in the Spirit, “The Lordsays to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” Here, again, we have a reference to all three Persons of the Holy Trinity. There is David speaking in the Spirit about God the Father talking with God the Son. And all of this comes from the same Old Testament that tells us plainly, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.”

Besides the many references to the Trinity in the Old Testament, there are also, of course, an overwhelming number of passages about it in the New Testament. There’s Jesus’s Baptism where God the Father speaks from heaven to God the Son while God the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove. There are the words of Jesus from John 8 and John 14, where Christ tells us that He is the “I AM” and that whoever has “seen Him has seen the Father.” There’s the Great Commission, where Jesus commands His church to go and make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in God’s Name, the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And then there are the letters of Saint Paul in which almost every single one of them either begins or ends with an explicit reference to the Triune God. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul says, “the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

The real reason why some people reject the doctrine of Trinity in not because it isn’t found in the Bible, but because it is hard for them to understand. In fact, it’s impossible for us to understand. How can God be Three in One? How can Jesus be God, and the Father be God, and the Holy Spirit be God, and there still only be One God? The answer is, only God knows. One of the things that makes God, God in the first place is the reality that He is beyond our understanding. God knows more than we do, and especially about Himself. If we can’t even understand things like gravity, or time and space, and get overwhelmed when we try think about how those things for too long, then why would we expect to have prefect understanding of the One who made all of those things to begin with? We shouldn’t. We should approach God with humility. We should listen to what God says about Himself in His Word and then we should simply say back to Him the same thing, even if it doesn’t always make perfect sense to us.

The doctrine of the Trinity is not a way to try and explain God, or make sense of God, it is the Biblical way to confess God. We confess God in the way that He tells us to confess Him, because every other thing that someone might say about Him is just another way to deny Him. Whenever a person denies the doctrine of the Trinity, or any other teaching from the Bible for that matter, because it’s beyond their reason, what they are really doing is denying God Himself. They’re putting themselves in the place of God, and worshiping their own brain instead of the One who gave it. They are turning their mind into an idol. But the problem with idols is that they can’t save us. Only God can save us. And as we are reminded from Isaiah’s vision, the real God is Triune. He is Three in One.

The second thing that Isaiah’s vision reminds us of about God is that He is Holy. Besides being Three in One, and each Person of the Trinity being perfectly united with one another other while at the same time perfectly distinct from each other, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are also altogether perfect in every way imaginable. Again, when the angels sang their song about God in Isaiah’s vision they said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” God is Holy in and of Himself because He is without the one thing that makes something unholy. God is without sin. As the Bible says elsewhere, “You are not a God who delights in wickedness; and evil may not dwell with you.” 

Yes, it’s true that when the prophet Isaiah got to look at God in all of His glory, it made him very afraid. But the reason why Isaiah was so terrified was not because there was something wrong with God, but because there was something wrong with him. Isaiah was a sinner.  As Isaiah himself 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!” All throughout the Scriptures, there are examples of sinners coming into contact with God and that encounter bringing them to their knees in humble repentance. What did Saint Peter do when he witnessed the miraculous catch of fish? The moment that Peter realized what had taken place, and who he was standing next to, he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and said to Him, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man.”

God’s Word shows us repeatedly that it’s not safe for sinners to stand in the presence of God with their sin. And that’s not because God is not good. It is because His goodness is so good that it cannot tolerate any evil at all. Just like a police officer can be good and dangerous at the same time, because they’re dangerous to those who are breaking the law, that is how it is with God too. That is how it is with the Author of the Law. One of the things that His perfect holiness always does is expose our unholiness. It shows us just how bad our sin really is.

It's become very popular these day for churches to replace Biblical concepts like “sin” with words that don’t sound so accusatory like “brokenness.” Especially among the so-called Evangelicals, you will hear people go on and on about how broken they are or how broken the world is, but what you will rarely, if ever, hear them talk about is who did the breaking. But that is very far away from what Isaiah said about himself, and not nearly enough of what the Bible tells us about ourselves. Who did the breaking? Why is there so much suffering in the world? It is not because of God, and it is not only because of other people. It’s also because of us. And the problem with “brokenness theology” is that it shifts the blame away from us. It allows people not to take accountability for their own sin, which makes it impossible for them to receive forgiveness for it.

