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Epiphany 5 2025
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
February 9, 2025
Isaiah 6:1-8. 1 Corinthians 14:12b-20, Luke 5:1-11
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What would it be like to come face to face with God? How would you react? God is omnipotent; all powerful. If you were to meet a very important person you likely would have some awe. To be in the presence of powerful people can be humbling. But more humbling, utterly humiliating, is to be in the presence of God’s holiness. Important people are powerful, but they are not holy. They are flawed humans just like you and me. God is ultimately holy. He is pure and sinless. His holiness makes your sinfulness starkly obvious. Like a bloodstain on a pure white cloth, your sin stands out against the holiness of God.
The Prophet Isaiah encounters God in our Old Testament reading today. Isaiah is given a vision of God in His throne room. Isaiah 6:1 (ESV) 1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”
I picture the whole scene to be bright and white and pure. Isaiah must feel very small to be in the presence of the Lord God with the fabric of His robe filling the temple. Isaiah looks up and… Isaiah 6:2–4 (ESV) 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.”
Isaiah is in the presence of the most holy God. Angelic creatures fly around with one calling out, “Qadosh, qadosh, qadosh, YHWH Sabaoth,” “Holy, holy, holy is YHWH of armies.” Isaiah is face to face with the holiness of God. The Lord God is holy and pure, Isaiah is not. Isaiah is a dark blot of sin in the middle of the pure white holiness of the Lord’s throne room. How does Isaiah react? Isaiah cries out, Isaiah 6:5 (ESV) 5 “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!”
In the face of God’s holiness Isaiah proclaims his sinfulness. What is God’s reaction? Does He smite Isaiah with a lightning bolt and reduce him to a pile of smoking ash? No. The Lord sends a seraphim to go to the altar and take a burning coal with tongs and touch Isaiah’s lips with the coal and the seraphim says, Isaiah 6:7 (ESV) 7 … “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
The coal touches Isaiah’s lips and the holiness of God envelopes Isaiah and he is made holy. Isaiah 1:18 (ESV) 18 “…though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow…
Then the Lord speaks from the throne, Isaiah 6:8 (ESV) 8 … “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then [Isaiah] [says], “Here I am! Send me.”
In our Gospel reading today we find a similar situation, but instead of the pristine throne room of God in Isaiah’s vision we have the busy, rocky shoreline of the Sea of Galilee with two empty fishing boats and a passionate crowd of people pressing in on Jesus. Before He is pushed into the water Jesus climbs into one of the boats and asks to be taken out a little from shore. It is Simon Peter’s boat and he gets in with Jesus and pushes out a bit. Jesus sits down and teaches the crowd on the shore.
After Jesus finishes teaching He says to Simon, Luke 5:4 (ESV) 4 … “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Luke 5:5 (ESV) 5 And Simon [answers], “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” The fish just are not around, but this Jesus is someone special, He drove out a demon and even healed Simon’s mother-in-law. Simon likely thinks it is a waste of time, but because Jesus said it, he will do it.
They put down the nets and catch a miraculously large number of fish. There are so many fish that they bring out the other boat and fill both boats until they are about to sink. In contrast to the pristine throne room in Isaiah’s vision, now the Holy Lord God is enthroned on a pile of flopping fish and as Peter understands who Jesus is, he falls down at Jesus’ knees saying, Luke 5:8 (ESV) 8 … “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Peter is face to face with the Holy God and his sin is jarringly obvious. Peter is an unholy mess of a man. Jesus replies, Luke 5:10 (ESV) 10 … “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
Isaiah was touched by a coal and made holy. Peter hears with his ears, “do not be afraid” and is made holy. They pull the boats to shore and Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John leave everything and follow Jesus.
This morning you got up and you came to this place to encounter the Holy Lord God. You arrived this morning spiritually beaten up, muddy, wrinkled and disheveled from a week out in a world that cares nothing for holiness. In this holy place you dropped to your knees and pleaded guilty of your sins. You heard Jesus’ words of forgiveness declaring you to be holy. The words of Jesus make you holy. Psalm 51:7 (ESV) 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
Here you sing praises to the Lord and hear the Word of God read and preached, and then you sing the words of the seraphim in the throne room of God, “Qadosh, qadosh, qadosh, YHWH Sabaoth, Holy, holy, holy Lord God of power and might: Heaven and earth are full of Your glory.” Then you sing the words of the people welcoming Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as He enters as the sacrificial Lamb of God coming to offer Himself for the sins of the world, “Hosanna. Hosanna. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”
Jesus makes you holy and calls you to follow Him -- and so you follow Him. You are a disciple of Jesus delighting in His will and walking in His ways even while you struggle with being a natural sinner in a sinful world.
And then you come forward to the altar to receive into your mouth the Holy Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus. The holiness of God touches your lips and you are again made holy. You again wash your robe and make it white in the blood of the Lamb. Isaiah 6:7 (ESV) 7 … “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” You are holy because God makes you holy. For now you see in a mirror dimly, but you are ready to meet God face to face. You are ready for the judgement because you are holy in Jesus.
Jesus makes you holy and calls you to follow Him -- and so you follow Him. You are a disciple of Jesus delighting in His will and walking in His ways even while you struggle with being a natural sinner in a sinful world. Despite your natural sinful state, you are called to be a follower of Jesus each day in your various vocations throughout your life -- as a child, parent, husband, wife, student, worker, employer, citizen, friend and so many more. In all you do, you are called to do it as a follower of Jesus.
And for some, in addition to following Jesus in your daily vocation, you may sense God guiding you toward a life of full time ministry in His Church as a pastor, a teacher, a deaconess, a missionary or something else. That can be a frightening guidance and your natural reaction is to declare, “I am not worthy. I am sinful. Isaiah 6:5 (ESV) 5 …“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a [person] of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips…” That is a natural reaction when you feel God’s call, but just like with Isaiah and Simon Peter, God eliminates that excuse. He has cleansed you with His Word and with His sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion and made you holy. Isaiah 1:18 (ESV) 18 “…though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. Discern God’s guidance, but do not use your sinfulness as an excuse not to follow Jesus. You are washed clean in the blood of Jesus. You are a holy saint of God. Amen.