Holy

The Festival of the Holy Trinity

May 26, 2024

Isaiah 6:1-8

 “Holy”

As our nation observes Memorial Day over this holiday weekend, this observance takes many different forms: trips to the beach or elsewhere with the unofficial start of summer; gatherings and cookouts with family and friends; catching up on tasks around home. But behind all of these is the deeper meaning of Memorial Day: a solemn remembrance of our service men and women who have laid down their lives in service to our country. Living here in the shadow of our nation’s capital, we are in close proximity to Arlington National Cemetery. Over the years, I have conducted many graveside committal services at this place. There is a great sense of dignity and decorum that accompanies these services. A good number of you have loved ones who are interred at Arlington, and you have experienced all of this first-hand. We talk about such places as being “hallowed ground,” and that is true. To hallow something is to set it apart for special service; to consecrate it for a holy purpose. On this Trinity Sunday, we hear that word “holy” throughout worship today: in the hymns we sing to our Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We sing it in our Communion liturgy, which is an echo of today’s Old Testament lesson from Isaiah 6: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3). This song of the seraphim becomes the theme for today’s message, entitled “Holy.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

“In the year that King Uzziah died…” (Isaiah 6:1) – this how today’s Old Testament lesson begins. Isaiah’s reckoning of time here may have been familiar to those who first heard or read his words, but it’s not familiar to us. Historians and scholars date this to around the year 742 B.C., which is a very long time ago – going on 3000 years ago. But what Isaiah saw and experienced is timeless and eternal: the God of heaven and earth seated upon his throne with his court in attendance. This same God still rules and reigns over all that he has made in heaven and on earth. Seeing what he saw, hearing what he heard, Isaiah was overcome with a terrible sense of his own sin and guilt. Like us, he was all too aware of the evil he had done and the good he had failed to do. In the Scriptures, this is always the reaction of people in Scripture when they come into contact with the otherness, the holiness, of God (e.g., Exodus 33:18-20; Luke 5:8). There is a sense of personal inadequacy and sinfulness before the all-holy God, and so Isaiah cried out: “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!” (Isaiah 6:5). Isaiah speaks for all of us when confronted with the holiness of God. We, too, have unclean lips and we, too, live in the midst of a people with unclean lips. On our own, there’s nothing we can do to change this. There’s nothing we can do to purge ourselves of this uncleanness. We can’t buy forgiveness or purchase cleansing. Only God can intervene, and the good news is that God has intervened, not to condemn, but to save.  

For Isaiah, the intervention took place through an intermediary, sent from God. One of the seraphim, heavenly beings at the throne of God, took a burning coal from the altar and touched Isaiah’s mouth with it. “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for” (Isaiah 6:7b). If a burning coal could take away Isaiah’s guilt and atone for his sin, how much more does the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), take our guilt away and atone for our sin! Jesus is our intermediary; he is both our great High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16) as well as the sacrificial victim (1 John 2:1-2). His holiness and righteousness have become ours by his grace. All that he has, he bestows on us. Even though we may not feel particularly holy, and like Isaiah, are all too aware of our sins, God has declared us to be holy. God has made us to be his own treasured possession (Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 7:6, 14:2, 26:18; Malachi 3:17; 1 Peter 2:10). When all is said and done, it is the truth of what God says, rather than our own feelings, that truly matters.

Every gathering of the people of Christ is always in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Every worship service invokes the Name of our Triune God. This day, however, gives special emphasis to the sacred mystery of the Three-in-One and One-in-Three God whom we worship and serve. Together with Incarnation, the mystery of God becoming flesh (John 1:14), the mystery of the Holy Trinity is something we ponder and contemplate through the lens of faith. Our worship space here draws our attention to this mystery: God the Father’s hand of blessing that has brought all things into existence – that hand still open to us in love. At the center is the cross of God the Son who shed his blood and gave his life as the atoning sacrifice for our sins on that cross, “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,” as Peter preaches in today’s Epistle lesson (Acts 2:14a, 22-36). And the descending dove of God the Holy Spirit who brings Spirit-given gifts for the Body of Christ (Isaiah 11:2; Galatians 5:22-24). Behind us on the wall of the choir loft, to the far right, is the last of our plaques of the seasons of the church year. The three intertwining circles, which are without beginning or end, speak of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Because of the unity within the Triune God, to have one is to have all three Persons, each without beginning or end.

Through the creating, redeeming, and sanctifying work of the Triune God, we have been set apart and consecrated for a special purpose: “that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9b). And so, created in God’s own image, cleansed through the blood of Jesus, and called to new life through the Spirit, we are holy to the Lord. And so with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven, we join in the hymn of all creation honoring God Father, Son and Holy Spirit: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3). Amen.