During one of the first days of Introduction to Homiletics class in seminary, my professor, Anna Carter Florence, looked at our class and said, “The day that you are not nervous before you are leading the Lord’s people in worship is the day that you need to quit!” Those words have often stuck in the back of my mind on Sunday mornings as I walk from the pastors’ bench in the transept toward and up the steps to the chancel. I am a man of unclean lips who lives among a people of unclean lips, and God has called me to lead these people in the holy act of worship.
The juxtaposition of Isaiah’s view of himself (and my own view of myself) as a person who is sinful and unworthy with the fact that God still calls us to be people whom He can send is one of the most beautiful images of grace that exists in the words of Scripture. Many of us tend to see ourselves in one of two lights: as either greater than we are or as much more depraved than we actually are. God is able to take the things about us that are broken and use them for great purpose, even as He is able to humble us in the moments when we begin to think much more of ourselves than we should.
Though Isaiah answered the Lord’s call with those simple, heartfelt words, “Here am I. Send me!” we need to remember that he was aware that it was only through God’s actions that he was made clean of his sin. The seraphim’s action of touching the prophet’s mouth with a live coal cleansed Isaiah in a way that was impossible for him to accomplish through his own attempts. Even though I am unworthy, God’s grace through Jesus Christ makes me worthy. Even though I am a man of unclean lips, the blood of Christ makes me able to stand before our congregation and lead, though I do continue to feel at least slightly nervous each Sunday.