Intro: There's two things we don't do (or shouldn't) on Trinity
Sunday. One is we don't mention the Trinity for the only time all
year. Two is we don't treat the Holy Trinity as a concept or body of
information that we just pop open our heads, shove the information
in, and close them up. This Sunday, as well as every Sunday, the
Word goes out that the Holy Trinity brings you the forgiveness of
sins in the only way you can get this forgiveness. So this year,
with Isaiah we say,
Who takes away your uncleanness? The
God whom angels and the Church confess as holy.
But as we hear today's Old
Testament reading, the angels confess the nature of God as Three in
One (triune), but the first thing that Isaiah confesses before God's
face is something different. He says, “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!" ”.
This is his confession that God's nature has only terror outside of
the forgiveness of sins, for he is [thrice] holy.
For Isaiah couldn't get away from
God's glory, as he saw God seated upon the throne, saw the heavenly
temple. He couldn't get away from it because God's glory has no
limit. This is seen in v 1, where Isaiah says, “I
saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train
of his robe filled the temple.
” It is seen in v
4 where we hear “the
house was filled with smoke. ”
These are God demonstrating his glory, as the angels call back and
forth to each other “the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Keeping this in mind, it's easy to see that Isaiah calls God “The
Holy One of Israel” more times than all the other prophets. For
holiness is God's hidden glory; glory is God's all present holiness.
And again, what is Isaiah's response to seeing the Lord? “Woe is
me. 'Woe is me' because of my unclean lips. I am impure; I am not
fit to be in the presence of God to see his glory. Because of my sin
and guilt I'm as good as dead.”
This may not be such an issue for you, to see the heavenly throne
room as Isaiah did. But we will all be in the presence of Christ who
will judge the living and the dead. And no one has clean lips
because Adam and Eve's lips touched what the Lord had told them not
to eat. So Isaiah was terrified to approach God with his sins. In
the same way, we should reject any attempt to approach God because of
our good works or because of our self-invented worship, because to do
that is not to receive the free forgiveness of sins but to reject it.
We invent our own worship because it is a worship of God that has no
need for the forgiveness of sins. But we approach the throne of
glory through the blood of Christ, or not at all.
Because Isaiah didn't stand before God and say, “I'm a man of
unclean lips. But leave it to me, and I will provide the way to
purify myself.” God takes action, sending a seraph to take a
glowing coal from the altar, which touches Isaiah's lips. God's Word
points us back to this time and again every time we say in our
hearts, “If I do “good” then God will be pleased with me. If I
do “good”, then nothing bad will happen to me.” Even the
angels used tongs to take the coal. When God forgives, it is
something that only he can provide, not us, not even an angel from
heaven. But the angel rejoiced to be the steward and servant of such
a gift.
Or think of it like this. If you are invited to a big gala, if you
spill a drink all over yourself, will you want to meet the host or
the guest of honor right after? With that stain? How much more
shame is there before God's face for even unclean lips!
This is because of God's holiness.
The angels cry, “Holy”. But not just holy, but “holy, holy,
holy”. This reading is chosen for Trinity Sunday for this reason.
The beautiful Hebrew language which Isaiah wrote in uses repetition
to show something that is best, without equal. If you wanted to say,
“most very beautiful”, you would say “beautiful, beautiful” in
Hebrew. But you only repeat it once. There is no other time in the
Old Testament where a word repeats three times. But here it does -
the one God is three times holy. The angels are speaking their
special insight into the Triune nature of God. So of course, God
says, “Whom
shall I
send, and who will go for us?”
He is displaying his Triune nature, which Christ will make plain
before his Ascension.
Transition: So the forgiveness of sins makes all the difference when
it comes to the glory of the Triune God. Notice Isaiah's words
before and after the coal touching his lips [before: woe to me;
after: here am I] – God hadn't changed, but Isaiah has received the
forgiveness of sins.
Indeed, where there is forgiveness of sins, the Trinity is praised.
Proper worship calls upon the name which alone saves. This name is
given you in your Baptism – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Or just think of it this way. The holiness of God has no limit, but
the holy God locates his forgiveness to make you holy. This is
worthy of praise. So if you were at a party and spilled a drink on
yourself, if someone applied one of those stain stick/instant stain
removers to you, you would be very thankful and could stand with no
shame before anybody. So if God applies the forgiveness of sins that
Jesus accomplished on the cross to you, you would thank and praise
him. And you would thank and praise him by calling upon his name in
faith, happily speaking “I believe in God the Father Almighty, and
in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit.”
[“The
doctrine of the Trinity is proclaimed constantly in Invocation, Absolution, Gloria Patri, Kyrie, Gloria in
Excelsis, Collects, Creeds, General Prayer, Proper Preface, Sanctus,
and Benediction.” We worship like Trinitarians because we are. And this is a two way street - if we stopped worshipping like Trinitarians eventually we'd stop believing like Trinitarians.]
You can't talk about your salvation without talking about which God
gives it (that is, only the God who is revealed in Christ the Savior
– the Son begotten of the Father whose Spirit makes the Gospel
stick in our hearts. That's the only God that can forgive you your
sins). This only points out how much there is to celebrate on
Trinity Sunday . . . and every Sunday. For,
Only the God who is proclaimed to be “holy, holy, holy” can
order the burning coal to touch Isaiah's lips. This seems strange,
but it was exactly Isaiah's lips that led him to say “Woe is
me”, and we have the words which the angel spoke to interpret this
action: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken
away, and your sin atoned for.” And there are two wonderful points
about this burning coal. Okay, three. The first is that what is on
the altar is holy, set apart for God's saving use. So Isaiah
receives holiness from the Lord; it's not from Isaiah, not from his
works, but from God. Second, what is charcoal made out of anyway?
It's made from wood. How interesting that wood touches Isaiah's lips
and brings forgiveness. We know one particular piece of wood by
which Christ the Son offered the sacrifice that brings you the
forgiveness of sins and eternal life. And third, the coal is not
plain wood, but it is a burning/glowing coal – it is united with
fire. In the same way, we know of something that touches our lips
and is put on our tongues that is not just plain but is united with
something wonderful for God's saving purpose: The bread of holy
communion is not plain bread because it is bread united with the
living body of Christ because it is united to Christ's own words:
This is my body. And as this coal brought forgiveness to Isaiah, the
Sacrament brings forgiveness to sinners.
Looking at the above, we can say that Isaiah, writing over
700 years beforehand, saw Christ's glory. We can also say this because the Bible says this in
just those words: In the verses after today's reading, the Lord
speaks to Isaiah that his office of prophet won't be fun. But these
verses are mentioned in John chapter 12, “Though
he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in
him, 38
so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: .
. .
Isaiah
said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.”
And in Acts 28, Paul says, in so many words, that the Holy Spirit
speaks these words of God in Isaiah 6 to people, “And
disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one
statement: "The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers
through Isaiah the prophet:” So the Holy
Spirit speaks the glory of Jesus, whom Isaiah saw, and this is the
glory that Jesus and the Holy Spirit share equally with the Father,
ever one God, world without end. Amen. So this is a high day of praise. For behold, heaven meets earth where there is the sacrifice for sins given out. The Trinity meets sinners where the sacrifice is given out. Amen.
Conclusion: Amen because
Who takes away your uncleanness? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
whom angels and the Church confess as holy, holy, holy. Amen.
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