Isaiah 6:1-7; Romans 11:33-36; St John 3:1-15(16-17)
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Athanasian Creed is wonderful, isn’t it? We ought to use it more often. Perhaps on Reformation Day? It is the youngest of the three ecumenical creeds and therefore the most developed. This is the catholic faith: to believe in the mystery of the Holy Trinity - three coequal Persons who each are God and yet there is one God - and then the mystery of the Incarnation, that God the Son assumed our human flesh into His Person and suffered for our salvation - the more we know the less we understand. All we are left with is adoration. Worship.
And yet the Athanasian Creed is terrifying. It demands that not only my mind be conformed to God’s Word, but my life and deeds too. The books will be opened and I will be judged. Those who have done good will go into everlasting life. Those who have done evil into eternal fire. Its tempting to reject these words from the Creed as unLutheran, contrary to the doctrine of grace. And yet those words come straight from the lips of Jesus. Truly, truly, I say to you, and hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment (Jn 5:25, 28-29). There’s no getting around them.
So which are you? Are you among those who have done good? The more I know myself, the more I see how much evil there is in everything I do. Every word, every glance, every interaction with others, every moment alone, reveling in my pride or sinking into my despair. Every intention of man’s heart, says the Word, is only evil all the time (Gn 6:5).
We are those who have done evil. That’s the realization of Isaiah in today’s first reading. Isaiah is standing in the earthly Divine Service, in the Temple in Jerusalem, and he sees a vision of the heavenly Divine Service, going on continually. Heaven opens to Isaiah and it is both beautiful and terrifying.
He sees the seraphim, six-winged spirits of fire. With two they veil their faces to the Unity in the power of the Divine Majesty; with two they cover their bodies, down to their feet, in humility. With two they fly, encircling the exalted throne. No gentle angels, powerful energies flow forth from them and they are unlike anything seen in this world. But their immense power bows to the One whose power is infinite and glory beyond compare.
They sing a song of the end of creation, the goal, the telos, which they experience now, and we but dimly. Holy, holy, holy is the YHWH Sabaoth; the whole earth is full of His glory. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the Voice of Him who called, and the House was filled with smoke. We do not see the earth full of God’s glory. We see it full of man’s vain-glory, his attempts at pride that end in destruction; as you heard last week in the tower of Babel.
Holy Isaiah does not feel holy. He is confronted with his sin. Standing before God he expects judgment and certain death. Woe is me! For I am lost! I am undone; utterly obliterated. For no one can see God and live.
The same is true of us. Whether you feel death or failure or that your life is worthless or without hope, when you hear the Commandments, when you are confronted the terrible holiness of the Lord God of hosts, you cry out with the prophet: “Woe is me! I am undone.” I deserve temporal and eternal condemnation. I do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. I have not done good, but evil.
Sin costs. That’s what the altar showed. It was not a table. It was a fire. A place for both cooking and destruction. Some food was put there to be grilled, roasted, baked. Other food was put there to be entirely consumed. Entire animals were burnt to ashes on the altar. Along with flour and oil and salt. All mixed together with incense, there was a vibrant cloud of smoke that would rise up, beautiful with a powerful mixture of smells. It was the smell of blood and death, pungent and gagging, but mixed with the sweet and exotic.
The fire there burned continuously. The animals were constantly offered. A visible and visceral reminder of the cost of sin. That animal is me. That’s what I deserve. Its blood should be my blood. Its death my death. And as Isaiah confesses his sin, like the tax collector who went into the Temple to pray, beating his breast, crying, Lord, be propitiated toward me, the sinner; an angel is dispatched. A seraph, a spirit of fire, a messenger of the Lord, takes a burning coal from the altar and approaches Isaiah. Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. Isaiah has participated in that which participated in the Sacrifice. By the death of Another, he is cleansed.
