“Not Good Enough?”
Isaiah 6:1-8
Kevin Miller of Wheaton, Illinois wrote the following: “Right after I finished 6th grade, my family moved to a new town.
As I started junior high that fall, I suddenly found myself in a school I didn’t know, in a town I didn’t know, with people I didn’t know.
I felt very alone.
Nobody knew me, and nobody wanted to talk to me.
Then one day, a kid named Earl invited me to his house after school.
I jumped at it.
Soon Earl and I started to become good friends.
After a couple of months of sizing up my 7th grade classroom, I made an important realization.
The kids who seemed to be the most popular, the kids who were really good at sports, the kids who had the best clothes, the kids whom the girls whispered and blushed over—were not Earl.
They were two guys, Mike and Justin.
So when Mike and Justin finally invited me over to their house, I was exhilarated!!!
This was my ticket to the big time.
But I had one problem.
Wherever Mike and Justin were, Earl was not; and wherever Earl was, Mike and Justin were not.
And if I was going to hang out with Mike and Justin, I could not be seen with Earl.
So I made a decision.
I became friends with Mike and Justin and when Earl called me, I kept putting him off.
All those years since that time, there’s still shame around that betrayal, because the truth is, I betrayed Earl.
I handed him another rejection in his life, when he’d probably had so many.
But I wanted something: I wanted that “in,” I wanted that popularity.
If I had to hurt him, I would do it.
That is the essence of betrayal: I am willing to hurt you to get something for myself.”
Perhaps some of us can relate to Kevin in this story.
We have hurt others in order to advance our own agenda.
We have come to realize how selfish and mean we are capable of being.
Perhaps some of us can relate to Earl.
Earl was a young person who was always being told through either words, actions or silence that he did not measure up—that he was not as good as others.
Maybe you have felt like this at some point in your life or perhaps you still feel this way.
We humans can be awfully mean to one another.
For some of us, the scars incurred during middle school or high school haunt us and effect our achievement as individuals throughout our entire lives.
We may turn to drugs and alcohol as a result.
Or we may not feel good enough to date the person we are attracted too, go for the job we want, finish high school, go to college, achieve our full potential.
It might also affect our relationship with God.
In our Scripture passage for this morning from Isaiah, we see Isaiah struggling with the problem of “I’m not good enough.”
And many of us, like Isaiah often feel a sense of low or no self-worth.
We might think, “Who am I that God might want to send me?”
“I can’t share God’s message of hope with others.”
“I’m not good enough.”
“I’m in bondage to sin and I can’t free myself.”
The sin, the guilt, the addiction, the shame, the missing the mark, the failure… although you’ve already tried…you name it!
All of this separates us from God and blocks us from living in intimate relationship with God.
The first 8 verses of Isaiah Chapter 6 describe one of the best known of Isaiah’s prophetic visions.
He is summoned to the throne of God and surrounded by awe and terror.
Isaiah is struck right between the eyes with the realization of his unworthiness.
And so Isaiah cries out, “Mourn for me; I’m ruined!
I’m a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips.
Yet I’ve seen the king, the Lord of heavenly forces!”
How many of us would be terrified to be caught in the same situation?
Would we feel “ruined” if we were to stand before the throne of God?
A campus minister once held a series of meetings with students on campus.
The topics ranged across the spectrum—but all the students agreed on one thing: God was extremely disappointed with them.
A colleague of mine talks about a girl named “Hannah” who was in his confirmation class.
“I remember her making an appointment to come and speak to me privately,” my colleague said.
“Her face was chalky white with anxiety.
She stuttered and stumbled as she told me of a party she’d gone to, recently, of drinking at the party.
Of drinking way too much at the party.
Of course getting so drunk that she lost her sense of good judgment and went into a room with a boy, and wasn’t quite sure what happened in that room with that boy.
Hannah was a wreck about what she had done.
She was a jumble of guilt and tears, remorse and embarrassment.”
My colleague continued, “In gulping sobs she asked if God would forgive her.
‘Hannah,’” my colleague spoke gently, “remember all the stories about people coming to Jesus, people who had made mistakes, people who had done things they wished they hadn’t, people who had sinned, people who had regrets, people who felt guilty?
She sniffled… ‘Yes,’ she said tentatively.
Well, if they were truly sorry for what they had done, and asked Jesus to forgive them, did He ever turn anyone away?”
My colleague said, “Her eyes caught on, like a trapped animal catching a glimpse of escape.
Hannah, if they were truly sorry, Jesus said to them, as He says to you right now, “My child, your sins are forgiven, go in peace.”
There can be no doubt.
We all make mistakes.
We all do things we wish we hadn’t done.
We all hurt others…
…sometimes on purpose…
…sometimes without intending to.
When Jesus walked this earth, again and again, He engaged people, inviting them into relationship with Him.
Sometimes in those relationships Jesus disturbed the comfortable.
Other times, Jesus comforted the disturbed.
But He related to each one.
Then and now, Jesus is the embodiment of Grace!!!
In his book, What Good is God?, Phillip Yancey writes about being invited to speak at a conference to women in prostitution.
At the end of the conference Yancey had the following conversation with the women:
“I had time for one more question,” Yancey writes, “Did you know that Jesus referred to your profession?
Let me read you what He said, ‘I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.’
He was speaking to the religious authorities of His day.
What do you think Jesus meant?
Why did He single out prostitutes?”
According to Yancey, after several minutes, a young woman from Eastern Europe spoke up in her broken English, “Everyone, has someone to look down on.
Not us.
We are at the low.
Our families, they feel shame for us.
No mother nowhere looks at her little girl and says, ‘Honey, when you grow up I want you to be a good prostitute.’
Most places, we are breaking the law.
Believe me, we know how people feel about us.
People call us names.
We feel it too.
We are the bottom.
And sometimes when you are at the low, you cry for help.
So when Jesus comes, we respond.
Maybe Jesus meant that.”
God’s grace is a strange concept in our world where nothing is free, and strings are always attached.
We United Methodist Christians need to realize that one of the greatest gifts we have to share in our world today is our belief in salvation by grace through faith.
At the cost of His life Jesus died to save and redeem you and me.
And He did all this so that we can be His own.
He did all this so that we can be free, free to love, free to live and free to serve.
You know, everyone of us must be really, really important for Jesus to shed His own blood for us!!!
And grabbing hold of that radically changes the way we look at ourselves, and the way we live our lives.
Isaiah’s vision is intended for earthly people like you and me.
The Holy God desires a relationship with us.
And yes, we are sinners who dwell among sinners, and we live in sinful times.
But God comes to where we are.
And God makes us clean.
And God calls us all to serve!!!
In Isaiah Chapter 6, Isaiah realizes that he is a sinner in the presence of a Holy God.
And the sad realization of this hits Isaiah with overwhelming force.
There is nothing like an encounter with the divine to shatter our self-centeredness and bring us to our knees in prayer.
Yet it is the realization that he is a sinner that opens Isaiah to the possibility of forgiveness.
In verse 6 we are told that as soon as Isaiah was fully aware of his sinfulness and confessed as much, “one of the winged creatures flew to [him], holding a glowing coal from the altar with tongs.”
Isaiah writes, “He touched my mouth and said, ‘See this has touched you, and your sin is removed.’
Then I heard the Lord’s voice saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’
I said, ‘I’m here; send me.’”
May we respond in like manner.
Amen.
