“And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!
Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.’ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’” — Isaiah 6:5-8
“The maid who kept the door said to Peter, ‘Are not you also one of this man’s disciples?” He said, “I am not.’ Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves; Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.” — John 18:17-18
“When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. …
“Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’” — John 21:9,12
Of late, I have grown acutely aware of the words falling from my lips.
The more hours of the day I spend in prayer, the more I fear what carelessly spills from my mouth the rest of the day, especially when I am lost in the false fires of worldly affairs.
Politics, particularly, brings out the worst in me – the more I swiftly mock or judge too harshly, the more unworthy and unclean my lips seem.
If even the seraphim cover their faces and feet before God, who am I to speak his name publicly or privately? Yet that is the incomparable mercy of the Lord. To those who truly say, “Woe is me!” He will forgive them, and with the burning coal of eternal fire will brand their lips clean.
Yet even when our lips are made clean, even when we truly believe, it is astonishing how unfathomable God remains to us. The prophetic visions found in the sacred scriptures often exceed our understanding.
For all the evangelists and apologists, pastors and preachers, politicians and pundits, theologians, philosophers, and poets – for the many words that slip from their lips – God remains beyond us.
“Si comprehendis, non est Deus,” says St. Augustine, “If you comprehend, it is not God.”
Yet, this has not stopped men from striving to comprehend the incomprehensible. Nor should it!
Did Moses fully comprehend the burning bush? Did Isaiah, Ezekiel or Daniel fully understand the throne of heaven they beheld in their prophetic visions? Did Peter, James or John truly grasp the Transfiguration of Christ atop that high mountain?
No, but they weren’t meant to fully comprehend – only to humbly obey by faith with hope through love.
Man was made to scale mountains whose summits remain beyond his reach, believing in a truth he himself could not have conceived. Yet, by striving for a peak he cannot achieve by his own steam, man comes to rely on God in the breach between the seen and unseen.
Though God is beyond compare, dizzying to all who have contemplated Him as the very source of all being, He has also given man an awareness in his woeful heart and soul that He is, was, and will always be – an awareness given by the most humble, human, familiar and familial imagery.
The other day, it came to me, as I prayed with unclean lips for undue mercy, the image of our Lord sitting by a charcoal fire, cooking little fish and unleavened bread, calling us to breakfast and asking, “Do you love me?” in equal measure to all the false fires of the denials we have said.
That is an image I can truly understand in my heart and soul – not of six-winged seraphim with burning coals from heaven’s altar searing lips clean – but the image of a friend, a brother, God made man, sitting by the fire and giving us our daily bread as He asks for our love and tells us, “Feed my sheep.”
That is the image that serves as the master key to unlock my understanding of what the early Church Fathers themselves had seen – that the burning coal touched to Isaiah’s lips was Jesus come to set us free.
That is the image that lets my lips say, “Here am I! Send me!”
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and is currently the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL, M-F 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances, as well as any feedback, please email [email protected]. Follow him on X @TheJoeyClark or watch the radio show livestream.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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