06 1st Sunday after Pentecost Holy Trinity

            My friends, I greet you this morning in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Our lesson comes to us from the 6th chapter of Isaiah. 

            Happy Holy Trinity Sunday.  Did you know it was Holy Trinity Sunday?  Or do you know what Holy Trinity Sunday is all about?  I mean usually it is the one Sunday out of the year that we read the Athanasian Creed.  Although you don’t have to worry about it today.  Well, what is it about today that could be so important? 

            It has to do with how we talk about God.  So, you know the questions.  Who is God?  How do we know him?  What is he like?  These questions are nothing new.  And there are certainly many answers that are given to these questions.  Although not all of them are correct.  Here is one answer.  What do you think?  Cute movie, but is it where we want to go for an understanding of God?  Probably not. 

            Let’s try another one.  How many of you have seen this before?  Not bad.  It is certainly true.  There is nothing false about what is up there, but it seems to be missing something doesn’t it?  Maybe what we need is not so much a graph but an analogy.  How could we describe God?  I am sure that you have heard this one before right?  The apple has three parts the skin, the meat and the core.  Three parts one piece of fruit.  OK.  Maybe.  Then there is this one from St. Patrick.  Three leaves, but one plant.  This one I came up with on my own.  I am quite proud of it.  Three machines in one machine.  Copyright pending by the way.  And as good as these are there still seems to be something lacking.  I mean you can only take an analogy so far and then it doesn’t work anymore. 

            You see the struggle here is that talking about God can be a very difficult thing to do.  The trinity is a mystery to us.  We cannot understand it.  It is something that we believe on faith because this is how the scriptures talk.  C.S. Lewis described our ability to comprehend the trinity this way.   In a one dimensional world all you have are lines.  Everything is a line.  In a two dimensional world you get height, and length.  So you are no longer bound to a line but now you can have a square.  In a three dimensional world you add width.  So now you can have a cube.  But how does one explain a three dimensional object in a two dimension world?  It is almost impossible.  But that doesn’t mean it is not true.  But again we are back at the question of how do we talk about God?

            Well, Isaiah saw God.  It was the year 740 B.C., that is the year the King Uzziah of Judah died.  Isaiah sees God.  And notice how he describes God.  He is seated on a throne.  He is high and exalted.  The hem of his robe filled the temple.  He is not describing God the way we would describe people.  We don’t get a picture of what he looked like.  But we have a picture that tells us a lot about him.  He is high and lifted up, seated upon a throne.  He is above all of the creation.  He is King and Lord of all.  In those days the longer the hem of the robe, the better the king, or more powerful anyway.  So the description of God’s seat and location, the description of his robe and its length, these are all descriptions that tell us about God.  He is powerful.

            There are Seraphs in attendance above him.  Angels of some sort.  Whatever they look like they are pretty special creatures.  And they are calling out to one another saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”  Again we are not given a picture of what the Seraphs look like, we are given a picture of what they do.  They cry out this great cry.  This is the cry we join in we the pastor says, with angles and ark-angels we praise your name and join their unending hymn.  And everyone sings, “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might:  Heaven and earth are full of your glory.”  And at the sound of this praise the creation shakes before its creator.

            Wow.  What a picture.  It is truly awe-some.  Full of awe.  And what is Isaiah’s reaction?  Woe is me!  Isaiah finds himself in the presence of God.  The powerful and Holy God.  This is the one who, when the angels praise him, the foundations of the earth shakes.  And Isaiah says, “Woe is me!” 

            You see, Isaiah knows that he is a sinner.  And he finds himself in the presence of the king and creator of the universe.  He is standing before the one who is not just holy, but he is holy, holy, holy.  Thus Isaiah 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!”  It was understood that those who saw God could expect to die.  Because a sin does not last long in the presence of God. 

            Have you ever felt that way?  Have you ever wondered about how God feels about you?  Have you ever questioned where you stand with him?  Has the thought ever crossed your mind that you have gone beyond the limits of God’s grace.  That he doesn’t want to see you around.  That that sin I committed was too big, or too much.  Have you ever found yourself saying with Isaiah, “Woe is me.  I am lost, I am a person of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips?”

            So how does God respond to Isaiah. Poof.  He is gone.  No.  That’s not it.  Rather one of the Seraphs flies over and takes a live coal from the altar.  Now a coal on the altar would be there as the result of a sacrifice.  A life would be taken in the process of sacrifice.  And so this coal is taken.  And with it, Isaiah is cleansed.  The seraph says, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 

            Now you and I don’t find ourselves standing in the heavenly throne room of God, as Isaiah did, but we do stand before his altar.  And though hot coals are not placed on our lips.  We do receive bread and wine from this altar.  But it is not just bread and wine, for in with and under this bread and wine are the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

            And so in our eating of this bread and drinking of this wine we receive forgiveness of sins, everlasting life and salvation.  Because where there is forgiveness of sins there is also everlasting life and salvation.  This grace from God, this forgiveness that he pours out into our lives is not limited.  Nothing we have done or could do would be beyond this grace and forgiveness.  So if you have ever found yourself saying with Isaiah, “Woe is me.”  Know that when you come to this altar that you receive forgiveness in the same measure that Isaiah received it.

            So now we can add to our list of things that we know about God.  He is powerful.  He is holy.  He is king of all creation.  He is merciful and forgiving.  He is sending.  After Isaiah is forgiven he is sent to carry out God’s message to his people.  When you and I walk through those doors, we do not leave this place merely as people who are forgiven, but as people who are sent.  Sent to share the love of God with this world.  And we do this as we proclaim what we know about him with our words and our actions.

            You see when we ask the questions of who is God? How do we know him?  What is he like?  Though he is beyond our understanding.  We do know him in relationship.  He is Father.  Creator.  He gives us all that we need for this body and life.  He is Son.  Savior.  He died on the cross and rose again so that our sins would be forgiven and that we would have everlasting life.  He is Spirit.  Sanctifier.  He lives in us and with us.  He gives us faith and makes us more like Jesus.  These are three persons, but one God.  A mystery.  A mystery that we stand in awe of.  A mystery that we understand more with our hearts, than we do with our minds.  A mystery that we believe, because this is how God has revealed himself to us. 

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  And so let me leave you with one of my favorites.  This is an Icon.  It uses the story of when the three visitors came to see Abraham and announced that Sarah, you know that 90 year woman.  That she would have a baby.  It has been said that the visitors were the three persons of the trinity.  So we have this icon.  And here a picture does better than words, but let me point a few things out to you. 

            Though you see three persons the way they are spatially and the way that they are gazing, there is not one who is more important than another.  They are equal.  The one on the left is pointing one finger.  He is the first person of the trinity.  The one in the middle has two fingers, he is the second.  The one in the middle wears a red robe, which speaks to the blood that was shed.  The sacrifice that was made. 

            Behind the first person is a temple.  The house of God.  Behind the second person is a tree.  He died on a tree.  He shed his blood so that the sins of the world would be forgiven.  Behind the third person is a road.  For he is the one who walks with us on the road of life.  What we see in this picture is a picture of the relationship that our Triune God has with us.  As he relates to us as Father Son and Spirit.  So if you put this picture, with this chart.  I think we have a more complete picture.  And yet we are humbled by the mystery of the trinity.

            We know God in relationship.  He created us, saved us, sanctifies us.  He sends us out to be his messengers in this world.  To love and serve our neighbors so that through us they would know of his love.  May God bless you richly as you do this.  And Happy Holy Trinity Sunday.  Amen.