The first thing that we Lutherans do in our worship services is have confession and absolution. When we come into God’s House, and approach the throne of His holy altar, before we say anything else, the first thing that we say is that we don’t deserve to be there. The first thing that we do is acknowledge that if God did what was right, that is, if He did what He had every right to do, we wouldn’t be allowed to be there at all. We don’t shift the blame to somebody else. We don’t pretend that there is no one to blame at all. We take the blame ourselves. If we have sin in our lives, we confess it for what it is. If we’ve put things before God and His Word, if we’ve skipped church, been lazy in our prayers or devotional life, dishonored our parents, hurt our neighbor, polluted our bodies, lied, lusted, cheated, or stolen, we admit it. We own up to it and we repent of it. We ask God to take away our sins from us, because if He didn’t do that, then our sins without a doubt condemn us. If God didn’t remove our sins from us, then as Isaiah says, we would all be lost. And again, that is because God is holy.

But the last, and the most important thing, that Isaiah’s vision reminds us of about God, is that He is merciful. Not only is God Triune, and not only is He holy, but above all, He is forgiving. The perfect God wants to be with His imperfect creatures. And since, we cannot stand to be with Him because of our sins, He Himself does what we could never do and takes those sins away. After Isaiah cried out to God in repentance, after he admitted to God who he was, what he had done, and what he deserved to happen to him because he did it, what did God do for Isaiah? God sent one of the seraphim to him, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. Then the angel touched Isaiah’s mouth and said to him, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

When we confess our sins to God, God forgives them. He forgives them, because He has already atoned for them. His very own Son paid the price for them all. As we read in Revelation chapter 13, “the Lamb was slain from the creation of the world.” That doesn’t mean that Jesus died on the cross before God made the heavens and the earth, but it does mean that what He did in space and time, counts for everyone no matter what place and time they live in. Isaiah lived long before Jesus was ever born, and you live long after. But the atoning sacrifice of Christ is what makes it possible for us to stand in God’s presence. 

One of my favorite parts of the Lutheran Liturgy, besides the confession of sin, is what we sing right before the pastor says the Words of Institution and we take Communion. I don’t know if you’ve ever made this connection before, but we sing the song of the angles. We sing the same thing that the six-winged seraphim sang from our reading today: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of power and might; heaven and earth are full of His glory.” The reason why we sing that song when we do is because it reminds us of how the same thing that happened for Isaiah also happens for us. When Isaiah confessed His sins to God, and humbled himself before the Lord, God provided him with a pledge and promise of His forgivness. When Isaiah admitted that he was a man of unclean lips, who dwelled in the midst of a people of unclean lips too, God sent one of His messengers to take something off the altar and place it on his lips to cleanse him. And what happens for us when we take Holy Communion? God sends one of His messengers to His altar again, to place something on our lips that cleanse us too. He gives us a pastor to bring us the Body and Blood of Jesus, which though it can be like a burning coal for those who take it wrongly, is the assurance of forgivness, life, and salvation, for all those who receive it in faith.

The celebration of the Lord’s Supper is the high point of our worship service. It’s the greatest moment in our life, even though it can happen every week or multiple times a week, because it’s the moment that we come in contact with the Triune God who gives us healing. If you’re weak and ashamed, if you’re disgusted with yourself and your sins, if you’ve done things that make you feel gross, and you wish you’d never done them, but can’t take them back, God has given you a remedy for that. He’s given you the Blood of His Son. Remember what Saint John tells us about the Blood of Christ in 1 John chapter 1. The blood of Jesus His Son,” he says, “cleanses us for all sin.” All sin. The sins you know about. The sins you’ve forgotten. The sins that keep you up at night. And the sins that you just can’t seem to stop doing no matter how hard you try. Through the blood of Jesus, God takes them away. And when you eat His Body and drink His Blood, in faith God cleanses you from them, like He cleansed Isaiah. He makes you fit for His presence and His service, and equips you to live in your vocations with a clean conscience.

Isaiah’s vision of God from Isaiah chapter six reminds us what God is like. He is triune. He is holy. And He is merciful. That’s the way that God has revealed Himself to us in His Word, and so that’s the way that we confess Him before the world. That is what we say about Him even if it means saying things that other people don’t like to hear. The world doesn’t think that it’s very nice to tell the Mormons, the Muslims, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Jews that they aren’t worshiping the true God because all of them deny the Trinity. But we say it anyway, because we know that it’s only the Triune God who can save us. It’s only Jesus who has the power to take away our sin. And He has. So let us worship Him in the Unity of the Divine Majesty, praising God together with the angels, and singing with them, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” In Jesus’ Name. Amen.