This anticipates what Jesus does for you this day. Something comes from the altar and purges your sin. It does not burn, for our Lord Jesus felt the burning atoning in His Body. It does not obliterate you, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. For in this way God loved the world: He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Believing in Jesus is no intellectual exercise, nor simple leap of the will. To believe in Jesus means to stand like Isaiah before the Lord’s altar and say, “I am judged. I deserve death and hell. I have multiplied transgression. I am a man’s of unclean lips and mind and heart. Have mercy on me, the sinner.”
Our Lord has dispatched no mere angel to rescue you. He has sent His sole-begotten Son. In obedience He came from His blessed throne to bestow salvation. He descended from above in order to raise up children of God from below. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so was the Son of Man lifted up, high and exalted upon the Throne of His Cross, by which He draws all men to Himself in the Temple of His Body and the once-for-all Atoning Sacrifice for sin. Whoever believes in Him has eternal life.
For He sends you angels, His messengers, who preaching His fiery Word of the Law, by which you know your sin and confess it, and His sweet Word of the Gospel, by which you are forgiven and redeemed, set at liberty and not undone. In this Word the Spirit is heard. This is where He breathes. You hear His sound, but do not know where He comes from or where He goes. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor?
And at some point a messenger of the Lord was sent with the coal of Holy Baptism, that which participated in the death of the Sacrifice, is now given to you, that you may participate in its death. It is written, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rm 6:3-4). This is how you are born again, begotten from above by water and Spirit. In Holy Baptism you participate in the death and resurrection of the One who atones for your sin.
This is the testimony of which all the prophets and St John the Baptizer spoke. This is the witness of Sam and Sarah again this day and all who make the good confession. This is the heavenly things of which Jesus now tells you, which you receive only by faith through the Holy Spirit.
And this is your worship, beloved. This is the glory of the Holy Trinity confessed in the Athanasian Creed. It is not an intellectual or academic exercise, it is worship. And the highest and chief form of worship is to receive in faith what the Lord gives.
So then, come. Kneel at the Altar of the Lord, where seraphim and cherubim encircle the glorious throne. Join your song to that of the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Then receive that coal, the very Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, the once-for-all Sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold, it has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Athanasian Creed is wonderful, isn’t it? We ought to use it more often. Perhaps on Reformation Day? It is the youngest of the three ecumenical creeds and therefore the most developed. This is the catholic faith: to believe in the mystery of the Holy Trinity - three coequal Persons who each are God and yet there is one God - and then the mystery of the Incarnation, that God the Son assumed our human flesh into His Person and suffered for our salvation - the more we know the less we understand. All we are left with is adoration. Worship.
And yet the Athanasian Creed is terrifying. It demands that not only my mind be conformed to God’s Word, but my life and deeds too. The books will be opened and I will be judged. Those who have done good will go into everlasting life. Those who have done evil into eternal fire. Its tempting to reject these words from the Creed as unLutheran, contrary to the doctrine of grace. And yet those words come straight from the lips of Jesus. Truly, truly, I say to you, and hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment (Jn 5:25, 28-29). There’s no getting around them.
So which are you? Are you among those who have done good? The more I know myself, the more I see how much evil there is in everything I do. Every word, every glance, every interaction with others, every moment alone, reveling in my pride or sinking into my despair. Every intention of man’s heart, says the Word, is only evil all the time (Gn 6:5).
We are those who have done evil. That’s the realization of Isaiah in today’s first reading. Isaiah is standing in the earthly Divine Service, in the Temple in Jerusalem, and he sees a vision of the heavenly Divine Service, going on continually. Heaven opens to Isaiah and it is both beautiful and terrifying.
He sees the seraphim, six-winged spirits of fire. With two they veil their faces to the Unity in the power of the Divine Majesty; with two they cover their bodies, down to their feet, in humility. With two they fly, encircling the exalted throne. No gentle angels, powerful energies flow forth from them and they are unlike anything seen in this world. But their immense power bows to the One whose power is infinite and glory beyond compare.
