By Aileen Lawrimore
“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. 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. And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.’”
Isaiah 6:1-3
“In the year King Uzziah died ….” Remember the year? It was an awful year. For the people of Judea, it was the year King Uzziah died. King Uzziah had been such a great king. During his reign, they were prosperous and peace ruled in their land. But when he died — well it felt like all hope died with him.
What year was it for you?
“In the year the shuttle crashed ….”
“In the year of September 11 ….”
“In the year of the Sandy Hook ….”
Or is it more personal?
“In the year my mother/father/sister/brother died ….”
“In the year of my divorce ….”
“In the year my favorite teacher died ….”
It’s the year hope dies. The year that what was, is no more. It’s the watershed moment: when everything before and after is defined by that moment. Everyone get’s it when you say it. They nod, knowingly, as if to say, “Oh, that year. Yeah. That was awful.”
“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.”
I wonder what Isaiah was thinking when he went into the temple. Was he thinking, “I’m so great — righteous really — that I will lead the wretched ones out of their despair into God’s Glory (amen).” That is, was he full of himself? Or — was he empty? Did he go to the temple thinking, “I’m not up for this. My hope is gone. How can I lead the people of God into his glory?” We can’t know what he was feeling, but we know this: Isaiah went to the temple.
Nearly seven years ago now, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2009, I arrived at Gardner-Webb divinity school for class and learned that one of our professors, a man younger than I, had passed away. Soon after I learned of his death, I heard we would be having a chapel service in a few hours.
It was a terrible day: a day of shock, confusion, grief. It was that day: the day you got the test results and the news was bad; the day you got rejected; the day when you expected good news, but were devastated instead. It was that day.
But, just as Isaiah went to the temple, I went to the chapel. By grace, I was not met by the fearsome vision that Isaiah beheld. But I did see God there. I saw God in the tear-stained faces of my godly professors, struggling as we were to make sense of this tragedy. I saw God in the hunched forms of students, embraced by other students. I heard God in the stories, the testimonies, the music. God filled up that chapel.
In the year king Uzziah died, Isaiah went to the temple. And despite his despair, Isaiah saw God there. But Isaiah did not stop with that one visit to the temple. Isaiah kept going back. Sometimes, he surely felt the full presence of God’s glory. Sometimes, though, I bet he came away with little more than a meal plan for the upcoming week. Still, he kept going back to the temple, going back to worship. And somehow, I’d say miraculously, he found his way out of the darkness of grief; he found his way back to hope.