Our Savior Lutheran Church
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod

Announcements

            Pretzel Party in Frankenmouth

Some of the Wednesday Bible Study group is planning at Pretzel Party at Weiss Farm in Frankenmouth on Monday April 14th at 1pm. The cost is $10 which includes making and eating pretzels and taking pretzels home. Please contact Gloria McCracken by April 4th if you would like to join! 989-277-4902

Isaiah 6

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two they covered their faces. With two they covered their feet. With two they flew. 3 One called to another and said,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies!The whole earth is full of his glory!

4 The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of the one who called, and the temple was filled with smoke.

5 Then I said, “I am doomed! I am ruined, because I am a man with unclean lips, and I dwell among a people with unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies!”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, carrying a glowing coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with the coal and said, “Look, this has touched your lips, so your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.”

8 Then I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?”

Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”

9 He said:

Go! You are to tell this people,“Keep listening, but you will never understand.Keep looking, but you will never get it.”10 Make the heart of this people calloused. Make their ears deaf and blind their eyes,so that they do not see with their eyes,or hear with their ears,or understand with their hearts,and turn again and be healed.

11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?”

He answered:

Until the cities are a wasteland without a single inhabitant, until the houses are totally deserted, and the farmland is completely devastated,12 until the Lord has removed the people far away, and the abandoned places within the land are many.13 If there is only a tenth left in it, that too will be burned in its turn. Like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is cut down, so the holy seed is its stump.

Pastor’s Comment

            Here six chapters into Isaiah we hear the first time reference and narrative section. This is Isaiah’s commission to preach by God. Notice that we repeat the song of the seraphim in almost every worship service. Holy Holy Holy – Three holies for our Triune God. Even God’s good angels cover their eyes and feet in the direct presence of God’s glory. How much more so does mankind rightly cower in the face of the glory of God as Isiaah does! He confesses the truth about himself: he is a sinful man and can’t be in God’s presence. But God is merciful and cleanses his sin.

            You might hear the first half up to Isaiah’s response “Here I am, Send Me!” at a mission or evangelism focused service. I know I have. Isaiah’s attitude about bringing a message from God is a good attitude all Christians ought to share about sharing the Gospel. Notice that God is not sending good news through Isaiah in this case though. God’s Word is going to reduce Israel down to the stump. This is the function of the Law. As terrible as it sounds, it is necessary for salvation for us to be cut down with the law first. Then Christ comes and brings new life as the Branch, in whom we are all grafted on by the Holy Spirit.

Luther’s Comment

            6. Then flew one to me. Here now a resurrection from the dead takes place. We see that sinners who acknowledge their sins are not abandoned. The prophet cries out that he is lost, that he is oppressed with the consciousness of a defiled mouth, and that he has felt sin and death. And on that account he obtained forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, etc.” says 1 John 1:9; and 1 John 2:1 says: “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father”; so also 1 John 5:18. God hates the sin of hardening and its being defended. Let them be cleansed and let them confess their uncleanness, especially that of the mouth. For where lips and doctrine are unclean, there unclean works follow. Therefore the seraph approaches to set the prophet free from sin. But he uses means. So, then, two things are set forth to the prophet, namely, Word and sign. The Lord often acts this way. The lips are cleansed by fire. This is the sign. The Word is: “Your guilt be taken away.” Here our sacraments are established. Yet these are disdained and shamefully handled by some who say: Nothing external benefits the soul. But let them criticize as much as they want. What Isaiah experiences here is not a fairy tale, but as there are fearful and serious voices, so there is also absolution, which then is granted through the addition of the sign to the Word. Now, what that sign could do, this our Baptism can also do.