They sing a song of the end of creation, the goal, the telos, which they experience now, and we but dimly. Holy, holy, holy is the YHWH Sabaoth; the whole earth is full of His glory. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the Voice of Him who called, and the House was filled with smoke. We do not see the earth full of God’s glory. We see it full of man’s vain-glory, his attempts at pride that end in destruction; as you heard last week in the tower of Babel.
Holy Isaiah does not feel holy. He is confronted with his sin. Standing before God he expects judgment and certain death. Woe is me! For I am lost! I am undone; utterly obliterated. For no one can see God and live.
The same is true of us. Whether you feel death or failure or that your life is worthless or without hope, when you hear the Commandments, when you are confronted the terrible holiness of the Lord God of hosts, you cry out with the prophet: “Woe is me! I am undone.” I deserve temporal and eternal condemnation. I do not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. I have not done good, but evil.
Sin costs. That’s what the altar showed. It was not a table. It was a fire. A place for both cooking and destruction. Some food was put there to be grilled, roasted, baked. Other food was put there to be entirely consumed. Entire animals were burnt to ashes on the altar. Along with flour and oil and salt. All mixed together with incense, there was a vibrant cloud of smoke that would rise up, beautiful with a powerful mixture of smells. It was the smell of blood and death, pungent and gagging, but mixed with the sweet and exotic.
The fire there burned continuously. The animals were constantly offered. A visible and visceral reminder of the cost of sin. That animal is me. That’s what I deserve. Its blood should be my blood. Its death my death. And as Isaiah confesses his sin, like the tax collector who went into the Temple to pray, beating his breast, crying, Lord, be propitiated toward me, the sinner; an angel is dispatched. A seraph, a spirit of fire, a messenger of the Lord, takes a burning coal from the altar and approaches Isaiah. Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. Isaiah has participated in that which participated in the Sacrifice. By the death of Another, he is cleansed.
This anticipates what Jesus does for you this day. Something comes from the altar and purges your sin. It does not burn, for our Lord Jesus felt the burning atoning in His Body. It does not obliterate you, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. For in this way God loved the world: He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Believing in Jesus is no intellectual exercise, nor simple leap of the will. To believe in Jesus means to stand like Isaiah before the Lord’s altar and say, “I am judged. I deserve death and hell. I have multiplied transgression. I am a man’s of unclean lips and mind and heart. Have mercy on me, the sinner.”
Our Lord has dispatched no mere angel to rescue you. He has sent His sole-begotten Son. In obedience He came from His blessed throne to bestow salvation. He descended from above in order to raise up children of God from below. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so was the Son of Man lifted up, high and exalted upon the Throne of His Cross, by which He draws all men to Himself in the Temple of His Body and the once-for-all Atoning Sacrifice for sin. Whoever believes in Him has eternal life.
For He sends you angels, His messengers, who preaching His fiery Word of the Law, by which you know your sin and confess it, and His sweet Word of the Gospel, by which you are forgiven and redeemed, set at liberty and not undone. In this Word the Spirit is heard. This is where He breathes. You hear His sound, but do not know where He comes from or where He goes. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor?
And at some point a messenger of the Lord was sent with the coal of Holy Baptism, that which participated in the death of the Sacrifice, is now given to you, that you may participate in its death. It is written, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Rm 6:3-4). This is how you are born again, begotten from above by water and Spirit. In Holy Baptism you participate in the death and resurrection of the One who atones for your sin.
This is the testimony of which all the prophets and St John the Baptizer spoke. This is the witness of Sam and Sarah again this day and all who make the good confession. This is the heavenly things of which Jesus now tells you, which you receive only by faith through the Holy Spirit.
And this is your worship, beloved. This is the glory of the Holy Trinity confessed in the Athanasian Creed. It is not an intellectual or academic exercise, it is worship. And the highest and chief form of worship is to receive in faith what the Lord gives.
So then, come. Kneel at the Altar of the Lord, where seraphim and cherubim encircle the glorious throne. Join your song to that of the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Then receive that coal, the very Body and Blood of Christ Jesus, the once-for-all Sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold, it has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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