Soren Kierkegaard tells a parable of a community of ducks waddling off to duck church to hear the duck preacher.

The duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly.

With these wings there was nowhere the ducks could not go, there was no God-given task the ducks could not accomplish. With those wings they could soar into the presence of God himself. Shouts of "amen" were quacked throughout the duck congregation. At the conclusion of the service, the ducks left, commenting on what a wonderful message they had heard -- and waddled back home.

Ahh! In the reading of today’s text we find a classic outline of right worship where it begins with praise, moving to confession, forgiveness and commissioning to a prophetic commissioning.

Isaiah experiences an unadulterated worship in the most awe-inspiring way. How is it that this can happen? That probably is a pastor’s heart desire - that each person in worship, including themselves, would have an Isaiah experience. And i say including themselves because it happened in 2 Chronicles.

Reminding me of 2 Chronicles 5:

The temple was finished and the arc of the covenant was in place. The people were finally able to give God a stable place in their lives. They found a place of order and a place of permanence. They came to celebrate God.

13 it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the lord, "for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever," the house, the house of the lord, was filled with a cloud, 14 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the lord filled the house of God.

How can we make ourselves into people who come in waddling and go out ready to fly? Would you like to have an experience in worship like Isaiah’s worship today – where the presence of God changes you?

Isaiah prophetic service

Isaiah’s, whose call to prophetic service came during an annual celebration of worship, encounter with God was so profound that afterward he could no longer see himself or his people in quite the same way. To Isaiah it seemed that the entire building shook with the presence of God.

But have you ever wondered about the others who were present during that same worship service? Did they have a similar experience to isaiah's? Did this act of worship affect how they viewed themselves? How they viewed God? How is it that two persons can hear the same music, the same prayers, the same sermon, and one of them be utterly transformed by the experience, while the other is unmoved?

Isaiah wrote in his prophecy what happened when he went to worship at the temple. He had a significant encounter with God.

What makes the service of worship a profound encounter with God for one and a routine ritual for another?

What happened to Isaiah needs to happen to us every time we come to worship.

Transition; but in the text today we can see that we can bring ourselves into a place of awareness of God’s presence.

Glad surrender :

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.

Isaiah has come into the presence of our holy God.

The hem of his robe is filled the temple. The hem of the robe – represents a place of a healing power, a place of awe. Remember the woman with an issue of blood thought if only she could touch the hem of his robe.

Walter Bruggemann in his Isaiah commentary says that the activity of the throne room in this text is one of glad surrender. I love that – glad surrender.

What does that mean glad surrender?
Carried things through the week

We are coming face to face with a holy God – we are glad to surrender the things that we carried throughout the week.

Glad surrender means that we come gladly surrendering ourselves to what God might want to do in the midst.

Leave our cares behind
Leave the noise behind
Leave our anxieties
Joke

I heard about a fellow who woke up feeling like one big wound. He immediately went to his doctor's office and said, "doctor, everywhere i touch it hurts. I touch my left shoulder it hurts. I touch my right shoulder it hurts. I touch my leg it hurts. I touch my head it hurts. I touch my chest it hurts. I touch my foot it hurts. Everywhere i touch it hurts. Am i dying?" after a quick examination, the doctor said, "i know what your problem is-your right index finger is broken."

For some of us life hurts all over – we come and we turn to God here in worship.

Take a moment
What are you leaving behind in your life?

Let’s take a moment to close our eyes and begin to think of the things that we carry here today. Let God’s healing presence flow through your spirit and give you peace.

Able to release it – order in our worship
You see we can come and do that because the order of worship allows us to do it. There is something about order that gives a place of rest. It allows us to enjoy and release the things that are going on in our lives. It is not about control or a need to know what is going on but it allows us to rest in God right here and right now.

And we come surrendering ourselves – gladly to God’s holiness to God’s grace and forgiveness. We come for comfort and truth and we come gladly surrendering ourselves. The room is filled with God. We come to sit in the midst of a holy God.

Sense of Isaiah
We are getting a sense of Isaiah and his understanding of God – God is holy. He comes with a reverence here to the temple. We come wanting to experience all that God wants to give us.

We are glad to do it. And in the midst we are free to hear and let God speak to us in the ways that only God speaks to us alone.

And in that glad surrender – we allow God an opportunity to enter into those places where we have had a week of chaos -- of disappointments – of our pain and sickness – too many things on our plate and we come surrendering all to a holy God.

In that place of glad surrendering, we begin to sort out our lives.
What does the events all mean?

In that glad surrender, we become aware of our need for God. We need God in the midst of our disordered lives. During the week, we may not see it but in worship we see it. It is a place of stopping and God’s presence brings us to it.

Isaiah sees it. He suddenly understands who he is. It dawns on him. He comes face to face with his own stuff.

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!"

Isaiah says in this NRSV, “woe is me! I am lost.’

