Let me begin with a test: When you hear a truck backing up, making a beep-beep-beep sound ... do you see the beeps as a series of red dots? When you look at a string of numbers, do you experience the "5s" as being a different COLOR than the "2s"? In your experience, do circles SMELL different than squares, and do sour foods SOUND different than sweet foods?

If you answer "yes" to any of these, don't worry: You are not losing your mind. Nor are you a victim of a mix-up in your medications. Instead, it is far more likely that you are experiencing "synesthesia," an ability that is unusual ... but also really quite amazing.

It's pronounced "sin-es-thee-sia." Use the word in casual conversation, and you'll delight and impress your friends and colleagues. Tell them, "I was looking over the monthly spreadsheet, and my synesthesia caused the numbers appear in a rainbow of colors."

They'll either be impressed ... or they'll hustle you down the hall for drug testing.

Synesthesia is an expansion of our everyday sensory perceptions. It's an experience in which one type of stimulation creates the sensation of another, such as when the hearing of a sound results in the seeing of a color. Although this blending of different senses is unusual, it is not a disorder, and the majority of people with synesthesia are glad to have the ability. It can sharply improve their memory, and it may even enhance their creativity. According to The Washington Post, synesthesia is seven times more common among artists, novelists and poets, and it helps their creative work. (Shankar Vedantam, "When Sound Is Red: Making Sense of Mixed Sensations," The Washington Post, October 14, 2002, A12)

Now it is hardly a news flash to say that people experience life in different ways. We all know that young people have different perceptions than older people, and women see things differently than men. Women love Valentine's Day, for instance, and they cherish the romance of it. Men wish that it would move from February 14 to February 29, so that it would occur only on Leap Year.

I'll say more about men in a minute ... after all, it is Father's Day. But the challenge for us today, whether we are young or old, male or female, is to expand our perception of who God is, and what God wants us to do. We can do this through synesthesia spirituality - spirituality that goes beyond our normal expectations.

The prophet Isaiah may have experienced some synesthesia when he entered the temple in Jerusalem. He walked into his place of worship, and there he encountered the awesome reality of the Lord in sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. He SAW the Lord "sitting on a throne" (Isaiah 6:1). He HEARD one seraph call to another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts" (v. 3). He SMELLED the smoke that filled the house of the Lord, and FELT the pivots on the thresholds shake (v. 4). He even TASTED the live coal that the seraph put on his mouth to blot out his sin (vv. 6-7).

Talk about sensory overlap. Talk about expansions of everyday perceptions. Talk about synesthesia spirituality!

This is a much more sensational encounter with God than most of us experience on a given Sunday in church. Our perceptions of the Lord are usually on the level of quiet stirrings, not thundering spectacles. And yet, we cannot dismiss the experience of the prophet Isaiah, a man who grasped the truth of God's power and purity and grace and love through his expanded sensory perceptions.

If truth be told, we all HUNGER for this kind of experience. We would love for God to crack open our normal worship and let us see, hear, feel and taste his glory!

Our problem today is not that we grasp too much of God, but that we experience too LITTLE of him. In America these days, God is seen as marching in step with our political parties, and with our national interests. God is understood to desire our prosperity, and to support the enlargement of our territories. God is perceived by most of us as a calming presence, a supportive friend, and a healing helper -- all of which work together to maintain the status quo.

But if we practice synesthesia spirituality, as Isaiah did, then we discover a Lord who is extraordinary, not ordinary. He is holy, high and lofty -- on a throne, lifted up. He is far above all political parties, and much more pure and perfect than any human institutions. The one true God cannot be shoehorned into a particular program, or forced to get in line with our national interests.

In fact, the exact opposite is true: Instead of getting God in line with us, we should be working to get ourselves in line with God.

When we enter God's presence, and see God face to face, it is difficult to feel completely satisfied with our political and personal desires. More often than not, we feel rather selfish and sinful and dirty, and we know exactly what Isaiah was going through when he said, "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips" (v. 5). Unclean lips is right. And a lot of other unclean body parts as well.

Fortunately, our Lord of power and purity is also a God of grace and love. Isaiah was given a taste of a burning coal in the temple, and this experience removed his guilt and blotted out his sin. The very same gift of forgiveness is given to us when we honestly confess our sins to God. Whether our guilt has come from gossip or greed, cheating or corruption, adultery or alcohol abuse or out-of-control personal ambition, our Lord offers us the gift of forgiveness and new life.

It's an amazing gift. One that can never be earned or achieved or deserved. One that I certainly feel a need to claim for myself, each and every day. But this gift of God's forgiveness isn't designed to protect the status quo, to expand our prosperity, or to enlarge our personal territory. Instead, forgiveness sets us up for service to God.

That's an important point to take home: Forgiveness isn't supposed to simply help us. It's to set us up for service to God.

The voice of the Lord called to Isaiah, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And Isaiah said, "Here am I; send me!" (v. 8). Isaiah knew that forgiveness freed him to go in a new direction, not to return to his former ways. New life was being given to him so that he could serve the Lord, and so he offered to go in whatever direction God would send him. He went on to become one of the greatest of the prophets, speaking God's word to a troubled, corrupt and sinful society.

What do you think God has forgiven YOU to do?

I want to close with a focus on the men of the church, men who may struggle to figure out just exactly what their Christian mission is. I want to speak to men who have a distinctive view of the world - you know, men who wish telephones would automatically cut off after 30 seconds of conversation ... who wish garbage would take itself out ... who wish military tanks would be available to rent.

Come on. You guys know who you are.

On Father's Day, I think we men can admit that we experience life and work and Christian faith very differently from women. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It's synesthesia spirituality. We are all going to experience the Lord in different ways, and we are all forgiven by God so that we can perform some very different types of missions.

So here is my challenge to the men: Let's embark on a brand-new and exciting mission project together. Something that has never been done before. Something that will take us to an exotic part of the world together. Something that will be an adventure, and that will require some really cool tools and equipment. Something that will go beyond our normal expectations.

I'm not kidding about this. In the next year, I would like to take a group of Midlife Men on a Mission. To Brazil. Or Guatemala. Or Ghana. Or Belarus. Someplace exciting. Someplace in need. There is really no limit to where we can go, or what we can do. A friend in Connecticut may be able to get us a plane, and I am sure that each man who is interested in this project will have something very important to contribute.

So speak to me after today's service and congregational meeting. There are absolutely no limits to how we can experience God, and no limits to what we can do as we follow him in mission.

It's all about the expanding of our perceptions. Synesthesia spirituality. Amen.

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