If I ask you why you came to worship today, you might say, “I would like to get close to God,” “I want to experience God’s presence,” or “to see the Lord in His sanctuary.” These are good reasons and the right reasons for us to gather here. But have you ever heard of someone come to worship crying out, “Lord, I am a sinner; depart from me!” or saying that I will die in God’s presence. None of us here have experienced such a reaction, and it’s foreign to us, yet, in the biblical accounts, that is actually a normal response.

Look at Isaiah, one day he went to the temple, probably on an ordinary Sabbath. He may have expected a nice service with some meditation and prayer time. There was nothing special and nothing too difficult. But suddenly, he was gripped by an awesome vision of God and fell to the ground. He saw God’s throne, caught a glimpse of the fullness of God’s glory, and witnessed supernatural beings flying around singing praises to God. The sound was like a thunderous surround sound that shook the temple pillars, and he gasped for breath. “Woe is me!” he groaned. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!”

Today’s scripture is well-known as the passage in which Isaiah is called to be a prophet. But, before this passage, he had seen visions shown by God, heard God’s voice, and prophesied. He was already active as a prophet. Yet today’s scripture makes it sound like he is seeing God for the first time.

Here we reminded Job’s story. After all that suffering, when Job finally came face-to-face with God, he made this powerful confession: “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you” (Job 42:5). Unlike before, that direct, personal experience allowed Job to know and understand God in a completely new way truly. And Isaiah had a similar experience. He used to know God only indirectly and from a distance, but now he perceived God vividly, up close and personal.

The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, also had a similar experience. He was a priest and missionary in the Anglican Church. He believed in God more than anyone and was a faithful follower. However, on May 24, 1738, he finally had an experience of God ‘warming his heart’ through the movement of the Holy Spirit.

Yet, Isaiah’s response upon encountering God was one of despair, crying out, ‘Woe is me! For I am lost.’ In fact, the Bible contains many stories of people encountering God. Like Moses, who, when he met God in the burning bush, was so afraid that he had to take off his sandals and cover his face (Exodus 3:6). This connects with the story of Peter, who, upon meeting Jesus, immediately said, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’ (Luke 5:8). Today’s story of Isaiah resonates with these encounters.

Not only that, Saul, who was in a position of worldly authority, he heard the voice of the risen Lord on the road to Damascus and fell to the ground. The response of those who met God is invariably one of being overwhelmed in the presence of the Creator, higher than the mountains and greater than the heavens, unable to bear standing before Him with their small existence, feeling as though they are being annihilated. The Scripture always describes this overwhelming experience of God as an ‘experience of dying to oneself’. Therefore, the Scripture depicts meeting the Lord or hearing His voice as a call to new life because it opens up a new horizon of living in relationship with the Creator, moving from the past of clinging to ‘self’ and living ‘without God’.

So anyone who encounters God can move to the next step, like Peter, Paul, and Isaiah. They can offer themselves to the burning coal, and the healing touch, God’s gracious gift of forgiveness. We can allow ourselves to be transformed. The Scripture defines such a life with God as a “calling” or “mission”. We tend to think of a ‘calling’ as doing something impressive, but in the Scripture, the call is twofold – to hear God’s word and to share that word with others.

“Whom shall I send?” God asks using rhetorical expression.  In response, Isaiah raises his hand and shouts, “Here I am! Send me!”, God sends him on a speaking tour that is destined to fail completely. Peter, on the other hand, is told to be no longer be afraid but to start catching people. But the outcome is not what matters. As stated in the ‘transfiguration community’, “All we are asked to do is to try; the rest is not our business.” What matters is that through an encounter with the love of God, we are turned around and sent to share this good news of this love with others.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the quiet of the night, away from other’s eyes. During their conversation, Nicodemus has much to learn.  About the Kingdom of God, being born again, and that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Jesus does not force Nicodemus’s agreement on any of this.

Instead, He explains that God so loved the world that He sent His Son to give more life, not to condemn, but to save, liberate, and heal. For Nicodemus, this was a radically different understanding of God that challenged and flipped his previous way of thinking about God. Jesus was not proclaiming a punishing God. Instead, He was asking Nicodemus and us to change our image of God from one of fear, judgment, and death to one of love, life, and healing.

Let’s listen to Jesus’ words with care once more, in a thoughtful interpretation: ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever gives their heart to him shall not wither away but shall have a full and flourishing life. For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn, but that the world through him might be healed and made whole.

Once again let’s back to the above question: Why do we come to Sunday worship service? Well, I still believe it is because we seek an encounter with God. Worship is our calling. We confess our sins, receive forgiveness, and listen to God’s word. Since worship and service are never-ending, we must accept this mission and put it into practice.