A Note from Pastor

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A lot of people watched a wedding last week.  I didn’t happen to watch, but I heard that one billion people did.  Wow, that is a lot of people. 

Most of us would see our friends go running the other way if we took out a video of our wedding and asked if they wanted to watch it.  “How long is it?”  “Don’t worry it’s only about two hours... sorry the camcorder is a little wobbly for the first 40 minutes.”  No thanks.  Weddings can feel like a drag even when we are there in person and a home video is even less appealing. 

So what can make so many people watch a wedding?  Royalty.  People are fascinated on a deep level with the transcendent.  Something high above them.  Human royalty is only a pale reflection of the royalty of the Creator. 

Isaiah chapter six gives  Isaiah’s vision of the throne room of God.  Nothing like this was at Prince Harry’s wedding.  Creatures too terrible and beautiful for human words fly around the throne shouting “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of hosts!”  Holy means “set apart,” or “other.”  In Britain, regular people or called commoners.  The Royals are not common, they are something special, something set apart, enough so that one of seven people in the world watched a prince marry an American.

God’s otherness surpasses this infinitely.  Isaiah’s reaction? “Woe is me.”  “I am a man of unclean lips.”  When we stand in the presence of true holiness our immediate reaction is to see our commonness.  We shrink back when we truly know God and his majesty, like Peter in the boat.  But God’s answer to our shrinking back is reaching out.  A seraph flies over and touches Isaiah’s mouth with a burning coal.  There.  Now you are clean.