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Sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday – May 26, 2024
Isaiah 6:1-8
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit – God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Amen.
My sermon text for today is Isaiah 6, so let me bring you back to what we heard there in our first reading. As we heard, in the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah was given a grand vision. Isaiah saw God in God’s throne room. Actually, he only saw the hem of God’s robe, which, just by itself, filled the temple. It was a spectacular, mysterious scene with heavenly beings called seraphs flying around. Seraphs are fiery angels with six wings. These seraphs are covering their faces out of reverence for God as they sing, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts!” The ground shook and the room filled with smoke. There was an altar with live coals burning upon it, glowing red. If this were a scene in a movie you would need top-notch CGI to do it justice! This vision was magnificent and it was terrifying – and it has much to teach us about God and about ourselves. It has much to teach us about the Holy Trinity, and how sinful human beings relate to a holy God. It has much to teach us about who and whose we are, and how. So let’s dig in, shall we?
First of all, we shouldn’t move too quickly past the fact that this vision was given in the year in which King Uzziah died. This not only gives us a time stamp on when Isaiah had his vision, it describes the context for his vision. King Uzziah reigned in Judah for 52 years. This isn’t quite as long as Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years, but it was still a pretty long time. Like Elizabeth, he was the only king most people in Judah had ever known. For the most part, Uzziah was a good king. However, in the later years of his reign his success started to go to his head. In a display of shocking arrogance, he went strutting into the area of the temple reserved for the priests and burned incense. This might sound like a minor thing to us, but in that setting it was a grave offense. Uzziah was essentially saying he was above God’s law, that he could be his own god. And his pride led to his downfall. He was struck with leprosy. He was increasingly sickly and unable to perform many of his duties as king. Meanwhile, the kingdom of Assyria, their rival next door, was growing stronger every day.
It is unclear whether Uzziah had died before or after Isaiah had his vision – it only says he had his vision the same year that he died – but either way this was clearly a time of widespread national anxiety for the people of Judah. There was a lot of uncertainty in the air. And it was in the midst of this anxiety and uncertainty that Isaiah was given this vision. Isaiah saw that whatever was going on with the throne of Judah, God was still on his throne! Kings come and go. Some are holier than others. But through it all, God remains on his throne, and God alone is holy, holy, holy.
This is the first lesson for us in this passage. This is the first lesson to be found in this vision of Isaiah’s. We don’t have a king, of course, but in an election year people are starting to get anxious about who will sit in the seat of executive power for this next presidential term. Along with this there seems to be a sense of unease about growing threats in the world of various sorts. While we shouldn’t stick our heads in the sands about any of this, there is a great truth we can all hold onto: whatever happens, the Lord is on his throne. God will still be in power. God’s reign will continue, unabated!
Maybe your anxiety or uncertainty comes from a totally different place. Maybe it has to do with your relationships, or your financial situation, health problems, or your uncertain future. The same great truth holds for you: God is on his throne. God is in charge. God rules over his creation with incredible power and glory.
God’s power isn’t automatically good news, I know. While God is magnificent and glorious, God’s power, if you really understand or experience it, is terrifying!
I remember once traveling in Arizona when my boys were little. We were driving along the Mogollon Rim, which is a stunningly beautiful area with pine trees and red rocks and vast vistas. We were driving along the rim when I pulled over and got out to take a picture. There was some weather coming in, but it was behind me. It didn’t ruin the view. I took my picture when a bolt of lightning struck the ground, probably less than thirty yards away. It was so loud, it sounded like the sky was splitting in two. I could feel it in every cell of my body. I could feel it in my hair! For a second or two, I was undone. It felt like everything was over. It was magnificent, and it was terrifying.
