Residue From a Stream of Blue-Speak

 

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord.  He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.  Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings.  With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!  The whole earth is filled with his glory!”  Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.  Then I said, “It’s all over!  I am doomed, for I am a sinful man.  I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips.  Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”  Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.  He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips.  Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”  Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people?  Who will go for us?”  I said, “Here I am. Send me.”  Isaiah 6:1-8

Isaiah’s overwhelming fright at the realization that he was in the presence of the God of his ancestors, the one called Yahweh, the one, true, living God, was overwhelming.  His first thought was I’m doomed!  His second thought was:  It’s that stream of blue speak from my own lips, and the whole culture around me; we’re filthy, and standing naked before the God who sees and hears everything.

God’s first reaction to this honest, unfiltered confession was to have an angel cleanse the sinner, and then challenge the sinner to go forward with cleansed lips. Those lips would not turn the air blue with his words anymore, but fill the air with words of purity, white as the driven snow, cleansed with crimson, like the blood of a lamb.  It was similar to what Jesus said to the adulterous woman the Pharisees brought to him for judgment and punishment.  They wanted blood on the woman, and a stain on Jesus’ record.  But Jesus said to start throwing stones if they had no sin in them.  They left one-by-one, and, once alone with the woman, Jesus said:  There’s nobody left to accuse you…go…and remember to live like you’ve been forgiven…because you have.[1]

Isaiah first impeached himself about the “unclean lips” thing.  But he got down to the rest of us quickly.  He said he lived in the middle of the rest of humanity that was just as vile.  It wasn’t just some false humility, or an aw-shucks momentary blush to lessen his own guilt.  He wasn’t saying I’m no worse than all these other people.  He was saying just the opposite…I’m NOT O.K.…and NEITHER are YOU.   If Isaiah were preaching that today, he’d have a hard time getting a hearing.  It seems like turning the air blue has gone viral.  As a culture, we’re not even civil anymore, we’re polarized and hurling insult, curse, and blame across the divding line.  It seems Isaiah had it right about his view of all humanity…we’re doomed!

And then…enter the Christ into the throne room of Heaven just days after the cross and tomb, carrying the hot, cleansing coal of his own blood, forgiving the guilt of “blue-speak”.  It’s not just our words, all the hate-stuff, and speech-bombs – it’s the source of our words, driven-out of our lips by the corruptness of our inner sinfulness.  And that’s been working endlessly at separating us from God, our Creator.  Today’s culture is a reflection of that blue streak of vitriol and violence.  And without Jesus, we are truly doomed!

For You Today

As Paul reminds us in his letter to the Roman believers, we must not copy the customs (or blue-streak-lip-language) of this generation…disciples of Jesus Christ are rather to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.[2]                         

That is what is right and pleasing in God’s eyes (and ears)!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] This is my interpretation of Jesus’ statements to the woman in John 8:10-11

[2] Romans 12:1-2

Going Out Into the Night

[i][ii]

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Now Jesus was deeply troubled, and he exclaimed, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me!”  The disciples looked at each other, wondering whom he could mean.  The disciple Jesus loved was sitting next to Jesus at the table.  Simon Peter motioned to him to ask, “Who’s he talking about?”  So that disciple leaned over to Jesus and asked, “Lord, who is it?”  Jesus responded, “It is the one to whom I give the bread I dip in the bowl.”  And when he had dipped it, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.  When Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered into him.  Then Jesus told him, “Hurry and do what you’re going to do.”  None of the others at the table knew what Jesus meant.  Since Judas was their treasurer, some thought Jesus was telling him to go and pay for the food or to give some money to the poor.  So Judas left at once, going out into the night.  As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him.  And since God receives glory because of the Son, he will give his own glory to the Son, and he will do so at once.  John 13:21-32

I always worried about that exchange of bread; Jesus dipped the bread into the bowl, gave it to Judas intentionally, and then John (an eyewitness) records Satan entered into him.  My mind goes to possibilities such as whether Jesus caused Judas’ fall.  Did Judas know what he was doing?  Was he somehow duped into betraying Jesus?  Was Judas just a pawn in God’s game? 

But all these questions work against free will.  At the moment Jesus held forth the piece of bread to Judas it was still an offer of friendship; one man holding forth the gift of sustenance to another.  On a deeper level, the bread was the symbol Jesus had used earlier…the bread of life, which was being offered; Jesus was saying, my life is in your hands, brother.  This makes receiving the bread truly, as Jesus’ friend, or falsely, as traitor, a ball that was still in Judas’ court.  When Judas took the bread with betrayal still in his heart, it opened the path to his soul for Satan to take charge.  Inviting that, Judas went out into the night.

The epilogue to Judas’ treachery could’ve been written differently had his heart been bathed in repentance for even thinking of selling Jesus to the religious leaders for 30 pieces of silver.  Later Apostle Paul would write about this moment taking place in the hearts of would-be followers of Jesus:

So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup.  For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself.  That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.  1 Corinthians 11:27-30

It gives a whole new perspective on the importance of communion to think in these ways about the possibility of our own connection with Judas when we treat God’s loaf and cup lightly. 

The opportunities are only two:

           ·      Life in the light of Christ

           ·      Death going out into the night.

For You Today

Sometimes “holy week” can turn our attention to details that miss the weighty center of what God is doing.  We can scurry around getting ready for the Easter parade, bonnets, colored eggs, and such, when the real target is eternal life.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[i] Title Image:   Judas being paid - Capella dei Scrovegni - Padua (Public Domain - via Wikimedia Commons)

[ii] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©