In Foxhole and Temple
Isaiah 6:1-8; Mark 1:30-35
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Harry G. Winsheimer
May 25, 2008

On Wednesday, the 18th of June, Charlotte and I will attend our grandson Kevin’s graduation from high school – at 9:00 a.m.!  (Seniors are not awake at 9:00 a.m.!)  Any of you attending graduations this year?  What will be Kevin’s future, the future of his friends?  If I were addressing Kevin and other graduates, I would rave about the future before them.  They have the potential of having the most pain-free life of any generation.  They will have the greatest variety of experiences ever.  Graduation will be the commencement of the rest of their lives. What will be their future?   

Tomorrow some of us will stand by memorial stones, near little American flags, and hear the haunting tribute of taps.  Our throats will tighten and eyes water as we remember relatives and friends who died in wars.  Did any of the deceased expect that to be their destiny?  Did we?

We party this weekend; the barbeque grills are smoking, and campgrounds are sold out.   Yet, we have an undertow of anxiety.  I sense great deal concern about the future.  It is in response to many uncertainties.  What will happen?  Will it be good?  Will it be bad?  Will we be okay?  Will we thrive?  Uncertainty haunts us. 

Isaiah experienced uncertainty and its ill-at-ease emotion.  King Uzziah had ruled for fifty years -- that is a long time!  They were great years.  The country prospered.  The people felt secure.  Then King Uzziah died and everything changed.  People did not know what to expect.  Assyria, the Goliath to the east, threatened to attack them.  The economy recoiled.  The good life no longer seemed secure. 

With uncertainty harassing his mind, Isaiah turned to God.  Maybe he knew the saying: "I was happy when they said to me, `Let us go to the house of the Lord!'" Psalm 122:1  Isaiah did.  He went into the Temple to pray, to seek wisdom, direction and comfort. 

When life is uncertain, we turn to God for reassurance.  God is stability.  After the `Great War' I heard the saying, "There are no atheists in foxholes."  When scared in our foxholes, we pray.  When worrying in a sleepless night, we pray.  Yes, God is stability.  God is reassuring.

When we turn to God, we must anticipate, we must accept, a meeting, an encounter.  There will be an exchange, interaction.  God will be God!  And we need to be ready to deal with that reality.  God may not be a cheerleader.  God has not promised to say, “Now, now, everything will be alright.”  God will practice therapy on us.  We must be ready to change.

As Isaiah prayed in the temple, he saw a vision.  He saw God!  He saw God "sitting on the throne high and lifted up."  God -- high up on a throne.  Far more grand than George Lucas can depict, or any Dolby sound system convey.  Awesome!  Adorned in a magnificent robe, its train flowing out over the entire floor.  Six-winged creatures soared over head, praising God: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."  Their booming voices shook the door frames.  Incense smoke filled the temple.  Isaiah’s senses were assaulted: sight, hearing, smell, touch.  Overwhelming!  God in glory!  God in unsurpassed glory!

Then Isaiah knew!  Then he knew!  God was still God!  Though not apparent from Isaiah’s perception of the political, economic and military situation, God was on the throne!  The stock market may rise or plunge.  Wars ravage and peace brings hope.  Babies born; grandparents die.  There is nightfall; there is dawn.  Still, God is on the throne!  Holy and Mighty!

May we remember!  May we know it well!

Isaiah discovered that God is still on the throne, holy and mighty.

He also realized a truth about himself that contributed to his ill-at-ease. Isaiah was not holy.  He realized that he was a sinner.  In the presence of absolute holiness, Isaiah became intensely conscious of his sin, and exclaimed: "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!"  That is not the way we talk, but do you get the idea?  He knew that he was not the person that he should be, and he lived among a bunch of sinners. 

If we encounter God, we also will encounter that within us which is unworthy.  A well-known professional golfer was playing in a tournament with President Gerald Ford, Billy Graham and Jack Nicklaus.  After the round was over, one of the other pros on the tour asked, "Hey, what was it like playing with the President and Billy Graham?"  The pro said with disgust, "I don't need Billy Graham stuffing religion down my throat!"  With that he headed for the practice tee.  His friend followed, and after the golfer had pounded out his fury on a bucket of golf balls, he asked, "Was Billy a little rough on you out there?"  The pro sighed and said with embarrassment, "No, he didn't even mention religion."

I have experienced that guilty intimidated response often.  Many people are not comfortable around me, once they know that I am a minister.  Boy, I can make people squirm!  I do not have to say a word.  It is not I; it is their own reaction to the Holy One whom I represent in their minds.

Why do we squirm in the presence of the holy?  Something within us is not right with God! 

