Year B
 Isaiah 6:1-8
 Psalm 29
 Romans 8:12-17
 John 3:1-17

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

Today is Trinity Sunday… it’s the day we do our best to peel away the veil of mystery which obscures the Three in One… the One in Three…  it’s the mystery which was first hinted at last week… on Pentecost… with the coming of the Holy Spirit… and we don’t usually associate Spirit with fire… but the Spirit came with divided tongues… as…  of…  fire… which rested on the disciples… fire… which can burn us… but which can also purify… cleanse… and like the burning bush… can also awaken us… refine us… and transform us…

Transformation always involves some element of mystery… we don’t always quite know who or what will form us… we don’t always know who or what we will become… and it can be frightening…  ] sometimes…  we want to know all the unknowable details before we say “Yes” to something…  like our two dioceses coming together…  and sometimes…  we want to peer through the cosmic curtain to see the clockwork of God’s cosmos… and understand precisely how it works…  it’s like wanting to peer through the curtain on opening night and see who’s there…  whether those who love us are there… 

In our reading from Isaiah… the seraphim shield their faces with two wings to express reverence… they’re unworthy to look on the holy God…  or pry into God’s secret counsels which they themselves help fulfill… they shield their feet with two wings to express humility…  as they endlessly proclaim God’s glory… Holy…  holy…  holy…  is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of God’s glory…  the seraphim chant in antiphonal responses with pure lips…  while Isaiah laments his own unclean lips and those of his people… ]  but in addition to praising God…  the seraphim also convey spiritual fire from God’s altar…  fire which God first kindled…  and which was recorded in Leviticus 9:24…  when Moses and Aaron came out of the Tent of Meeting…  and God’s Presence appeared to all of the people…  and fire came forth from God…  and consumed the burnt offering…  and all the people saw this…  and shouted…  and fell on their faces…  ]  but here…  a seraph flew with a live coal…  a burning coal which was taken from that altar… and touched Isaiah’s lips… and the spiritual fire blotted out Isaiah’s sin… transformed him…  and prepared him to speak God’s word…

Now seraphim aren’t the angels we usually imagine…  but they are celestial beings… the fifth of ten orders in the hierarchy of Jewish understanding…  and they’re winged creatures that…  like snakes…  move fast as lightning… ] in Numbers and Deuteronomy the seraphim bring fire… and the word itself means “burning one”…  which is probably due to the burning sensation from the poison they inject…

The English translation from Numbers chooses the word “serpent”…  and the corresponding Hebrew word reminds us of the serpent on the pole…  which God instructed Moses to make…  and like the seraphim from Isaiah’s vision… was also a n agent of God’s healing…  one who conveyed the spiritual fire from God’s altar and blotted out the poison of the Israelite’s discontent… one of the same seraphim who continually cry out to each other the words of our Sanctus… Holy…  Holy…  Holy Lord…  God of power and might…  heaven and earth are full of your glory…  and the seraphim knew the Trinity… knew about the Three in One… and some of the early church Fathers claimed that’s why they cry “Holy” three times… but refer to only one God…

So we’re back to mystery… we’re back to asking questions… we’re back to peeking out into the cosmic audience… when all we really need to do is live out our own authentic selves…  but if we look some time at the Athanasian Creed…  we can begin to get some sense of it’s incomprehensibility…  and so here are just a few lines…

We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity,
neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.
For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.
and yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal.
As also there are not three incomprehensibles nor three uncreated,
but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.

Whew!

This morning’s Gospel includes a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus… this conversation is also one about identity…  for a Jew…  identity comes through physical birth…  you are one of God’s chosen people because you are born of a Jewish mother…  but Jesus is saying something else…  that your truest identity comes through a second birth…  a spiritual birth from above…  and I think we need to be reminded that our deepest identity comes as children of God…  and the Gospel clarifies that we’re reborn as children of God through the Holy Spirit…  Jesus tells Nicodemus that those who trust in him and are reborn…  have eternal life… 

Andrew Robert Fausset, a minister from mid-nineteenth century Ireland…  said that Isaiah was inaugurated into his office with the touch of fire… just as the disciples were…  by the tongues of fire resting on them… Isaiah’s sins were blotted out…  and he was able to speak God’s Word to God’s People… ]  the Holy Spirit came to the disciples to equip them for ministry…  and they were able to speak about God’s deeds of power in many languages…  suggesting that God’s Word is for all people…  Isaiah’s unfitness for office…  as well as his personal sin…  were removed by being brought into contact with God’s fire from God’s sacrificial altar… Jesus not only became that altar…  but also became that which was sacrificed on it… and as the Gospel says…  God did not send Him into the world to condemn it…  but in order that the world might be saved through him… 

All of these people were changed… not just for their own benefit… but for God’s purpose and mission… and when we are baptized…  we join that purpose and mission… ]  and when we are baptized…  we are also sealed by the Holy Spirit…  maybe even seared…  burned…  branded by the Holy Spirit…  and marked as Christ’s own for ever…

Isaiah didn’t know exactly what he was saying “Yes” to…  but he trusted that God would lead him…  he was willing to embrace mystery and uncertainty… he was willing to let God restore him and the people Israel and make him holy…  likewise…  the disciples didn’t know exactly where or how God would lead them…  but they trusted the Jesus because of the relationship they had with him and were willing to be made holy…  I pray that we will all burn with God’s fire and be purified for abundant life…  and be made holy…  ready to do God’s will in this time and place…  and willing to say to God what Isaiah said…  Here I am…  send me…