+ Trinity Sunday – May 26th, 2024 +
Series B: Isaiah 6:1-8; Acts 2:22-36; John 3:1-17
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Milton, WA
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There’s an old saying which comes from Christians in Africa: God makes a way where there is no way.
When Abraham and Sarah were old and barren and well-past child-bearing age, God made a way through Isaac where there was no way.
When Israel was caught between Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea, God made a way through the sea where there was no way.
When we, and the whole world, were dead in trespasses and sin, God made his way where there was no way…to the cross and through the grave and risen from the dead for you.
Holy Trinity Sunday is the day where we remember and rejoice that the Holy Trinity – God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – makes a way for unholy sinners to come into his holy presence and receive his holy gifts.
That’s what happened in our Old Testament reading this morning. The Holy Trinity makes a way for Isaiah to be in his holy presence and receive his holy gifts.
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Seven and a half centuries before the Son of God took on human flesh, Isaiah saw him. That’s what Jesus tells us in John 12:41. Isaiah saw his glory. Jesus, the Son of God is the glory of God. And when Isaiah saw the Son of God he’s revealed as King, Judge, and Priest. There’s a throne where he reigns. He wears priestly robes that fill the temple; the place where, throughout the Scriptures, God made a way where there was no way: how do unholy sinners come into his holy presence and receive God’s holy gifts? Sacrifice. Atonement. Blood shed. Forgiveness of sin. This is how God makes a way where there is no way.
This all pointed the Old Testament saints forward to the day when the Temple of God was no longer built of cedar and stone, but when God took on human flesh and bone. When the Father sent his Son. When the Son of God became the Son of Mary and Son of Adam to bring us back to the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit.
For God loved the world in this way,] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
This is the same Son of God Isaiah saw in his vision in Isaiah 6. And of whom the angels (the seraphim) cried out: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Not only does Isaiah see the Son of God, he hears a confession and proclamation of the Holy Trinity. Those words: holy, holy holy, are words that reveal the person and work of the Trinity in the Scriptures. To paraphrase the words of the Athanasian Creed, the Father is holy. The Son is holy. The Holy Spirit is holy. And yet there are not three holies but one Holy.
Or, as Ambrose the church father said, “The seraphim say it not once, lest we believe there is only one person in the Trinity; not twice, lest we exclude the Spirit; they say not “holies” but holy lest we imagine there is more than one God. But they repeat three times the same word, that even in a hymn we may understand the distinction of persons in the Trinity and the oneness of the Godhead.”
And Isaiah quickly realizes what happens when you come into God’s presence. God is holy and he is not. Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
And yet, the Holy Trinity makes a way for Isaiah where there is no way. He gives him who is unholy a holy gift from the holy God to declare Isaiah forgiven and holy. God sent one of the seraphim to Isaiah. A messenger with a burning coal from the altar. The place of sacrifice and atonement and blood shed to cleanse sinners and bring holiness to unholy people. And he placed the coal on Isaiah’s lips. Cleansing. Purifying. Atoning. Fire. “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
The same thing happens to us today on Trinity Sunday, and every Lord’s day in the Lord’s house. The Holy Trinity makes a way for us, unholy sinners, to come into his holy presence and receive his holy gifts. Today we are all Isaiah. The Holy Trinity invites us into his presence. Baptismal words of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit begin and end our time together. Jesus the King and Priest is here with us and for us to reign and redeem and atone for sin. His presence and peace fill his house because heaven is wherever Jesus is. And Jesus is where he has promised to be: in water, word, bread and wine for you.
Like Isaiah we enter God’s presence confessing our unholiness and our unholy sins of thought, word, and deed. We join in Isaiah’s confession. I am lost. I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips.
But our unclean, unholy lips do not get the last word. The Holy Trinity does. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit makes a way for you where there is no way. God brings heaven down to earth. He shares his holiness with you at the altar. With his promise and presence he gives you his holy body in humble bread. He gives you his holy, precious blood in the cup of the new testament. The Lord Jesus sits enthroned on his altar, at his table, in his word and we sing the song of the seraphim:
Holy, holy, holy Lord God of pow’r and might: Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna. Hosanna. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed are you who come in the name of the Lord.
And then the Holy Trinity brings us to his banqueting table where he sends each of us a gift from his altar to take away our sin. Not a burning coal, but bread and wine. And with those humble, earthly gifts, Jesus’ body and blood are given to you.
“Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Come to Christ’s table. All is ready. A feast of forgiveness for you. The Holy Trinity has made a way where there is no way.
A blessed Trinity Sunday to each of you…
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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