St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes, Vicar
First Sunday after Pentecost: Trinity Sunday/Year B
Isaiah 6:1-8; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17
May 30, 2021
In our Old Testament lesson today, the Prophet Isaiah recounts his inaugural vision of God in the temple—which ignited him to prophesy to God’s people. Isaiah’s vision had everything that a blockbuster fantasy, suspense movie might have—the larger than human life deity sitting on a throne and the other-worldly, winged creatures attending him. Those winged creatures—the seraphs—were singing their praise and adoration of God, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (6:3). Their voices shook the hinges of the thresholds and smoke filled the house. Isaiah’s vision placed him in the presence of God, and all the company of heaven, initially as a spectator. But, the seraphs did not interact with Isaiah, and God did not acknowledge him—it was as if he was invisible—that is until he cried out.
To be holy is to be separated from all that is sinful and unclean. Isaiah exclaimed that he was lost, unworthy and out of place. There was no way that an unclean mortal could be in the presence of God’s great glory. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest went into the innermost part of the temple—the Holy of Holies—to offer sacrifices for himself and on behalf of the people.
Isaiah was not the high priest. He also did not distinguish whether or not it was his own actions making him unclean or if the actions of God’s sinful people, Israel, made him unclean. From the first chapter up to the sixth chapter in which our lesson takes place, Isaiah lamented the wickedness of Israel and its deliberate rebellion against God. Isaiah described Israel as a “…Sinful nation…laden with iniquity…who have forsaken the LORD…” and whose, “…Whole head is sick, and whole heart faint” (Isa 1: 4-5). It is possible that Isaiah might have been feeling as if he was guilty by association, and unworthy to stand in the presence of God. And, Isaiah was probably trying to wrap his head around that fact that he saw God and did not die, for no mortal can see God’s face and live (Ex 33:20). Isaiah’s proclamation was essentially, “I’m not worthy to be here, but I am here—How can this be?”
When Isaiah spoke, the seraph flew to him with a live coal taken from the altar—so hot that it was handled with a pair of tongs—and touched Isaiah’s mouth with it. It turned out that the hot coal had the healing property of liberation—“…Your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out” (6:7).
And, as this remarkable encounter took place, Isaiah heard God asking a question to the heavenly council. The question was not directed to Isaiah, but in overhearing God’s question, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?,” Isaiah did not hesitate to respond, “…Here am I; send me!” (6:8). Having been freed from the bondages of guilt and sin, and Isaiah’s self-imposed sense of unworthiness falling away as a result, Isaiah’s mouth was also freed to make his presence known, and to offer himself for God’s purposes. God’s response was to use Isaiah as his mouthpiece—a prophet amongst God’s people.
Isaiah’s survival, in the presence of God’s glory, is a reminder to God’s faithful people that it is only by God’s grace that we, too, are permitted to be in His presence—to sit on the lap of our Abba, our Father, to wrap our arms around his neck and to be held in his loving embrace. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, made it possible for all who believe in him to receive the spirit of adoption to become God’s children.
Now, in our gospel passage in John, there is a verbalized, “How can this be?” posed to Jesus by a surprising source—Nicodemus, a religious leader of the Jews. In a private encounter with Jesus, Nicodemus acknowledged that Jesus was a teacher who had come from God.
But, when Jesus told Nicodemus about the spiritual birth—by water and Spirit—necessary for anyone to see and enter the kingdom of God, Nicodemus was stumped. “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” How can these things be? he said (Jn 3:4). This teacher of Israel could not get beyond his human understanding of “birth” in order to receive the knowledge of the heavenly things which Jesus imparted to him, and it would be his own stumbling block in receiving the truth, imparted to him by God himself. It would not have occurred to Nicodemus, that he was deficient in his role as teacher of Israel. Afterall, the Pharisees were the model for righteousness for the Jewish people.
As we study both passages, we must guard against the two extremes of self-imposed separation from God. On the one hand, Isaiah believed himself to be unworthy and inadequate; his sense of unworthiness threatened to separate him from God—while he was in God’s presence. On the other hand, Nicodemus’ religious arrogance separated him from the eternal truth, even while, he, too, was standing in God’s presence in the person of Jesus. Sisters and brothers, the enemy is always working to weaken God’s children by convincing them that they are ill-equipped to do the work that God has called them to do.
If our very lives are meant to be used in service to God and to glorify God, let us rebuke that spirit of weakness with the confidence that through our baptism, by water and the Spirit, our whole being has been touched by our Savior Jesus Christ—who, by his death and resurrection, used his healing power to liberate our souls from guilt, and blot out our sins. And, in that holy joining, to Christ’s body, God’s people have been equipped by the Holy Spirit to be “…apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, all for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…” (Eph 4:11-12). The good news, for us, is that through baptism we are always abiding in God and He in us through Christ. Sealed by the Holy Spirit, we have are marked as Christ’s own forever, and nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:38-39).
God’s self-revelation to humankind through His only Son Jesus Christ, and through his abiding Spirit in the world, is the ultimate model for unity in diversity through the bond of mutual love. And, it is into this dynamic, unceasing dance which God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit invites His children to join the heavenly chorus of angels, archangels and all the company of heaven in their eternal song of adoration and praise, “Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might…”
On this Trinity Sunday, let us recommit ourselves to participating in the life of the Triune God by embodying, more fully, the ideal community to which God has called His Church—a trinitarian community that exists to bring about justice, love and equality in the world—the eternal unity in diversity that God intends for all of humanity. Amen.
