"In the year that King Uzziah died," begins our reading today from the Book of Isaiah. Honestly, I hear that and think, "Who was Uzziah and why should I care?" I know the name only because I've read this passage so many times.
Elsewhere in the Bible we read: "After the death of Saul, when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites." "In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus."
Over and over the Bible sets its stories in historical context, like you or I might date a letter May 31, 2015, or say to each other, "Where were you on 9-11?" We know that God enters into human history and that means God steps into political and social events.
So it is that Isaiah had a profound encounter with God in a time of great political transition. The King had died. Uzziah, as it turns out, had been king for 52 years –longer than any other king of Judah. He had brought to Judah economic prosperity and with it expanded international power and influence. The loss of such a leader would leave a nation in turmoil and confusion. The historical context matters.
In the midst of it all Isaiah had a vision of God. And what a vision it was. He saw the transcendence of God – God so vast and powerful that the hem of God's robe filled the temple. Angelic beings waited on God crying out, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts."
Isaiah knew himself to be so puny in comparison with God that he cried out, "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." In response to his confession, one of the angelic beings touched his lips with a live coal, saying, "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." Then Isaiah heard a voice saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isaiah said, "Here I am, send me."
The part of the story that we did not read this morning was the message Isaiah had to deliver. It was not a comfortable or a comforting message. To this people in turmoil because the only political leader most of them had ever known had died, Isaiah was to say, "Keep listening, but do not comprehend."
The circumstances were complex. Uzziah had brought prosperity and peace. It seems fair to guess that he was popular. Yet he had also forgotten he was only an earthly ruler. As so often happens to those who wield great power, he had lost the distinction between his power and God's. The people too had become self deluded and forgotten that God had larger purposes for creation than them. They were soiled, polluted by their own delusions of grandeur and their focus on their own comfort and ease.
Isaiah recognized his own unclean lips and that he lived among a people of unclean lips. The absolute purity of God terrified him, as if he wore muddy shoes as he stepped onto a white carpet. The good news he only barely grasped was that God's purity would cleanse him rather than his uncleanness staining God's purity.
There are so many ways in which we could join our voices with Isaiah's and cry out, "Woe are we! We are a people of unclean lips." Like the people of Judah we delude ourselves into thinking that our comfort and ease are more important than God's purposes for creation.
I am convinced that the most pressing issue of our day is climate change. Of course there are many important issues that merit our attention: racial tension, poverty, injustice in many forms. The one that overrides everything else is also the one about which we delude ourselves, especially those of us in this country: climate change. After all, weather patterns have always been cyclical. Rising sea levels are not likely to impact Idaho much. Animals and plants have been going extinct for millennia. And in the end, what difference does it make in the grand scheme of things if I drive to work or walk, if I turn down the air conditioning in my house on a hot day or bask in the coolness?
One way we delude ourselves is in our failure to understand the difference between short term climactic changes and long term ones. This past winter, those of us in the Western United States could easily accept global warming because we had such a mild winter. People on the Atlantic seaboard, however, might disagree, because they got so much snow. One year doesn't prove anything. The compelling evidence is that the average global temperature on this planet has increased by 1.4 degrees since 1880. 1.4 degrees does not seem like a big deal but it is enough to make a huge difference in the amount of sea ice that melts each summer in the arctic, to shift weather patterns, and to impact which crops do best in certain areas.
"Woe are we! We are a polluted people:" carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch made up of microscopic pieces of plastic; chemicals which flow into streams like our own Palouse River, and so much more.
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts; the whole earth is full of God's glory." How does a polluted people who have damaged the earth dare to approach the Creator God?
Isaiah's story and the good news of Jesus assure us that however polluted we may be, God enters our story. As God stepped into Isaiah's life after the death of King Uzziah, as Jesus was born during the reign of Caesar Augustus, so God steps into our context. God steps into the warming earth, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the muddy Palouse River. God's creation is amazingly resilient and a new creation is born each day.
"Your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out," comes the assurance. And still a voice asks, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for me?"
Yes, the earth is resilient, and yes, we must take seriously the call to clean up our act, to care for the gift of creation. We are to bear God's word in our own historical context of climate change. Sometimes the steps we take are small, as seemingly insignificant as those microscopic pieces of plastic swirling around in the Pacific. And yet each step makes a difference.
I see the people of this church doing their part: walking or biking when possible instead of driving; using permanent grocery bags instead of plastic which at best ends up in the landfill; eating locally grown produce instead of strawberries imported from Chile or California with thousands of miles of miles in their carbon footprint; reducing the amount of chemicals used on our lawns; recycling paper and aluminum and plastic milk jugs.
As a church we have installed double pane windows in several rooms, dual flush toilets in most of our restrooms, and nearly every light bulb is a low energy CFL.
There is always more to do, both as a congregation and as individuals. We still have lots of single pane glass in our church and much of the education wing has little insulation in it. We use lots of paper plates and cups.
I invite you this morning to make a commitment to do one more thing. This is between you and God and God's creation. You don't need to tell me or anyone else. Here are some more ideas:
• Use cloth napkins or handkerchiefs instead of paper.
• Plant a tree.
• Subscribe to the paper on line
• Carpool to church if walking or biking don't work.
• Use a fan instead of air conditioning on hot days
• Mulch your garden to reduce the amount of water it needs.
I invite you to take a moment now, in the silence of your hearts to make that commitment to God.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts; the whole earth is full of God's glory. Here we are, God, send us.