Having seen this magnificent scene, Isaiah shrinks before the holiness of the moment--“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!”

The Seraphs solve the problem.  You fear that your lips are unclean--this coal touched to your lips has cleansed you.  “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.”

This cleansing of Isaiah has prepared him to be able to do God's holy work.  Which is good because God is looking for someone to do holy work.  "Here I am, Send me!"  This is the text from which we get the hymn, "Here i am Lord, Is it I Lord..."

With great joy we sing the hymn putting ourselves in the position of positive response--"I have heard you calling in the night.  I will Go Lord--if you lead me.  I will hold your people in my heart."

But the task given to Isaiah is not a happy one.  "Go and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.' Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.”

Isaiah's mission is to tell  the people to keep behaving in the way they are behaving.  Normally we would think this the easy message--a message that should not receive resistance.  But Isaiah knows the result of the message--the people will continue to live in a way that leads to their destruction.  "How long O Lord?" Isaiah groans.  "Until everything is destroyed" is God's response.

This text serves two purposes.  First it highlights the terrible result that comes from not living Godly lives.  But it also demonstrates how destruction is sometimes part of God's perfect and holy plan.  The people were so far gone that the best source of action was to allow them to be completely and utterly destroyed and driven out from their land.  While this seems to lack any hope and to be a terrible plan God has a way of bringing new life out of the ashes of destruction. 

When we feel as though the ashes of destruction surround us, we can be comforted and strengthened by the knowledge that sometimes destruction is part of God's plan for renewal.

The above link is to a news video concerning biblical verses that are encoded into the serial numbers on guns that the military uses.  This is against government policy, in part so there is no sense that our wars could be construed as religious wars.

The story does not share why the manufacturer puts scripture references on the guns other than he is a devoted Christian.  What do you think?  Are these references helpful to soldiers, potentially evangelical, do they send the wrong political message, does the fact that the verses are printed on guns send the wrong religious message?

The above link is a news report about a Royal Caribean Cruise Ship that stopped in Haiti for the passengers to enjoy beautiful Haitian beaches even though the site is not far from the destruction of the recent hurricane.  Many passengers are upset at the decision to include the stop on the vacation given the circumstances further inland.  The company defends itself by saying that now, more than ever, it is important to provide the much needed economic boost to the markets where passengers shop in Haiti.

It is interesting that earthquake or no earthquake Haiti has long been a place in extreme poverty and destruction.  I wonder if people don't like vacationing so close to devastation because they feel guilty about not helping.  There they are, so close to people in need, but they are there to enjoy themselves.  Perhaps it is a great picture of how most of us live most of the time.  We seek to pleasure ourselves the the fine things in life while we know there are people suffering.  That should cause us some discomfort--Inland a few miles, Jesus is trapped beneath rubble, hungry, thirsty and we are trying to enjoy a few moments on the beach--and we ask, when was it the case that Jesus was trapped, hungry, and thirsty, and we did nothing, and he will answer--when you the least of these my brothers and sisters were trapped, hungry, and thirsty, and you simply enjoyed yourself--you did it to me.

I will be careful not to give away the sermon for this week, and just give some context.  Nehemiah is the story of Israel returning to Jerusalem after the exile in Babylon.  King Cyrus has ordered them to return to their land and rebuild the city walls and the temple.  

Neh. 8 is the story of a worship service that occurs during the festival of booths.  This is a festival in which the people live in tents during the festival in memory and celebration of their time in the wilderness as God had brought them out of Egypt and was leading them into the Promised Land.

What are your insights to your reading of this text?

John 1: 29-42

John's gospel differs from the other three in that immediately following Jesus' baptism in Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus is tempted in the wilderness for 40 days (see Matt 4:1..., Mark 1:9..., Luke 4:1...)  But in John's gospel, there is no wilderness story, John simply begins telling those around him "Look, there is the Lamb of God" whenever he sees Jesus.  It is in this way that Jesus acquires his first two disciples, Andrew and Andrew's brother Simon, who Jesus calls Peter.

John the Baptist is an interesting character, because his role is similar to ours.  He points out Jesus to those who don't know him, declaring that Jesus is the Lamb of God whenever he sees Jesus walking by.  

Where do you see Jesus in your life today?  How do you point him out to others saying--"Look, that's Jesus, the Lamb of God?"