Then, one of the flying creatures cauterized Isaiah’s lips with a hot coal – as if burning away a cancerous tumor -- creating a new and worthy spokesperson.  He heard: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."  By the mercy of God's forgiveness, symbolized in this strange drama, Isaiah understood that his sin was purged, he was purified, he was made worthy.  Did you catch my choice of words?  Isaiah did not correct himself.  Isaiah was made worthy.  Isaiah was made worthwhile.  Isaiah was given peace.

God also used therapy on William Boggs.  William Boggs was at a turning point in his life and his faith.  He felt he only had two paths open to his future: He either had to find new reserves of strength and direction, or leave the ministry.  He had to find a release from the stresses of his life and find a quiet place where he could listen for God's direction.  [Do you wish that?  Would you love to be free to get away and get yourself straightened out?  He was able to; are you envious?]  He decided to visit a monastic community.  [In other words, he went into the house of the Lord.]  He was frightened and nervous.  But after a couple of days of following the routine of prayer, praise, and silence, he began to settle down.  He began to get caught up in the flow of worship and contemplation. 

One afternoon as he entered his room he felt he was ready and receptive.  "Here time is not an enemy to be conquered or an empty vessel to be filled," he wrote in his journal, "it is a treasure to be savored."  Later that same day he spoke with one of the monks who offered him some advice, "It is more important to do what is good," said the monk, "than to do what is perfect."  William thought about his life and realized that sometimes he was pushing himself too hard when he should have allowed God to be his source of strength.  [Trying to bulldoze life.]  He found that the self-destructive games he had been playing were unnecessary.  He went to bed that night singing a hymn of praise, knowing that God loved and accepted him for who he was--not who he thought he ought to be. Did you hear what he said?  “God loved and accepted him for who he was – not for who he thought he ought to be.”  God’s therapy on William Boggs was to give him the insight that God loved him as William Boggs, real person.  God did not love the mythical, perfect William Boggs who never was and never would be.  God cauterized away the past, setting him free to be authentic.

We benefit from putting ourselves in the presence of the holy.  Isaiah went to the Temple.  William Boggs went to a monastery.  In our Gospel lesson, we heard that Jesus rose before dawn and went out to a lonely place to pray.  You may have to sneak into the privacy of the church.  In the middle of the night, you may get up, read your devotional books, breath slowly and deeply and allow God to do whatever God would do with you.

God wants to cauterize away our sin and give us a fresh start!  God has given us Jesus and his death on the cross.  Thankfully!  Meditate on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  Take its meaning into yourself.  Let his torture and death be enough suffering for your shortcomings.  Lay on him your guilt and self-loathing.  Then reflect on his resurrection.  The cross was not the final statement from God.  The resurrection followed.  That resurrection is a lesson for living.   After the suffering, comes cauterizing release, and then the potential of the new life, the resurrected sense of being a new creation.  God is the greatest of therapists. 

Isaiah saw the holiness and might of God.
Then, Isaiah felt the cauterizing of his sin, and was made worthy.

Then, Isaiah experienced what we often experience in an encounter with God: a call to action.  "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, `Whom shall I send?  Who will go?'"  Isaiah said, "Here I am; send me!"

Inevitably God gives us a mission.  God uses psychology on us.  We fret about our uncertain lives.  In effect, God says, Get your mind off you and onto a mission.  Quit fretting over your insecurities, think about something positive, then do something worthwhile and you will feel better about your life.  You will not need to fill time, because it will be full.

As I move toward conclusion, hear a modern story, a parable from real life.

A young man served during the Vietnam War.  As the lead man on a patrol, he was to discover the mines, booby traps and ambushes.  With every step he risked his life and the life of his patrol.  When he returned home, he was the only one alive.  He often felt he would have been better off if he HAD died.  He was haunted constantly by nightmares of his friends dying.  Slowly his spirit was drained.  He saw many physicians and took many tests, but no one could find a cure for his myriad ills. 

He visited the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.  Tears flowed freely as he touched the names of his friends etched in the hard black stone.  (Have you been to the memorial and seen the names, thousands of them?)  He looked for and found every name he remembered except one.  Back and forth he walked, touching the wall, looking for the one last name.  He looked in the book that listed all the names and told where to find them on the wall.  He asked the attendant, but the attendant couldn't find the name either.

"Are you sure that's the right name?" the attendant asked him.  "Yes," the man replied, "It's my name."  The attendant looked at him and said softly: "Your name isn't here.  You must be alive!  Go home and get on with your life."

God says:
Get on with your life! 
It blesses you to contribute.
It blesses the world for you to contribute.
It is my will that you contribute.

Feeling uncertain?  Feeling ill-at-ease?   Go from your foxhole to the temple.  Turn to God!  Let God do God’s work within you!  Let God do God’s work through you!

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