Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, November 15, 2020
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: God cleansed Isaiah with the simple act of touching his lips with a hot coal so Isaiah would be purified enough to act as God’s prophet. When we get out of our own way, we can do amazing things in God’s name.
Visions from God were one of the ways God spoke to people at the time of Isaiah. Visions were common enough, that the lack of visions from God were concerning. Visions were similar to dreams, but they often (though not always) occurred during waking states. Some were in natural, and others in supernatural settings. Receivers of these visions were sometimes observers of the vision, and sometimes participants.
Isaiah at first observed this vision in quite a supernatural setting. Seraphs hover around the throne of God in an idealized version of what Solomon’s temple was meant to be. There, God received praise from the seraphs, and also desired to send someone out to do God’s work in the world. Here Isaiah moved from observer to participant, proclaiming his own unworthiness to follow God’s calling. In quick response, the Seraphs performed the ritual of cleansing—touching a hot coal to Isaiah’s lips—so that he would be worthy of the calling. After the cleansing, God asks and Isaiah answers, “Here am I; send me!”
Many of us have been called into God’s service in very specific ways. Most of us have wondered if we are worthy of the callings. God’s response to Isaiah was fairly simple: the touch of a hot coal absolved him of all his sin. Why then, do we make our own absolution so difficult? Why do we wallow in our guilt and recoil from facing our sin? If God can cleanse a man of a lifetime of sin to make him worthy of God’s highest calling with the touch of a coal, then what might it take for us to become ready for our own callings? A taste of bread and wine, perhaps? Or a willingness to forgive ourselves? There is much work to be done.
Can you get out of your own head enough to accept God’s cleansing and get on with God’s work?
An
Exceptional
People
Blog Posts
SIGN UP NOW