R.S.V.P. Sometimes it is interesting to take a biblical passage and just go through it line by line, letting the sparks fly out. This is the way I have opted to deal with today's first reading. Isaiah is one of the prophets who has given us an account of a turning point experience in his life. Some of his imagery will seem strange to us. But if we can get behind it there is something powerful here to which we can relate as well as a piercing word to us in the here and now.

Listen! Isaiah begins: "In the year that King Uzziah died." That is the date of his experience. That year is 735 B.C. That is the date. But saying it the way he does the prophet gives us much more than a date. Uzziah had leprosy and a regent ruled in his stead. The prevailing piety regarded leprosy as a sign…