Isaiah 6:1-8
This morning I’m going to be speaking to you about mission.
I wonder what you think of when you hear the word mission?
Perhaps it’s the films called “Mission Impossible”, or the earlier television series of the same name.
Maybe we think of companies or worldwide organizations that have mission statements.
It seems to be quite fashionable these days to have a mission statement.
All the big high street shops are getting in on the act, and all this is before we get into what the church understands by the term mission.
If you have a look around the Internet at various church web sites you can find all kinds of different mission statements.
Here are just a few examples from churches in the UK.
Strong in the Spirit to win and nurture disciples (South Parade Baptist Church, Leeds)
Aim - To see God honoured
Essentials - The Bible and prayer
Tasks - Reach out to non-believers, build up Christians, send out Christian workers (St. Ebbes, Oxford)
The ministry of this evangelical church is centred upon Biblical teaching and exposition within a parish context but with an emphasis on outreach locally, nationally and internationally. (Christ Church Fulwood, Sheffield)
Okay, those are the mission statements of some other churches, but what is our mission here all about?
Well, in a nutshell, it’s the way in which we tell people the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The mission statement of the early church is found in the words of Jesus, in Matthew’s Gospel.
’Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’ (Matt. 28:19-20)
This is the plan that Jesus laid out for telling people that God so loved this world and all in it that He gave His One and only Son that whoever believes in Him might have eternal life.
I am sure that we know where that comes from – of course it’s the famous John 3:16!
We might know it in our heads, but do we all believe it in our hearts?
Have we all made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour?
Hopefully now we all know what we mean by the word mission.
The next question then, is, “Who is it for?”
It’s very easy to say it’s for those missionaries out there in Africa, the Middle East or India.
That’s true, but it’s also the task of all Christians everywhere.
Those very challenging words at the end of Matthew’s Gospel are for each and every one of us to carry out in the way that God shows us.
Every nation includes this one.
There are many practical ways that we can fulfil this.
We can tell our friends and family about Jesus, and what He has done for them and for us, which is good, but must be backed up by actions.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to live a life of discipleship with Jesus that shows His presence in our lives and His love working within us, and the difference that He has made.
We can also continue to support others in their missionary task by praying for them and for God’s work that He has entrusted to them.
There are so many missionary agencies these days that it would be so easy to simply be overwhelmed, and end up not supporting any.
Instead we are better to focus in on praying for a few missionaries that we have some knowledge of.
Turning to our passage this morning from the prophet Isaiah.
This is the story of Isaiah’s calling, and is probably one of the most well-known parts of the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah is writing at a very dark time in the history of Israel, when a good king, Uziah, has just died, and the future looks rather bleak.
At this time, Isaiah had a vision.
This is not just any old vision, rare enough as they may be.
This was a vision of heaven, a vision of God and His great throne room.
The Apostle John had similar visions many years later that he has recorded for us in the book of Revelation.
As I read these kinds of visions I can’t help feeling very happy inside.
When we consider what this world is currently like, with all its violence, lies and self-centredness, these visions come as a beautiful reminder of what awaits us when we die.
How can we be afraid when we know that we will spend eternity in the intimate presence of God?
That is such a joyous and beautiful thing to look forward to.
It’s this kind of future hope that the early Methodists had, that prompted John Wesley to say that ’our people die well’.
Isaiah tells us that he saw the Lord, seated up on high, wearing a long robe that covered the whole temple.
This is very vivid imagery, yet it’s difficult for us to imagine it.
I don’t think that I’d like to have to draw a picture of what Isaiah describes for us.
Having said that I don’t think I’d like to have to draw a picture of anything, considering my lack of artistic talent!
Not satisfied with that, Isaiah goes on to tell us about the flaming creatures that surround God.
This is a truly fantastic vision, which really makes us stand back and wonder in amazement.
Not only that, but these creatures are calling out to one another saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. His glory fills the earth.”
These creatures are praising God by proclaiming how great He is.
We’ve been doing this ourselves this morning through our songs and prayers, and the response of our hearts to God.
Heaven is going to be full of praise and worship, and so its important that we spend quite a lot of time giving God his due glory, though we must realise that worship is more than songs, words and prayers.
Worship is a lifestyle lived in accordance with God’s will.
If we live our lives in the way that the Father wants us to, then we worship Him.
It’s also worth noting that God’s glory fills the earth.
We’re very good these days at polluting the earth, what with our litter and all these harmful greenhouse gasses.
Yet this is God’s earth that we are polluting, not our own.
In Genesis God tells humankind to tend the earth and look after it, yet so often we have not done this.
Yet again we have disobeyed God in favour of what is easiest for us.
This earth is supposed to be full of the glory of God, and not our pollution.
So, let’s do our bit to make that so.
As we come back to this vision, it’s not only beautiful, but it’s also terrifying.
