1In 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. 2Seraphs 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. 3And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5And 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!”
6Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7The 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.” 8Then 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!”
Sermon: “Who Will Go For Us?”
I hope you had your Wheaties this morning, y’all, because today we’re going to ponder what is arguably the most perplexing and difficult concept in all of Christianity (don’t look so excited). It’s Trinity Sunday.
The Trinity has mystified the church since it became our primary way of describing God at the Council of Nicaea in 325 a.d.. It is understandably confusing to say that God is one-in-three. I’m not fantastic at math, but I’m fairly certain the Triune formula is the only time 1+1+1=1!
In our struggle to understand the Triune God in this way, we have often made a few mistakes.
The most amusing theories fall into what I like to call the “Food Edition of Understanding the Trinity”:
-God is an egg: the Father is the shell, the son is the yolk and the Spirit is the egg white. Sounds cute, right? But the problem is that the doctrine of the Trinity says God is three persons in one substance, not three separate substances, like a shell is made of something different than a yolk and an egg white. So, egg won’t work for us. That’s tri-theism, three gods, instead of monotheism.
-Next up in the Food Edition of understanding the Trinity, we have God as a sandwich. The Father is the bread, Jesus is the peanut butter (?) and the Spirit is the jelly. Yep, tri-theism again, and, honestly, can’t we all agree that God is more exciting than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?!
-And then we have an apple: the Father is the skin, Jesus is the flesh, the Spirit is the seeds. Tri-theism again, just like that egg.
-Finally, we have the very popular notion that God is like water. Water is one substance but can occur in three different forms: liquid, ice and vapor. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, unfortunately, this doesn’t fly because you’re not talking about what the water is, you’re talking about what it does. That is called modalism – that we experience God only as Father, Son or Spirit because those are the modes God works in. But the Trinity isn’t meant to describe the tasks of God – the Trinity describes the essence and being of God.
So, none of these really help us understand the Trinity. We can be like St. Patrick and use a clover to talk about God. (I’m pretty sure I actually did this in last year’s Trinity Sunday children’s sermon – shame, shame!) But again, we fall into what is called partialism – we split God into parts like a clover is split into three leaves. When we sing, “Holy, holy, holy…” we don’t sing, “God in three paaaarts, blessed Trinity,” do we? What do we sing? God in three persons.
That hymn connects us with one of the most powerful descriptions of the Trinity we can find in scripture – Isaiah 6. Here we find that God is holy, holy, holy; a sort of holiness that permeates every single corner of this earth with glory.
Now we’re getting somewhere! What an amazing description of the nature of God, given to Isaiah exactly when he most needed it.
We’re told that this vision takes place the same year that King Uzziah, also known as Azariah, died. He had reigned for 52 years, and his death ushered in a time of deep instability, as the Assyrians continued to be a threat to the people of Israel. This was a transition time, and they had no leader.
So it’s fitting that Isaiah would see God as a leader on a throne, surrounded by heavenly beings. They sang that song back and forth to one another, echoing throughout creation: “Holy, holy, holy.”
It is rare that we experience such raw holiness, but we can imagine that Isaiah was terrified in the face of it. Seeing the splendor of the leader of all creation – God – brought to mind his own inadequacy, his own shadowed places, his own sin. And, remember that no one was supposed to see God and live to tell the tale. This God is so radically “other,” that even that sight would overwhelm any mere mortal. But Isaiah doesn’t die. He confesses his sin. And immediately, one of those angels brings a burning coal to his lips and says, “Your sin is blotted out. Your guilt is gone.” He is kissed with grace.
Then God said, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Who will go for us. Of course, the Trinity is not a Jewish idea, and so was not the intent behind using plural language here. But reading this through the lens of our Christian faith we can see hints of a Three-in-One God. God who brings vision, God who forgives sin, God who sends us out. Father, Son, Spirit; Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, who together in perfect unity, fill the whole of creation with glory.
It’s not as cute as an apple, is it? It’s not as memorable as a clover, but the Trinity we find in Isaiah reminds us that God will always be radically other, far beyond our mortal powers of perception and understanding, and yet God will come to us with every ounce of that glory anyway. God’s glory is terrifying. It is confusing. It is beautiful. This is the Trinity.
At this point, even if you did have your Wheaties this morning, I’m betting some of you would like to say what Anne Lamott has said, “I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.”
If you feel overwhelmed, like you can’t describe God without reducing God to parts or modes, good! We should never be able to easily explain the Trinity if we’re taking that understanding of God seriously.
But we don’t have to understand God to do God’s work in this world. Isaiah didn’t understand, and yet he was called, forgiven and sent to be a part of filling the whole earth with the glory of God.
We are sent to do the same. Person by person, moment by moment, saturating this world with God’s glory. Which is why what I’m about to show you is my favorite description of the Trinity I’ve come across. It is a poem by Phu Luu, put into story by Work of the People. It shows the character, nature and essence of God on the streets, among those who need the Triune God to come to them in the form of food, maybe even a sandwich, an apple or an egg. It is called You Are One.
(View video here: http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/you-are-one)
(View video here: http://www.theworkofthepeople.com/you-are-one)
God, In your diversity and unity
help to make us one as you are one,
the one who dances in harmony with each other
who is self-giving,
other-giving,
who honors each other and loves each other,
continually reaching out into your world
to bring the world closer to you.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
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