What is it like to encounter God? “It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God,” wrote the author of the letter to
the Hebrews. “He walks with me and he talks with me,” says a popular hymn text.
Which is it – utter terror or buddy Jesus? A lot has to do with one’s course of
life and frame of mind. The Hebrews author is describing someone who willfully
persists in sin. The hymn text has a resurrection setting “in the garden.” As
usual, there’s truth in both; the presence of God brings terror as well as joy.
Isaiah’s encounter with God comes under the fearful
category. A king of Judah who had reigned over fifty years had just died, and no
one knew what would come next. To the north, chaos had overtaken Israel. In the
midst of this uncertainty, Isaiah was serving in the temple. There he had a
vision. He saw himself in God’s throne room, where fiery seraphim flew about
and everything was shaking. Smoke filled the place. Isaiah knew that he could
not see God and live, so he cried out in fear. One of the seraphim then took a
live coal and seared his lips, cleansing them from all the sinful words he had
spoken. Then when God called for a prophet, Isaiah was able to say: “Here am I;
send me!”
Nicodemus’ encounter with God was more straightforward
but still disturbing. He met God in human form as Jesus Christ, although he didn’t
know it. He realized that there was something unusual about Jesus but couldn’t
quite put his finger on what it was. His fellow Jewish leaders were skeptical,
so Nicodemus visited Jesus at night when he wouldn’t be seen. The interview
didn’t go very well. Right from the start Nicodemus got lost in Jesus’ words,
taking him literally rather than figuratively. It didn’t help when Jesus used a
word that could mean spirit or wind or breath, and Nicodemus consistently choose
the wrong meaning. He left confused and chastised yet well aware that there was
something greater here than he could comprehend.
The Apostle Paul was knocked off his feet when he
encountered the resurrected Christ on a Damascus road. It took him three days
of nothing but blind thinking to get his big head turned around toward God.
Three days for the Spirit of God to penetrate his stubborn wrong-headedness
until it finally tapped the depth of spirit within him. When Spirit talked to spirit,
Paul could say at last, “Abba! Father!”
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. It is sometimes described disparagingly
as a celebration of a doctrine, but I think of it as celebrating three ways of
encountering God, three ways of knowing God. All of them are necessary.
Isaiah’s encounter with the powerful, transcendent, and holy God magnifies our
smallness and sinfulness. Nicodemus’ encounter with the God-in-flesh challenges
us to think and grow in ways we could not have imagined. Paul’s encounter with
the Spirit of God shows us depths we did not know existed, places closed to us
because of our own blindness.
Encounters with God are life-changing. Isaiah became one
of the greatest prophets. Nicodemus the Pharisee helped bury Jesus. And Paul
changed the face of Christianity. Three encounters in three ways – yet one
response, summed up by Isaiah: Here am I; send me. In whatever way we encounter
God, Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, that is the response God waits for. It is as
simple as that. Here am I; send me.
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