We can almost imagine Isaiah’s knees knocking together, and his teeth chattering when we come to verse 5.
Isaiah says, “There is no hope for me.”
How often have we felt like that, I wonder?
I know that I have felt like this on several occasions in my life, so far.
Something has gone horribly wrong, or I have done something that I know I shouldn’t, and so from a human perspective it seems as though hope has flown far away.
Do you know what it feels like to be like this?
We mustn’t get stuck in this frame of mind, though.
The Bible tells us that with God nothing is impossible.
Do we believe this?
I know that I do, and I know that I have experienced God’s love and forgiveness even in my darkest moments.
In the past I was not a particularly trustworthy person.
What I said and what I did were often two completely different things, and so it has taken a long time for me to feel able to think that God could possibly trust me.
Up until extremely recently, in the back of my mind, I have somehow thought that God didn’t trust me, but then recently when someone was praying for me, they felt that God was saying to them about me, that He trusted me with the work that I am doing.
This person didn’t know me at all - he was a complete stranger to me, but God spoke to Him, and I was really encouraged by this.
What this illustrates is that it doesn’t matter what we have done in the past, God still wants us to be close to Him.
He will forgive us if we confess our sins before Him, and ask His forgiveness.
God believes in us, and He has a plan for each and every one of us today.
He has a vision for each of us, if only we will look and listen to Him.
God has a plan for this church.
God has a vision for this church.
Let’s be open to Him, and let Him guide us to do His will here.
You may know that this Sunday is Trinity Sunday.
We started this morning by singing the hymn, ’Holy, holy, holy’, which has the line ’God in three persons, blessed Trinity.’
The idea of God being three in one, and one in three is not an easy one for us to grasp.
Many people, throughout the ages have tried to explain it, using the illustration of a shamrock, which St. Patrick is supposed to have used to explain the Trinity to the Irish people.
A shamrock always has three leaves, and yet it is one plant, not three.
It’s not a perfect illustration as each leaf could not be said to be a person in its own right.
However, it hints at what the Trinity is like.
It is the way in which the three persons of the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, interact and relate to one another.
Beyond that, how this really works is a mystery.
There are some things that we can understand in life and faith, and some that we cannot.
From a human perspective it seems that the whole idea of the Trinity is a mystery.
I believe that it’s a true expression of how the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit relate to one another, but I don’t fully understand it.
It’s one of those things that I simply have to trust God about.
That’s alright, as God doesn’t expect us to understand everything.
What has our passage to do with the Trinity, though, you might want to ask.
Well, in verse 8 we read, ’Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" ’
’Who will go for us’ God asks.
Is this an expression that God is more than one person?
I think that it may be, though there are those who think that this isn’t what is meant here.
I believe that this shows that all three persons of the Trinity are involved in the sending out of Isaiah.
Whether or not this is so, we need to think of God as three persons.
In our prayer time we need to pray not just to the Father, or just to Jesus, but to both and to the Holy Spirit also.
The Lord asks, ’whom shall I send’, and Isaiah interrupts, saying, ’Here I am, send me.’
Do we have this kind of eagerness to get involved in God’s mission?
It is good to be eager like this, yet there is something that we probably ought to note here.
Isaiah was given a vision, and this vision was from God, and therefore these words were really directed towards Isaiah.
In other words, for us the equivalent would be something that God has brought our way, with the intention of us getting involved.
The Lord doesn’t want us to spread ourselves so thinly that we do nothing well for Him, but rather a lot of things rather less well.
He wants us to be enthusiastic about doing the things that He has shown us He wants us to do.
For me, that includes preaching and playing music, but not certain other things.
I could, and sometimes do, volunteer for things that God doesn’t particularly want me to do, and so I end up spreading myself more thinly than I should.
This isn’t right, and I tell you about this, so that you can avoid doing the same kind of thing.
However, the Lord does have plans for each one of us, and about that thing, or those things, God asks us ’whom shall I send’?
Are you willing to say to Him, ’Here I am Lord, send me’?
This ought to be our attitude.
What about the carrying out of that mission, though?
Will it always be a success?
If we read the remaining verses of chapter 6, we can see that the easy answer is ’no’.
The mission that the Lord had planned for Isaiah was one that from a human perspective would be a complete failure.
The Lord says, ’Go and tell this people: "Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving." Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.’ (Isaiah 6:9-10)
What would we think of such a calling?
Would you be happy with a mission that sees no-one respond positively to God?
Yet, this is exactly the kind of mission that the Lord sent Isaiah on.
At the very end of the chapter, there is a glimmer of hope for the future, yet it comes after much destruction.
Should we then stop our outreach if we don’t seem to get any positive results?
It would appear that the answer is ’no’.
Yet, this hasn’t been the case with our own outreach as a church.
Seeds have been planted in people’s hearts and minds, which will eventually produce fruit for God’s kingdom.
Let’s continue to be faithful in our calling from the Father, our witness for Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