In some translations, it says, “I am undone .” He’s come undone – unglued - unraveled – exposed.

Joke:

The elderly priest, speaking to the younger priest, said, “it was a good idea to replace the first four rows of pews with plush bucket theater seats. It worked like a charm. The front of the church always fills first now.”

The young priest nodded, and the old priest continued, “and you told me a little more beat to the music would bring young people back to the church, so i supported you when you brought in that rock ’n’ roll gospel choir. We are packed to the balcony!!”

“Thank you, father,” answered the young priest. “i am pleased that you are open to the new ideas of youth.”

“However,” said the elderly priest, “i’m afraid you’ve gone too far with the drive-thru confessional.”

“But, father,” protested the young priest, “my confessions and the donations have nearly doubled since i began that!”

“i know, son, but that flashing neon sign, “Toot ’n’ tell or go to hell,” just can’t stay on the church roof!”

Isaiah confesses – God’s spirit evokes it. He comes undone.

Holiness evokes it – Isaiah in chapter 1
God’s holiness evokes our very thoughts and we come face to face with our stuff.

That is what happened to Isaiah. In chapter 1, Isaiah condemns the sinfulness of the nation of Israel. And now he realizes his own sinfulness. He realizes that he is not better than the rest of his people.

Our smallness meets the greatness of God

God’s presence touches those places and in the midst we confess. We're talking about our smallness in the midst of God's greatness here. We're talking: "there's no way we can have this kind of encounter while continuing to entertain notions of our own grandeur here."

So we relinquish our need to be right, or to have control – our judging - the things that are born out of our ego – out of our own needs.

Not always a warm and fuzzy
It becomes a place of confession. It is not always a cozy place - God does not give us this experience for our pure enjoyment.

God’s holy presence transcends our own self-importance, our own superiority, our independence, our need for control and power and we cry, “woe is me.”

Confession is good for the soul – God knows this – even if we have a hard time with it.

Illustration:
I remember a time when i was doing some things in my church as a lay member – i was very active and loved the church. I remember something happened in one of my ministries where someone new in the church became involved in one of the ministries i began. She changed it all around and put it the way she wanted it, i was really offended.

I remember on Sunday in worship; i had this in my spirit and i began talking to God about it and saying to God if i have ever done that to anyone, to let me know. All of sudden God gave me an exact event that i did that to someone else. God gave me a truth right in the middle of the worship and after that i went directly to the person and spoke to them about it. It was about two years later that i recognized it but God began to open me to an understanding of my own sinfulness.

We become aware of the things that are keeping us from God.
The things that God is trying to do in us - we come and relinquish ourselves in worship and in the midst God fills our souls with truth.

Changes us

It is a transforming presence. Isaiah is changed – we are changed.

In his awareness, Isaiah recognizes God’s grace and mercy and he is changed. There is a change that happens that we can believe that a holy God is a God who calls us to a higher place of living, a place of freedom and in that freedom we are transformed to love more, to care more, to give more.

We love as God loves and give mercy as God gives mercy.
Illustration: suicide of a young man

I remember years ago a woman who i knew lost her grandson to suicide. Suicide leaves us feeling out of control, doesn’t it? For me it does. Why didn’t we see the signs? If we could have known, maybe this might not be. It is discouraging.

I attended the funeral service for this young man. It is sort of a glad surrender to God, isn’t it? We don’t know how to cope and what to do or say. It is all so disturbing. We sit and hope that we will get some relief in this place. We are sitting in the presence of God and we are all experiencing grief in a different way.

Maybe Isaiah was feeling a great loss of his known at the death of his king.

Suddenly as the preacher began to read the scripture passage titled God’s everlasting love (romans 8:38-39 esv)

For i am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our lord.

As the scripture passage was being read, the presence of God began to fill the room. It began to fill the people of the room – i know it. I began to praise God and all of these words of praise began to flow from my spirit and i sat praising God and the people in the service began to weep.

It happened just like that and i realized how in our time of grief and sadness, God comforted us in holiness – God filled our souls with his presence that we were moved. We became aware of our need for God – we couldn’t go it alone – we needed God.

We are changed with a greater understanding for God and humanity.

Closing:

Sometimes it happens serendipitously to us, purposeful for God. For no apparent reason or understanding God’s presence will manifest itself in a glorious fashion.

Worship is the one place where God can reach us

I want to tell you that worshiping God can go on anywhere but one day you are going to have an experience in worship that you will never forget. And you will realize how sacred and wonderful this time of the week is – not just for fellowship, not just for enjoyment and entertainment but in a real face to face with God.

We come and offer glad surrender to God of the things we are going through

In that surrender we come to an awareness that we need God – in all our attempts to tackle life our own way
- We need God – we come face to face with ourselves

We realize that in that place – God changes us – we are transformed

We no longer are the waddlers that waddled in but we are the ducks who fly with a transformed heart