This is what it was like for Isaiah to see God’s throne room, times about a million! It was magnificent and it was terrifying! It was magnificent and terrifying because of the overwhelming holiness of God! The word “holy” at its most basic means separate, or set apart. It also means to be filled with divine purity and power. And what is more holy than God himself? “Holy, holy, holy,” the angels were singing. This word is repeated three time to emphasize God’s holiness. I don’t want to trivialize this holy chorus, but it isn’t unlike how people will say things like, “I love this so, so, so much,” or maybe, “I am never, never, never doing that again.” We repeat for emphasis, right? These fiery angels repeated this word to emphasize God’s holiness.
But there’s something else to the three-fold “holy” in the angels’ song. Here’s where the Holy Trinity comes in. From the earliest days of the Christian church, this has been seen as a subtle reference to the Trinity, to the one God who exists as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As St. Ambrose wrote in the 4th century on this very passage: “[The angels] say it not once, lest you should believe that there is but one; not twice, lest you should exclude the Spirit; they say not holies, lest you should imagine there is a plurality, but they repeat three times and say the same word, that even in a hymn you may understand the distinction of Persons in the Trinity, and the oneness of the Godhead.”
And think about it, the entire Trinity can be found in Isaiah’s vision if you look for it. God the Father is there with the hem of his robe filling the room. The Son is symbolized by the altar, the place of sacrifice. The Spirit, which just last week was depicted as fire, is there in these fiery angels and the words they proclaim. Sounds like the Holy Trinity to me!
Isaiah finds the presence of this Holy Trinity magnificent and terrifying. After all, this Trinity is holy, holy, holy, and Isaiah is most certainly not! In the light of God’s holiness, Isaiah can only see his unholiness. It all shows up. It is all revealed. There are no shadows, no soft focus. Isaiah’s sin is utterly exposed by the brilliant light of God’s holiness.
And so Isaiah’s first response is not joy or ecstasy, it is terror! He is undone! “Woe is me!” he says, “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!”
But here’s the thing. This God he has encountered is not only holy. This God is also gracious! This God is merciful! One of the seraphs takes a coal from the altar and presses it to Isaiah’s lips. This sounds like a horrible punishment. It sounds like an act of torture. But it is not. It is an act of grace. It is an act of forgiveness. “Now that this has touched your lips,” the angel said, “your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” The same lips that cursed and gossiped and lied, the same lips that had been pressed to idols, the same lips that had been used in service of self, would now be used to the glory of God. Those same lips would be used to proclaim God’s magnificent and terrifying Word as a prophet of the Lord. Those same lips would ultimately be used to proclaim the coming of a savior.
Dear friends, we have the same unclean lips that Isaiah does. Our lips are used to curse and gossip and lie. Our lips are used to give glory to false gods, usually ourselves as we pridefully talk ourselves into being a law unto ourselves, into being our own gods. And in the brilliant light of God’s holiness, we are undone. There is no sin, no matter how deeply hidden in our hearts, that is not exposed.
But the same God that is overwhelmingly holy is also abundantly gracious! The fire upon the altar in God the Father’s throne room has now been extinguished by the sacrifice of the Son, who sits at his right hand. From that altar the Spirit brings to us not a hot coal, but the very body and blood of the Son, that they might touch our lips and blot out our sin.
You see, Isaiah’s vision was not an isolated incident. That vision continues in every Christian worship service as we gather in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It continues in these moments in worship where the veil between heaven and earth is very thin. It continues as we sing, “Holy, holy, holy,” as part of our liturgy, echoing the very same song that continues to be sung in God’s throne room. It happens when sinners like us come into the presence of a God who is holy, holy, holy, but also gracious, forgiving, and merciful.
Whatever is going on in your life today, whatever uncertainly or anxiety plagues you, know that God is on his throne. As God sends his Word into your ears today, and as Christ’s body and blood are touched to your lips, you take part in this same vision that Isaiah did. You come into the presence of the Holy Trinity, who blots out all your sin, granting you forgiveness and new life. In so doing this God who reveals himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit commissions your redeemed lips for a purpose: that you might give him praise, that you might call him by name in every time of need, and that you might speak in ways that give him glory.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church