RCL reading for Sunday, June 7, 2009:
Excerpt from the New Revised Standard Version
via Oremus (http://bible.oremus.org)
Isaiah 6:1-8
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.
2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.
3 And one called to another and said:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’
4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.
5 And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.
7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’
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The call of Isaiah may be the most enchantingly beautiful passage in the Bible. The smokey mystery of the scene evokes the feeling of a real religious experience. Isaiah sees God and lives! It may be that the sheer beauty of this passage saved it from the deuteronomist's scissors, leaving us the old temple Lord of Hosts and the ranks of angels.
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