Session 17 · Isaiah 6:1-8
Worship: The Mystical Wonder
Why we shrink God, and what happens when we stop
Book reading: Chapter 17
In Chapter 17, Miller insists that Christian faith has a mystical side that cannot be avoided. He says God's wonder sits above formulas. In his telling, even the small portion of God a person can grasp is enough to hold the heart in awe. He also says that when people face great beauty they respond with terror or awe, and that this is why they try to shrink God down to a size they can manage. Isaiah 6 gives a picture of what that shrinking avoids.
Isaiah opens with a date: “In the year that King Uzziah died.” A king had died, and the nation was unsettled. Into that moment Isaiah says, “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.” Notice that Isaiah does not describe God's face. The robe alone fills the room. He sees only the edge of the glory and it is already too big for the building.
Then the seraphim. These creatures live in God's presence, yet each covers its face with two wings and its feet with two more. If beings who stand there constantly still cover themselves, awe is simply the right response. Their cry is “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” The word holy is said three times in a row. The doorposts shake and smoke fills the house.
Isaiah's reaction is not a warm feeling. It is terror: “Woe is me! For I am lost.” That is the other half of Miller's observation. Beauty at this scale undoes us. It is easy to see why a person might make God smaller. A God who fits in a formula never makes you say woe is me.
But the passage does not stop at terror. A seraph takes a burning coal from the altar, touches Isaiah's mouth, and says, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” God's holiness is the very thing that cleans him. Only then does Isaiah hear God's question, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” and answer, “Here I am! Send me.” Awe led to cleansing, and cleansing led to a life given away.
Most of us don't struggle with a lack of information about God. We struggle to stay still in front of what we already know. Today is a chance to let the passage be bigger than your explanation of it.
If you carry heavy, constant guilt that does not lift even after this passage, talk with a pastor or counselor. The coal in Isaiah 6 is God's gift, not something you earn by feeling bad enough.
Key idea
Awe in front of God's holiness is the right response, and in Isaiah 6 it leads to atonement and then to being sent, not to being crushed.
Questions to consider
- Miller says people try to shrink God because great beauty brings terror or awe. In what ways have you made God smaller or more manageable, such as by habit, formula, or keeping busy?
- Isaiah moves from woe to forgiveness to being sent. Which of those three do you spend the most time in, and which do you tend to skip?
Journal prompt
Describe a time you felt small in front of something beautiful, such as a mountain, a night sky, or a piece of music. What would it look like to let God be that big to you this week?
Practice
1. Find a quiet place and set a timer for 10 minutes. 2. Read Isaiah 6:1-8 aloud slowly, then read it aloud a second time. 3. Sit in silence for the rest of the time, with no list of requests. 4. When the timer ends, write one sentence about which line stayed with you.