The Mystic Way
Isaiah 6:1-8
Isaiah was just a young man that day of his calling. Everything was changing so
fast. He was priest now, assigned to the temple, not because of experience of skill but
his family had the right connections. The old king had died. People were vying for
places of power with the King and even in the temple the politics were part of the
game. It was high holy day when one priest would be chosen by lot to enter the inner
sanctum, the Holy of Holies. The lot fell to the young Priest.
Isaiah entered the temple court after the morning ritual of purification. He was in
awe that he had been chosen. Through the outer court he could hear the conversation
pause as he walked by. As he passed into the 2nd court the older men nodded their
acknowledge, men who the day before wouldn’t have even noticed him. He felt the
tension building. He pause as he entered the court of the priests. Here it was all
business. The High Priest was at the great alter. The smells for the burning sacrifice
filled his lungs. Up the stairs, slowly one step at a time. The sun had rose to the east,
on his right, casting long shadows over the temple porch. He could hear the chanting
of the others. The light, the sound, smell filled his senses.
He paused at the top of the stair recited the appropriate psalm and stepped in the
shadow of the temple. The coolness met him as he moved forward through the porch
into the Holy Place. It was all overwhelming: the incense and smoke, the flickering
torch light, the sun shining through the smoke, rays of light crossing the room from the
east. The attending priest moved aside as Isaiah approached the entrance to the inner
Sacrum of the Holy of Holies. This room held the presence of God on Earth. It was an
extension of the Throng of God. He slipped through the heavy curtain and stepped
fully into the room.
Immediately his vision blurred. The smoke swirled across the floor. The chanting
behind seem to swell with the smoke. The rays of light shining through the high
windows hid the ceiling from his sight. He stood somewhere between reality and
mystery. In his altered state vision the smoke formed in falling robes. The voices sang
the once familiar words Holy Holy Holy but no longer coming from behind him rather
the sound filled the room. He stood in the presence of the Holy God, he stood before
the throng of God. He fell to the ground. He collapsed into himself.
Isaiah’s experience is one of the many related in the biblical record. He was
transformed into an alternate state. And despite uniqueness of the context the mystic
experience is not so uncommon. Elijah experiences the presence of the Holy in a
cave. Moses has his mystical experience before a burning bush. Jesus encounters
God in the wilderness during the 40 days. Paul encounters the Risen Christ on the
Road to Damascus. Then there was Ezekiel and his wheels and bones and Samuel hearing the voice of God. Such experiences are not exclusive to the Biblical record.
The so called saints over the centuries have recorded their own experiences and within
over religious traditions the experience is present. Mohammad, Buddha, Zoroaster,
founders of their traditions all began with a mystic experience. But not just great
religious figures but the ordinary folks as well. I believe that every one of us have
experienced the touch of God’s presence. Maybe we didn’t even recognize it but it
was there.
All religions begin with mystery. “Who are you?” Moses asked with honest
confusion. He wants to understand the mystery. “Woe is me” Isaiah cries out for to
experience this awe inspiring presence burns you to the soul. He is overwhelmed,
losing himself. Elijah cover his face full of awe and fear. In the mystic experience we
loose our self. We connect with more, with all, with true self. The whole of the cosmos
is available to us though the holy Presence of God. This is the beginning of insight,
wholeness, honest encounter with God and self. And it is Grace.
Grace because such experiences are not earned or even gained by correct spiritual
practices. Our religious rituals are more about connecting us as community. While our
worship is also about preparing and teaching our souls to be prepared for the
experience. When we are taught the language of spirituality in our worship life then we
are more likely to identify the deep experiences when they occur. Having said this it is
also true that music, prayer, and maybe even good preaching can draw close to the
divine that you may experience. But in the end the true experience of God is a gift.
Most Spiritual practices and good worship is about getting out of the way of
ourselves. Putting aside our ego constructs so that we can connect with the holy one
who already dwells within us. Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again, or born
from above. Jesus is trying to get him to see that to encounter God, to be pulled in the
presence, you must get past all of the stuff you have gathered around your soul
through your life. “If you want to enter the kingdom of God you must be like a little
child.” Approach with no ego agenda. Like young Isaiah overwhelmed by the
experience, was choose by the Grace of God on that day, humble before the
experience. It is not our ego selfs that connect with God but our true self stripped of
ego achievement and goal. We need to get out of our own way.
One of Christianity’s theological mysteries is the Trinity. Many years of studies and
effort has been expended on explanations and descriptions. This is Trinity Sunday so
it is appropriate to jump in. The Trinity is sometimes explained as three aspects of the
God experience. In God incarnated, Jesus Christ we are in relation with the Divine. In
God Spirit, it is God within us, and we are empowered by God. In God Creator, or
Father, we are children of the Creation. The explanations could go on and on.
Different theological perspectives place more emphasis on the aspect of the Trinity.
Some traditions focus on Jesus and relationship almost exclusively. Jesus saves is the
defining theology. Some traditions it is all about the Holy Spirit and demonstrating the presence of the Spirit in one’s life is critical too belonging. Some traditions have the
theological priority of God as Creator, and focus becomes God out there, outside of us,
and as a power within Creation, wisdom and knowledge are priorities over relationship
and action. There may be an emphasis on Knowing about God rather than
experiencing God. Any one focus exclusively, leads to an imbalance of our spirituality.
Relational, Empowered and Understanding, as God’s people we need each aspect.
This is the beauty of the Trinity.
Empowerment without wisdom leads to disaster. Relationship without the other two
leads to an exclusion of others because your personal relationship becomes the only
way. Wisdom and knowledge without empowerment or relationship becomes pointless
like spinning wheels on an icy hill. The Trinity then becomes a spiritual corrective for
the human habit of focusing one way. It is a spiritual practise that invites into
relationship and action.
Isaiah experiences the awe inspiring presence of God. He is clearly transformed by
the experience. “Woe is me. I am an unclean man.” Yet in his experience he is
touched on the lips by a coal from the alter and made clean, and whole. Perhaps his
ego fears are burned away. And in this way he is ready to say: “Here I am, Send me.”
Wisdom is shared with him in the following verses as he is told what to say to the
people. This is a balanced, although intense spiritual experience. He is empowered to
act, he has a personal experience of the divine and he is given wisdom to move
forward in action.
The Trinity is not something to explain in some dry thesis rather it is Spiritual
mystery to help us in our journey with God in the world. Sometimes the Spirit must
break through our stubborn egos to touch us with experiences beyond our rational
minds capacity to understand. Sometimes it might be an awe inspiring experience of
Creations glory. Sometimes it as simple as the appearance of one of God’s creatures
in a precise and particular moment, or a sudden incite, or arrival of a friend at a time of
need. There is mystery around us, all the time, if we but open our hearts and eyes to
the wonder. Like a child seeing something new for the first time. There are miracles all
around us if we just have the wit to look for them.
The smoke, and incense, the sun beams into the holy room, the chants from
outside, the deep tradition that offered him expectation all conspired to draw the young
Isaiah into the presence and after that he was never the same. And if we open our
hearts we will never be the same either.
Isaiah 6:1-8
6:1 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.
6:2 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.
6:3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory."
6:4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.
6:5 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!"
6:6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.
6:7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."
6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!”