The red-roofed cathedral in Florence, Italy, is a truly awesome building. It has an enormous dome that is one of the largest in the world, and it can be seen for miles around. The builders of the cathedral wanted it to be a focal point -- not only for the city, but for the entire region.

How many of you have seen it? I think Karen Hammond was there just a few weeks ago.

When you walk into the cathedral, as my family and I did this summer, you are struck by both the tremendous size and the surprising simplicity of the interior. There are certainly a few statues and paintings inside, including one of Dante, the resident of Florence who was the author of The Divine Comedy. But, for the most part, the interior is quite plain, like our Sanctuary here at FPC.

All that changes, however, as you walk toward the altar area of the cathedral and look up. There you see a vision of heaven in the frescoes of the dome, high above your head. You look up at an enormous picture of Jesus passing judgment on the world, with saints and sinners, angels and demons, all around him.

It is a surprising and awesome sight.

Most interesting to me, however, is that the dome is divided into eight sections, just like our octagonal Sanctuary here. Our tour guide explained that the eight sections have a special meaning. Since everyone knows that a week has seven days, an eight-sided dome reminds us that life after death is an eighth day – an eternal day that we will enjoy with God in heaven.

When you walk into an eight-sided room, you are walking into a place that points you to heaven. The shape of the room itself is supposed to help you encounter God.

Last week, I started this sermon series on our Mission and Identity by stressing that we are a Community of Faith that is sent. You can see this line on the front of our bulletin cover, right under today’s date. But this first line raises a question, “What are we sent to do?” Today, I’ll begin to answer this question by talking about how we are sent to “Encounter the God who awakens, surprises and supports.”

Last week we were sent. This week we encounter.

The prophet Isaiah has a powerful encounter with God in today’s passage of Scripture. He walks into the temple in Jerusalem and sees something more surprising and awesome than the frescoes in the Florence cathedral. He sees the one Lord God, “sitting on a throne, high and lofty;” and the hem of his robe tills the temple. Fiery creatures called “seraphs” are all around the Lord, and they call to one another with the words of praise, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:1-3).

Our encounters with God here at FPC are not usually this visual, but they can be every bit as awesome. When our magnificent pipe organ comes to life, and we stand to sing a stirring hymn, I can certainly feel the presence of God in this place. In the words of our mission statement, we encounter the God who awakens, surprises and supports. On any given Sunday, we might be awakened by song of praise, surprised by a fresh insight in a sermon, or supported by a prayer request lifted up by a neighbor in a nearby pew.

Problem is, it can be hard to encounter God. Our sins and shortcomings and selfish actions can make us feel unworthy to be in God’s presence, and so we often enter this Sanctuary looking down, instead of looking up. We are like tourists who walk through the cathedral in Florence and never look up at the picture of heaven. We are like worshipers who come to this place and never discover that our eight-sided Sanctuary is a sign of eternal life.

The prophet Isaiah has this same problem in the Jerusalem temple. In the presence of a pure and powerful God, Isaiah can only feel that he is dirty and powerless. And so he says, “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!” (v. 5).

Isaiah begins his encounter with God by confessing his sins; by admitting that he is a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips. We do the very same thing when we confess our sins in worship every Sunday. Right after our opening hymn, we speak honestly to God about our sins and our shortcomings and our selfish actions. We admit that we are unclean, personally, and that we are part of an unclean culture. We ask for God’s cleansing, so that we will not have to stand before God in such a filthy state.

And what does God do? He would have every right to banish us from his presence. But look at what happens in today’s Scripture lesson: The Lord does not condemn Isaiah for his sinfulness. Instead, he sends a seraph to the prophet with a hot coal from the altar. The seraph touches Isaiah’s mouth and says, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out” (v. 7). Isaiah is not punished for his impurity, he is forgiven.

The very same thing happens to us. We are given the assurance of God’s forgiveness, and reminded that God has sent Jesus Christ to save us from our sins. In the words of today’s assurance, “Our lips and our lives have been made clean. Thanks be to God!”

This gift of forgiveness is God’s gift to you. It’s a pure gift, one you don’t have to earn or deserve. No matter what you have done, no matter how dirty you are, no matter how lost you feel, God is meeting you today with the gift of forgiveness and new life. God wants to awaken you to his purity and power, surprise you with his gift of cleansing, and support you as you seek to be his person in the world.

We encounter the God who awakens, surprises, and supports. That’s what our mission statement says, and that’s what happens here at FPC. It can happen any Sunday. It can happen at any moment. It can happen whenever you come into the presence of God.

I believe that these encounters can occur as easily in our Christian Education program as they can in our service of worship. I have certainly felt God’s presence in my Basic Bible class, when a church member has shared an insight that awakens me to a new understanding; an insight that surprises me again with the grace and goodness of God. I am sensing God’s presence this week in the response to David Bush’s upcoming class “Evolution for Christians.” After I wrote an essay on the subject for The Washington Post, hundreds of readers responded, and over a dozen non-church-members have signed up for the class. People are sensing that they can have an encounter with God in our Christian Education program.

And I cannot forget the sense of support that people get from our Christian Education classes and other small groups within the church. Just this past week, our church received a check for $15,000, to be used to set up an endowment for mission projects and Christian Education programs. It was given by a young woman, a former member, who felt such a sense of gratitude for what the classes and small groups at FPC had meant to her. “I have greatly benefited from the spiritual healing and growth I experienced,” she wrote in a letter, “and [I] hope to help the church create similar experiences for others.”

Here at FPC, we encounter the God who awakens, surprises, and supports. We do this as we enter this Sanctuary, with its eight-sided reminder of everlasting life. We do this as we face our awesome God, and as we receive his gift of forgiveness and new life. We do this as we experience spiritual healing and growth in Christian Education classes and small-group experiences.

We even have an encounter with God as we leave this place, and go out to be his servants in the world. That may sound odd -- to meet God as we depart -- but it is true. At the end of today’s Scripture, God thunders the words, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” The Lord does not want people to simply hang around the temple, feeling good about their experience in God’s presence. Isaiah understands what God is doing, and so he jumps up and shouts, “Here am I; send me!” (v. 8). Isaiah knows that he has been forgiven for a purpose – so that he can go forward to serve the Lord. He has been chosen by God not just for salvation, but also for service. He makes the same positive response that our nominees for church office have made – men and women who will be elected today to serve as elders, deacons, trustees, and members of the nominating committee.

This forms an important connection between last week’s sermon and today’s. Last week we learned that we are a Community of Faith that is sent. This week we learned that we are a Community that encounters God. And so a fitting ending to this sermon is the reminder that we encounter God so that we can be sent out in service.

We come to this place to encounter God. And now that we have been awakened, surprised, and supported, the best thing we can do is say, “Here am I; send me!” Amen.