WHAT MAKES YOU CLEAN?

Stafford Greer, Bearspaw Lead Site Pastor

"'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.'" - Isaiah 6:5

Parenting is hard: each stage brings with it its own unique challenges. When children are little, some days can be viewed as a success simply because you were able to keep them alive, safe, and fed. On those days, you’re hoping for some peace and quiet.

However, as any parent will attest, that moment when you realize that the house has gone suddenly quiet brings with it all sorts of panic: things are TOO quiet. There was a day when my youngest two kids were little - like four and two little - I was at home with just them. The oldest was likely at school or out of the house with Joanne, and it took me a few minutes too long to realize the sudden quiet that had just descended over our house.

I walked around around the corner into the kitchen to discover that the two youngest kids had discovered the giant Tupperware container of flour. To their joy, they had spread it throughout the kitchen, in their hair, clothes, and a fine powdering of flour rested on the kitchen table and countertops.

It was a disaster.

They had made a mess that they were unable to clean up. No matter how hard they tried, there was no way they could ever clean themselves or the kitchen. I drew the bath, filled it with bubbles, and cleaned up the kids. I threw a kids movie on the TV to occupy the flour fiends so I could begin work on tidying the kitchen.

In Isaiah’s throne room vision in Isaiah 6 - the passage of scripture that my tattoo sleeve is based on - Isaiah found himself in the same position as my kids: fully aware of his uncleanliness. In Isaiah’s case, he is referring to the mess and uncleanliness of sin in the presence of a Holy God. He realizes that there really isn’t anything he can do to clean himself up. His only response is one of despair (“I am ruined!”) and to throw himself at the mercy of God.

God’s response to encountering Isaiah’s uncleanliness in his presence is noteworthy, perhaps for what he doesn’t do.

Depending on your tradition growing up, you may have heard about how God cannot stand the sight of sin in his holy presence; that he hates sin, and wants to smite it should he encounter it. This version of God would lash out in anger at Isaiah for uncleanliness; how dare Isaiah pollute his holy temple with his sinful presence?! He could have also told Isaiah to leave his presence, to clean himself up, to deal with his sin and “unclean lips,” and then come back to his presence, but God doesn’t do either of those things. God’s response to Isaiah’s uncleanliness and mess of being sinful is to move towards him. Let’s look at the next verse:

"Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'” - Isaiah 6:6

God is the one who purifies Isaiah. It is his actions that make him clean and deal with his sin. Later on in scripture we see Jesus continuing this posture towards sinful, broken, people - he spends time with them, he touches lepers, he eats with sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes - all the people that the religious leaders didn’t want to be close to.

For many people, they are legitimately terrified to show up at a church. I have had numerous conversations with people who say things to me like, “You wouldn’t want me to show up at your church - I’d totally be hit with lightning the moment I walk in!”

They have been taught a version of God that hates them and who wants to lash out at them for being broken and sinful. The reality is that in scripture we consistently see God move towards broken, sinful, people, not away from them. It is only God who can make them clean, and yet as believers, we can sometimes fall into the trap of religion that teaches that it is up to us to clean ourselves up. And only once we have sufficiently cleaned ourselves up (stopped smoking or drinking, changed our language, fixed our marriage, and dealt with that pride issue), then we are welcome to encounter God.

My tattoo sleeve reminds me that it is not my own efforts that makes me clean. It is God’s grace meeting me in my sin that does. This is the good news: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” - John 3:16-17

Let’s commit to being a church that welcomes the broken, sinful, hurting world into a community of faith where they can experience the presence of a loving, gracious God who makes them clean.