Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany
Isaiah 6:1-13
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."
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and
the house filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am
a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my
eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been
taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth
with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has
departed and your sin is blotted out." Then I heard the voice of the LORD
saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am
I; send me!" And he said, "Go and say to this people:
'Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.'
Make the mind of this people dull,
and stop their ears,
and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and comprehend with their minds,
and turn and be healed."
Then I said, "How long, O LORD?" And he said:
"Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is utterly desolate;
until the LORD sends everyone far away,
and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.
Even if a tenth part remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak
whose stump remains standing
when it is felled."
The holy seed is its stump.
