We have come into the presence of the holy of holies. The powerful, almighty God is in his temple. In both Isaiah and the gospel of Luke, the initial response is the same. Fear, and an awareness of the need for forgiveness.

Isaiah encounters God in the temple and immediately becomes aware of his sinfulness. He said he has unclean and is surrounded by people with unclean lips. Peter, when the miracle of the catch was so great, he fell to his knees at Jesus feet and ask Jesus to leave him because he felt unworthy of his presence. Real encounters with God begin with respect. If we do not feel some conviction, I doubt it is a real encounter.

Proverbs 9:10 reminds us, “The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Not terror, that paralyzes instead of motivates. But fear, deep respect and awareness that we fall short. It is not a time to look around and attack or blame. It is a personal inventory of our lives. We meet the majesty and we fall to our knees, or we cry out to God that we know we fall short of his glory.

Of course, it doesn’t end there. But it does start there. We hope to format our worship service in the Isaiah 6 order of worship. We begin with our praise team. Our first song often points to the greatness of God. Then we confess. That is what Isaiah did next. After saying remorsefully to God, I am a man of unclean lips, God cleanses his lips.

Forgiveness and healing, words of assurance, follow the admission of guilt. Isaiah was healed with a symbolic burning coal. Peter was given assurance to no longer be afraid. Jesus was going to use his skills and his humility to make fishers of men. To find purpose in his sharing of the good news of freedom and forgiveness to others.

God asks Isaiah, who will go for me? And Isaiah said, “Here, I am send me.” He is saying yes to serve to share to speak.

This is who we hope to end our worship each week. We enter to encounter the holy God. We confess our sins. We are cleansed and healed and blessed to be a blessing. Not to hoard grace, but to give it. We enter to worship, we depart to serve.

So it is with prayer. We come to God and we confess where we fall short. We hear the words of forgiveness. Then we heed the call to act, to speak, to share in this good stuff we have received.

Today we heard from those who make prayer quilts and fidget quilts. What a gift to be wrapped in prayer. A reminder we are wrapped in the arms of love. The fidget quilts can give our hands something to do when our minds is unable to focus. What a gift to anyone with dementia or with someone on the spectrum.

Years ago when my mother died, my dear friend who is a priest in Philadelphia, sent me a prayer shawl that his congregation made and prayed over. Every time I wrap it around me I think of all those prayers. I hope this what others feel when they wrap the prayer shawls Lima folks have made.

I also have a quilt a church in Santa Fe, NM made for me. They put it on the piano and they came up during the service and prayed and tied a knot. It goes with me where ever I move.

The Bible gives us so many examples so prayer. So many teaching about prayer. Mostly, we are called to do it. Not simply talk about it, but do it. One of the main way I pray is through reading. Someone said, “When I pray, I talk to God. When I study, God talks to me.”

Prayer puts us in touch with the powerful God we worship. If prayer does not bring out humility in us, then I doubt we are talking to God. We are just listening to our own voice and calling that God.

Prayer is a way to encounter the God who loves us. When we pray, it changes us. It means you love the person sitting next to you. That is what prayer does.

We seek guidance in prayer. Yet it is not magic. It is never an excuse to put God’s name on what we want. Prayer takes time. It takes so much time. It slowly chips away at our biases and our defenses.

Prayer is a conversation and we often to don’t hear answers so we wait. Prayer can be a habit. A good habit. Something we commit to whether we see results are not.

Let us continue to prayer and to open our hearts and minds to the love of God. This can become contagious. As I said before, I can tell when someone has been hanging out with God. As Peter and James and John were weary. They had been trying so hard and not catching anything. Go into the deep, God said. They didn’t expect anything, but because they trusted God, they went out to appease him. And the rest is history.

Let’s cast our nets into the deep. The harvest is plentiful. The need for God is everywhere. The laborers may be few. But try one more time to go deeper, cast the net wider.

Let us pray and pray and pray. May it be so, AMEN.