And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." Isaiah was at prayer in the temple in Jerusalem. In a vision, he looked up and saw the Lord on his heavenly throne. Hovering about him, strange flying beasts called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." In the thrice repeated “holy, holy, holy” the church has heard a veiled reference the three person God: Jesus, his Father and their Spirit. And so this story of Isaiah’s call is often read on Trinity Sunday. But the connection is even deeper.
For the holy name of God is given to us in our baptismal calling to go to work in the world in speaking prophetically on God’s behalf. We are baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit so that united with Jesus, in the power of the Spirit we too may do battle with unholy spirits that haunt the world lives. How? By speaking the powerful, effective word of the Lord. Like Isaiah we too may shrink from the task as unworthy. "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!" At this, the seraph in his vision puts a burning coal to Isaiah’s lip, burning away the sin, purifying his lips, his tongue, his voice that he may speak the Word of God. "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." So also our baptism into the death of Christ takes away the burden of our guilt by the free forgiveness of sins and in its place makes us ready and able to respond to the calling of God, as did Isaiah. 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!"
What shall we say? What is the powerful, prophetic message? For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. The same God whom Isaiah saw in his vision of old, the almighty Lord high and lifted up, seated on his throne in heavenly glory, this God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, this God who chose Israel to whom he gave the covenant, the promises, the oracles, the law and the prophets, this God of the Bible loves the whole world no matter how unholy and unclean. He calls Israel, he called Isaiah, he calls you and me and all the others through Jesus -- not as if to say, ‘You I love, the others I hate.’ Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Love for the loveless shown – this is God’s gospel purpose. He calls each one of us in particular as one of the unholy world that he nevertheless loves, and so he calls each one of us in order to send us to those others with the same message of transformative love.
This way of God’s Son to the cross is no ordinary love, no merely human love but divine and holy and astonishing. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son… God’s love is self-giving. God’s love is self-sacrificing. God’s love is costly. God’s love reaches down into the depths to what is not lovely or worthy or pretty or attractive to make worthy and lovely. God sends his Son to the cross in order to seek and find us there. This is the gospel message God speaks to us and breaks through to us.
Those who hear it and receive it are born anew from above, as God’s holy and astonishing love makes them new people. This message of God’s love is God himself, as we heard last week, God the Holy Spirit hearing in us God’s Word of love spoken in Jesus Christ, really hearing it, being convinced of it, being persuaded by it, being swept up in it in trust, hope, love and new obedience – this is no human act of willpower but God himself effectively at work in our hearts. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God… This is what the Holy Spirit accomplishes in those who believe. He takes the Word of God spoken in Jesus Christ out of mid-air where it hangs and brings it home in the human heart. Very truly I tell you, Jesus says, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above… no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. By the water of baptism, the Holy Spirit says to each one: you too, united with Jesus, are also God’s beloved child, adopted by grace into his family.
It is impressive how naturally the language of the Trinity occurs when we speak the gospel this way. Holy, holy, holy the seraphs cry out in praise. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. When we cry, Abba! Father! It is the Holy Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. This is the first thing to notice. Sometimes you hear critics say that the doctrine of the Trinity was made up by the church hundreds of years later. But we believe in the one, holy, catholic church which the Spirit guides to all truth. It is true that the teaching about the Trinity was defined in the Nicene Creed some 300 years after Christ. But what they defined was simply the truth of this gospel language about God. God really is as he appears in giving his Son and sending his Spirit. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not temporary masks he puts on and then takes off, as if something different behind the masks. God’s love for us really hangs on this truth. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. We did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but we have received a spirit of adoption. And therefore we sing, Holy, holy, holy!
But, the critics object, the Trinity is incomprehensible. How can three be one? Friends, it is no objection to a purported truth about God that it goes beyond what our reason can comprehend. If we could understand God we would be God. In all eternity God will remain mysteriously more than we can fathom. Yet this is not a mathematical riddle, but the gospel dynamic of the living God. In his love God has given himself to us and made us known to him. Here then is a true and simple way to think of the Trinity. God speaks. God is spoken. God is heard. Or again: God gives. God is given. God is received. The Father speaks and gives his Word. The Son is sent and given on the cross. The Spirit brings this home into our hearts where it is received. In these actions God is one in his love speaking, spoken and heard, giving, given and received. And therefore we sing with the seraphs to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: Holy, holy, holy!
That is what we sing in the church when we gather to worship in anticipation of the heavenly banquet. But remember there is still a hurting unloved world out there which God nevertheless so loves. Remember that so many suffer with a spirit of timidity to fall back into fear. Remember that so few understand that to be born anew from above is simply to hear and receive in trusting love and gratitude that for Jesus’ sake one is a beloved child of God. Remembering this with Isaiah, we hear the blessed holy Trinity asking: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Now that God’s love has made us worthy, we joyfully say, "Here am I; send me!" United with Jesus by water and the Spirit, empowered therefore with his same Spirit, rising up to live new life to the glory of the Father, "Here am I; send me!" Let others do as they will: "Here am I; send me!" Make my life, O Lord, the song which sings, Holy, holy, holy: "Here am I; send me!"