Last Sunday we celebrated the giving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday. Today we celebrate the trinity of our God, that is that our God reveals and shows Himself to us as a God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, yet three persons. We celebrate that the oneness of the plurality of our God is never divided so that wherever the Father is, there is the Son and the Holy Spirit. Wherever the Holy Spirit is, there is the Father and the Son and wherever the Son is, there is the Father and the Holy Spirit. This trinity may not be something we completely understand or can completely and comprehensively explain, but this trinity is how God reveals Himself to us and so this is what we believe.
In our text for this Holy Trinity Sunday we see and hear the trinity of our God in the Trinitarian doxology sang by the angels and we see and hear how we might well emulate Isaiah’s response, his confession, God’s absolution and God’s calling to each of us in our vocation. We begin with the song of the seraphim, verse one, “1In 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. 2Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3And one called to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’” (v. 1-3).
The seraphim were one of the ranks of the angels who serve God and humanity. In his vision, Isaiah sees these angels of the Lord serving the Lord on His throne in His temple. He sees how even the angels show their humility before God, as with their wings they have covered their face and their feet.
And we get a bit of heavenly liturgy as we hear their Trinitarian hymn of praise: “Holy, Holy, Holy.” “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.”
Although this is a vision, Isaiah is compelled to confess his sins as he stands in the awesome presence of the Lord. We pick up at verse four, “4And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5And I said: “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!” (v. 4-5).
In this vision, Isaiah recognizes that he is in the presence of God. The awesomeness of God is felt in the shaking of the foundation of the temple. It was the voice of God that caused the foundations to shake.
Upon hearing the voice of God and understanding that no one can see God and live, because of man’s sinfulness, Isaiah recognizes his sins and repents, “Woe is me.” And the confession of his sins is a simple confession, “I am a man of unclean lips, . . .” And remember, this is Isaiah the prophet, a great man, called by God to proclaim His Word to the people, certainly someone we might expect would be above the fray so to speak, someone we might not believe to be too bad a person, maybe we might even consider someone who is not so much a sinner, yet Isaiah recognizes his condition before a sinless, holy God, that he is a sinner indeed and has no standing before a perfect God. So, Isaiah confesses.
And God grants Isaiah absolution. We pick up at verse six, “6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for” (v. 6-7).
On Sunday morning, when we confess our sins, we hear God’s Word of absolution as our pastor, the “called and ordained servant of the Word,” announces the grace of God upon us and forgives us our sins. For Isaiah, the seraphim took the tongs and took a coal and touched his lips. In this act of purification, his sins were forgiven.
And the angel announced, “your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” This word, “atone” literally means “to cover.” That our sins are atoned for means that they have been covered. And this covering does not mean simply a covering as a hiding, or a putting of something over them so they are not seen. This is not a whitewashing of sins. This atoning, this covering means that the price for sin has been covered, has been paid.
Having called Isaiah to repentance and having confessed his sin, and having been forgiven, we now have God’s call to ministry and Isaiah’s response. Verse eight, “8And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me’” (v. 8).
Isaiah has been in the presence of God and has lived. He has confessed his sins and been given forgiveness. He has heard the song of the seraphim. And now he hears the voice of the Lord God Himself who asks, “Whom shall I send?”
How else could Isaiah respond? God chose Isaiah. God forgave him his sins. God showed him His angels. God spoke so that he heard God’s voice. Indeed, when God called him how else could he respond except that he responded with the words, “Here am I, Send me.”
What Does This mean? God reveals Himself to us as a Triune God. Did you notice the word of the Lord? God asks, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” God speaks of Himself in the singular and in the plural. Of course, this is not our first encounter of such language. In Genesis we have the plurality of God saying, “Let us make man in our image” (Gen. 1:26). In Deuteronomy we have God, and the word God is in the plural, telling Israel, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God (again, plural), the Lord is one” (Deut. 4:6). In his Gospel, John speaks of the persons of the trinity as a whole with all the persons of the trinity being in existence since before the creation of the world. And the list of these passages goes on and on through Holy Scripture. Our God is a God who is three persons in one God. We may not be able to completely explain it, but this is what God says and so this is what is true.
Just as God revealed Himself to Isaiah, so He reveals Himself to us. And just as God showed Isaiah his sin, so God shows us our sins. God reminds us that we are conceived and born in sin. He reminds us that every inclination of our heart is evil all the time. God reminds us that we sin in thought, word and deed. God reminds us that we sins sin of commission, doing what we should not be doing and sins of omission, failing to do what we should be doing. One look at our world, one look at the newspaper, at televison, listening to the radio and so forth, should more than anything convince us of the truth of God’s Word, we are sinners indeed and sinners in need.
Because of our sin and even more, because of God’s promise to send a Savior, which He fulfilled in Christ. Because of Christ’s giving His life to pay the price for our sins, eternal spiritual death, and because of the message of the Gospel, we are moved to confess our sins. Remember, it is not the Law but the Gospel that moves us to repent. The Law moves us either to despair, thinking there is no hope for us, or to works righteousness, thinking we can earn our forgiveness. The Gospel which speaks of Jesus’ perfect life for us, of His perfect suffering, death and resurrection for us which moves us to repent of our sins, sins already paid for and forgiven. And so as we begin our Divine Service, as we come into God’s presence in our sin the first thing we do is confess our sins so that we might enter into God’s presence and we do confess that we sin. We confess that we sin in thought, word and deed; that we sin sins of commission and omission, that we fail to live lives of faith, that we fail to live lives as priests in the priesthood of all believers, in other words we fail to live lives as living sacrifices for the Lord and instead, we live lives for ourselves. And so we confess.
And upon our confession, we are given God’s absolution, earned and paid for by God Himself, by Jesus, God in flesh. Today, the Lord does not send an angel, a seraphim to take a coal with tongs and touch it to our lips, rather, today our Lord comes to us, especially on Sunday morning, when we confess our sins, and we hear the word of the Lord as spoken through our pastor when he says, as we heard this morning, “Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for you and for His sake forgives you all your sins. As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And our response is the response of faith, “Amen.”
So, God reveals Himself to us, as He did to Isaiah, as a triune God. God shows us our sins, as He did to Isaiah, calling us to repentance. We repent, because of the Gospel and the promise of forgiveness, as did Isaiah and finally, as God called Isaiah, so God calls us. Today He calls us to our vocation. God calls us to live our lives as living sacrifices for Him. God calls us to live our lives in such a way that they show for the faith that is in our hearts. God calls us and we answer, “Here am I, send him, send her.” Right? Unfortunately that is usually our answer. But, thanks be to God that as we fail and when we fail and no matter how often we fail, He gives us forgiveness, picks us up and gives us another chance and another chance and another chance. So, eventually we might better respond as Isaiah, “Here am I, send me, send me!”
Notice, again, as in every instance as we hear God’s Word, it all begins with Him. God revealed Himself to Isaiah. God reveals Himself to us. God called Isaiah to repentance. God calls us to repentance. God granted Isaiah absolution. God grants us absolution. God called Isaiah to service. God calls us to service through our vocation. God does. God gives. God calls. God moves. God starts. God begins. God initiates. And we are done to, called, moved, started, begun, initiated and given to. My prayer is that our song may be the song of the angels, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (v. 3b). To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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