Trinity Sunday, May 31, 2015

Collect for the Day

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

First Lesson: Isaiah 6:1-8

In 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. Seraphs 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. And one called to another and said:

               Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;

               the whole earth is full of his glory.

The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And 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!"

        Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The 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." Then 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!"

Reflections: The event described here is known as the Call of Isaiah. The prophet described the experience in an odd mix of familiar (the Lord God presented human form on a throne, with a long flowing robe) and uncanny (Seraphim, the hot coal, and so on). Unlike our images of angels, the bible pictures the Seraphim as clearly “other.”  

I see a sequence of critical events in the Isaiah’s life: a direct encounter with God, Isaiah’s acute awareness of his poverty and corruption; his purification, his call, and his ready response.

        Isn’t it interesting that Isaiah’s encounter with God brings not comfort, as God’s presence sometimes brings us. For Isaiah the man, it brings painful self-knowledge; he laments, “Woe is me.” He truly sees himself as he is, and it is all but unbearable. As though in answer to this crushing revelation, an angel cleanses him with a hot coal and burns away his impurity.

        I cannot help but see a correlation between an authentic, soul-deep encounter with God and the courage to see ourselves as we really are. I don’t know about you, but one of the biggest blocks to my own transparency is the fear that I will be disappointed and condemned by what I see. But when I lie to myself about my motives, for example, I am lying only to myself; ironically, God—who already knows me completely—loves me anyway.

        I notice that in this passage, the angel comes and purifies Isaiah’s “unclean lips” the very moment his heart sees and repents. The Hebrew scriptures warn, “one cannot see God and live.” And surely a death does occur here. The man who had shrunk back in dismay is transformed into a prophet. Shame dissolves into wonder, paralysis into God’s purpose. 

Canticle 13: A Song of Praise Benedictus es, Domine     

Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers; * you are worthy of praise; glory to you.

Glory to you for the radiance of your holy Name; * we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

Glory to you in the splendor of your temple; * on the throne of your majesty, glory to you.

Glory to you, seated between the Cherubim; * we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

Glory to you, beholding the depths; * in the high vault of heaven, glory to you.

Glory to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; * we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever. 

Epistle: Romans 8:12-17

So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh-- for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 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, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ-- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Reflections: It is the voice of the Spirit itself that cries out when we are overcome by our deepest awe and our most desperate need. Even in the darkest places, the Spirit attests that we are God’s own, with Christ in both suffering and glory.

Gospel: John 3:1-17

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' 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. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
         Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

"Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

        "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.

"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."

Reflections: It’s not difficult to see my own story in Nicodemus. I may not have done it under cover of night, but I did buy my first bible in a used bookstore, secretly. I was so surprised and embarrassed in this departure from my insistent rejection of Christianity that I made a joke about it with the cashier—as though the cashier even knew me or cared.

        Nicodemus is also vulnerable; he hides his visit from his peers, who would doubtless have been mortified. Like me, Nicodemus doesn’t yet understand what draws him, can’t even get what Jesus says. But that doesn’t stop him from daring to seem foolish when he reaches out for help.

        Nicodemus simply doesn’t understand. Perhaps that’s because Jesus teaches about things that have been squeezed out of the religious wordview in which Nicodemus has been trained, indeed, to which he is looked as an expert. Perhaps Jesus sets about opening some windows in Nicodemus’ mental walls—blows his mind just enough to let the Spirit blow in.

        You might say that the doctrine of the Trinity does that for us, too. It is a notoriously puzzling article of faith. Too often nowadays we assume that anything we don’t readily understand should be junked. But the doctrine of the Trinity isn’t an outdated formula that should be scrapped. How do we know that? For one thing, despite numerous, well-funded (and even backed with political strength) attempts to explain the Trinity, the difficult doctrine has prevailed. And there’s a reason.

        The doctrine of the Trinity is both a statement of faith and a question. This last part is important. The doctrine is not a fact we simply have to accept and memorize in order to be confirmed (in the way we have to know that water boils at 100 degree Centigrade in order to pass a science test). The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a question to carry deep in our hearts. Much as the father in Mark 9:24 prays, “I believe, help thou mine unbelief,” the doctrine is a starting point; to take it seriously, to carry it in our hearts is to undertake a journey through inner space with Christ and the Spirit as companion. 

        So of course we can’t get our heads around this doctrine of the inner nature of God. God contains us, not the other way around. Br. Robert L’Esperance of the Episcopal Society of St. John the Evangelist writes, “The Trinity is useful as a way of keeping us silent before the mystery of God.”