May 26, 2024 Sermon
Sermon title: “Trinity Sunday”
Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-8
(Other lectionary choices include Psalm 29, Romans 8:12-17 and John 3:1-17. And one pastor suggests reading from Proverbs 8!)
Isaiah 6:1-8
A Vision of God in the Temple
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!”
If you were here last week, you heard a sermon about the Holy Spirit, and how it descended upon the young church in Jerusalem at Pentecost. Today is Trinity Sunday, and some churches have gotten into the habit of doing something on the Trinity right after talking about the Holy Spirit. That isn't bad; I mean, look what has happened: Jesus has come, has been raised from the dead, and has now sent the Holy Spirit on his followers. So, after the Son has come and gone, and after the Holy Spirit has been received, don't we need to talk about the Triune God, the one who is ever three and ever one? By the way, do not go looking for the Trinity in the Bible. You won't find it! At least, you won't find the word TRINITY. You may find Father. You may find Son. You may find the Holy Spirit. But you WON'T find the word TRINITY! So, are we “blasphemers” in that we say we believe in the Trinity but it is nowhere to be found? I don't think so. In fact, I'm kind of proud that early Christian thinkers thought there HAD to be a Trinity, even if the Bible doesn't contain the word! And think about it -- we all believe in God the Father Almighty, and if we believe that Jesus was his Son (“begotten not made” is how the Nicene Creed says it), and not just his Son but “Very God of Very God” to quote the Nicene Creed again, and if we believe that God and Jesus sent his/their Holy Spirit upon us, don't we almost NEED a Doctrine of the Trinity to make sense of God and Jesus and Holy Spirit all being one and the same? I think the answer is yes, but if you want to disagree, that's okay! Also, we in our feeble minds are trying to define the INDEFINABLE. And keep in mind that the Council of Nicea didn't come about until 325 A.D., and the Emperor Constantine, who had converted to Christianity, wanted some sort of unifying faith under which he could conquer. So, we get this Doctrine of the Trinity hammered out for -- forgive me! -- POLITICAL reasons!
Again, how do you describe the indescribable? I think we'd all agree that God isn't an old man in the sky with a long white beard, but then what do we have? Jesus in the sky with diamonds? (I apologize for that one!) Our hymn, “Holy, Holy, Holy” says “God in 3 Persons”. What does that mean? Three PERSONAS or three masks. I just had this thought: what if God is an INFINITE number of PERSONAS or masks, and I kind of think I believe that!
The minister I quoted last week, the Lutheran from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Michael J. Wollman, refers us to Proverbs 8, where Wisdom seems to get equal billing with God. That's nice, but it emphasizes again what I have already said: you won't find the word TRINITY in the Bible. Wisdom is perhaps another PERSONA or mask of God. Again, how do you describe God?
The quote from Isaiah 6 that I used this morning says, “Who shall go for US?” Is that an indication of the TRINITY? I think NO, but I'm just one guy. From my point of view, God is INDESCRIBABLE and UNCONTAINABLE. Check out Genesis page one: “Let us make man in OUR image.” Is that the TRINITY? I would say NO, but I'm just one believer. One of our selections from the lectionary is from John 3. Jesus tells Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” For me, what Jesus is saying there is, “Don't try to capture God. You cannot capture or define the indescribable or the indefinable.”
On the subject of not trying to limit or define God, the United Church of Christ has a couple of words that I personally like. One says, “Do not place a period where God has placed a comma.” What that says to me is that while you and I may ASSUME something, God has other plans. And let me quote my Old Testament professor from seminary: the sovereignty of Yahweh is the main point of the Old Testament. It's not about you. It's not about Israel. It's about GOD. And God does what God wants to do WHEN God wants to do it. There is a wonderful hymn from the UCC Pilgrim Hymnal which we have sung at this church. It's about letting God be God, and how we should not limit God. The words are from the Rev. John Robinson who did NOT accompany the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock in 1620. In fact, he stayed in Europe. But what he said was this, and we have his words in the form of this hymn. And each verse ends with, “May God continue to reveal to you his will from his Holy Word,” or something like that. Amen.
Pastor Skip
