A Sermon on Isaiah 6: 1-8
There’s a lot of debate out in the world about heaven and hell. Strict Bible literalists will say there must be a hell, why else would the Bible speak of a place of burning and gnashing of teeth. I myself am a big proponent that much of the Bible is metaphor or at least visionary language since the ancient world did not yet have television and movies and IMAX. But one thing that someone said that really stuck with me from an author who was willing to go with a more literal reading of the texts of hell as being filled with fire is the role of fire in the Bible – just like the hot coal in this text – it seems like fire is generally not a tool for punishment – it is a tool for refining. Take the good wheat and separate it from the bad weeds; take the good ore and melt away all the impurities. Heaven and hell suddenly is not a place where people as a whole go, some to one and some to another, but rather, the fire becomes a place we may end up passing through and on the other side our lips and all the rest of us can be ready to do the work of God. And we have all – all of us in this place – have passed through fire.
“Woe, I am a person of unclean lips” – that is surely so, but my reliance on Jesus brings me through to the other side. I’m still not God, but I am ready to hear God. And sometimes I’ve had to walk through fire to get there.
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