Isa. 6:1-8; Rom. 8:14-17     Watch Where You?re Going! E/DC    June 18/06

1. Isaiah knows where he?s going.  He?s going about his business, doing what he?s supposed to, advising kings.  He goes into the temple to worship.  Then everyone?s worst nightmare happens.  He?s called by God to do something he doesn?t want to do, doesn?t feel equipped to do.  To be a spokesperson for God.  Now that is a very big job.  Could be misunderstood when he hands out his business card.  Oh yes, I?m a spokesperson for God!  Yeah right!  To say he feels inadequate is a gross understatement.  The metaphor he uses is I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips.  In other words,  ?Who me?  You know I mess up, God.  And my friends, they?re just as bad, and they?d never understand this.  You know I?m not good enough for this.

2. I?ve known Isaiah?s long lost cousins, have you?  I?ve been Isaiah?s long lost cousin.  Focused so much on what I?ve done wrong, how sick I feel about it, how inadequate I feel, I can?t see anything else.  And if that?s all I?m looking at, what?s likely going to happen?  I can?t watch where I?m going, cause I?m so busy looking at what I see as my faults, my failures, I?ll likely fall flat on my face.  I sure won?t be able to move far ahead at any rate.

3. Our job, on this exciting baptism day, is to figure out how we can help Spencer and Rayna watch where they?re going on their spiritual journey.  How can we do that?  Are there things we know that block for us?  If we know the blocks then we can start to figure out how to remove them!  I would dare to guess that the thing that keeps us from seeing clearly how to move ahead in our spiritual life is our feelings of inadequacy, of unworthiness, just like Isaiah.  So what happens in our scripture?  God says, so you?re feeling unclean, that?s what you?re focusing on?  We?ll clean that right up, let you see something tangible ? a coal that burns away what you?re seeing, and lets you see you as I see you.  Your sin is blotted out.  It?s more than forgiveness, though forgiveness is part of it.  It?s gone!  When Isaiah no longer saw the uncleanness, his unworthiness, he could focus on what was ahead.  He could say, ?Here am I, send me.?

4. Julian of Norwich was a woman who understood our task of watching where we?re going.  She writes, ?Sin! What are you? You are nothing. I saw in my vision that God is everything. But sin - I did not see you. When I saw that God had created every­thing, I did not see you. When I saw that God does everything that is done, I did not see you. And so sin, you do not exist. And I am sure that the people who enjoy sin will find themselves with noth­ing in their hands when they are done.?  (From Julian?s Cell, by Ralph Milton, Northstone, 2002)  I would dare to add, that people who see only sin and spend their time in judging others, will find it difficult to see God, to see goodness.

5. Could it be that it is our preoccupa­tion with sin and evil that gets in the road of our faith journey with the God of love? Could it be that we are treating sin as if it was more real than love? To be sure, there are times when our world appears to be more under the grip of evil than of good! But does that mean that evil has a life of its own? Or could it be that we have been negligent in our attention to and sharing of love?  Now we could be criticized that we?re making it too easy by emphasizing God?s love over sin and evil.  But I would challenge anyone ? Have you tried it?  I?d bet the farm that it?s way harder than anything else we might try, to love as God loves!

6. It really depends what we are looking for doesn?t it?  Have you noticed our very human tendency to focus on the nega­tive rather than on the positive - in the news, in our chatter about neighbors and acquaintances, and even in our­selves. Many of our faith traditions at least in the past have put a lot of energy into sin and evil, to the point where sometimes it felt like going to church is about get­ting our weekly scolding. Then we can return to our workday world ready to take on the next week's load of guilt. Trouble ? don?t see or function well, bent over with load of guilt!

7. Too often the God we por­tray in our churches seems to be more like a Grim Reaper than the Source of Life and Love!  That?s not the God I know from scripture.  Remember our biblical emphasis on forgiveness and new beginnings described in today's readings: ?Your sins are blotted out!? Famous words from John declare that "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world.?  Familiar stories of Abraham, David, Cain, Noah, Jacob, Esau, the prodigal son, Jesus on the cross, when read carefully are all about the importance of love and forgiveness to God.  So which will we choose to focus on, to see?  Sin and guilt, or love and forgiveness?  Watching where we?re going will depend on what we?re looking for.

8. So when we look in the mirror, whose image do we see?  When we look out at others, whose image do we see?  Ben Hooper was a man born in even more judgmental times. He tells his story: ?My mother wasn't married when I was born so I had a hard time. When I started to school my classmates had a name for me, and it wasn't a very nice name. I used to go off by myself at recess and during lunchtime because the taunts of my playmates cut so deeply.

What was worse was going down­town on Saturday afternoon and feeling every eye burning a hole through you. They were all wondering just who my real father was. When I was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to our church. I would always go in late and slip out early. But one day the preacher said the benediction so fast I got caught and had to walk out with the crowd. I could feel every eye in church on me. Just about the time I got to the door I felt a big hand on my shoulder. I looked up and the preacher was look­ing right at me.

?Whose are you, son? Whose boy are you??

I felt the old weight come on me. It was like a big black cloud. Even the preacher was putting me down. But as he looked down at me, studying my face, he began to smile a big smile of recognition. ?Wait a minute,? he said. ?I know who you are. I see the family resemblance. You are a son of God.?

With that he slapped me on the back and said, ?Boy, you've got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.?  Ben, who went on to be one of the governors of Tennessee, later said, "That was the most important single sentence ever spoken to me." 

9.We have a great inheritance. Paul is very clear in Romans, we are not slaves, full of fear, we are adopted children, part of God's family with all its rights, privi­leges, and love, instead of our all-too ­common feelings of not being worthy, of being ?unclean,? or too far gone.  God looks at us and sees the family resem­blance.   Imagine what life could be like for Rayna and Spencer if as their family and church family we see that resemblance ? see goodness and love, see the potential, help them to see it.  Imagine what life can be like for each one of us, for our families, friends, co-workers, if we are looking for the family resemblance.  (DC) That?s what our baptism is all about.  So Spencer and Rayna will know from their first memory that they are a beloved son, a beloved daughter of God.  Let?s go help them, help us, to claim our great inheritance.

(E)10.   Remember Julian's insight: "God is every­thing; sin is nothing."  That is when our focus is on God.  So let us fill our minds and hearts with the "everything" of God, and watch the "nothing" of sin and unworthi­ness begin to vanish!  Because the direction we are looking will indeed be where we are going.