Trinity Sunday, Yr B (2024), The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Trinity Sunday, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Isaiah 6:1-8 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-17
In the name of the one, holy, and living God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
In today’s readings we are invited on a journey through the Trinity:
Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifying Spirit…
The three in one and one in three.
Let us begin with Isaiah’s experience,
by stepping into his shoes,
and living into the vision he sees
as he is called and empowered by God…
“In the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty;
and the hem of his robe filled the temple.”
Let us imagine for a moment that Isaiah is sitting right here in this holy space,
looking up toward the altar.
Here he sees the Lord sitting on a throne,
Yahweh’s robes are billowing out and filling up this whole space –
all the way from the altar to the font,
from the “Come unto me” window to the “Pisgah” window,
from the highest beam to the lowest crevice!
Angels are in attendance above the Lord.
Each of them has six wings:
two covering their faces,
two covering their feet,
and two with which they fly.
Each of the angels is calling out to another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
The sound of this unending hymn is so loud and glorious
that the walls are shaking,
the beams are creaking,
and even the stained glass is vibrating in chorus.
The whole room is filled with fragrant incense.
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
And there is Isaiah sitting on the back pew,
feeling as tiny as a little ant in the midst of such glory and wonder and awe…
feeling utterly invisible as the hem of Yahweh’s robe brushes across his face.
“Woe is me!” he says. “I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips.”
I am one who has many faults and has made many mistakes.
I have succumbed to many of the temptations around me.
But…
in the midst of such grace and glory,
he suddenly sees his own life clearly –
if only for a moment.
I have not only been hurt but have myself inflicted pain on others, at times unwittingly.
I have, at times, felt lost in the valley of the shadow of death.
Woe is me.
I am not worthy.
And yet!
And yet “my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
As Isaiah sits in this moment of clarity,
a moment filled equally with the startling reality of his own sinfulness
as well as the awesomeness and glory and goodness of God,
a most striking thing happens…
God has taken notice of this little man on the back pew,
this little man hidden from all other eyes.
One of the seraphs flies straight to him,
holding a live coal that has been taken from the altar.
The seraph touches his mouth and says,
“Now that this has touched your lips,
your guilt has departed
and your sin is blotted out.”
You are free.
You are made whole.
God’s cleansing fire,
which burns away all impurities,
has touched Isaiah and given him hope.
Then the Lord speaks…
and I imagine God’s voice is not loud and shattering,
but instead is gentle,
loving,
inviting….
“Whom shall I send,
and who will go for us?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Isaiah knows his response:
“Here am I;
send me!”
Every time I hear this story,
I am touched…
and emboldened,
even if just for a moment.
Much of the time, I would wager, most of us feel like hiding out on the back pew of life,
being overwhelmed by the awesomeness of God,
feeling too unworthy or too inept to be sent into the harvest.
But every now and then, the Spirit of God burns within us,
taking hold of our lives – even if just for a moment or two –
and we know that we can indeed be a light to the world.
We can, indeed, be agents of God’s justice, compassion, and love in this world
as the Trinity has revealed to us through Creator, Redeemer, and Holy Spirit.
My friends, God is calling us.
God is inviting us just as we are.
God calls us in the midst of our sinful and broken lives.
God, in fact, has gifted each one of us with gifts to build up the Kingdom of God.
There is no gift too small to share.
The key is being willing to surrender to God -
being willing to say:
“Here am I; Send me!”
The disconcerting part of this God-calling, Jesus-bearing, Spirit-infused life
is that we may not be sure of what will happen when we offer ourselves
to the work of the Spirit…
Perhaps we expect nothing more than what we’ve already experienced in our lives,
and yet it is entirely possible that in answering God’s call to follow,
we just might be exposed to the Gospel:
that is, we just might be exposed to the miraculous.
Every week we gather together in this holy place
to experience the glory and Grace of God.
Every week we gather together in this holy place
to listen to the stories of the ways in which Jesus embodied such Grace.
Every week we gather together in this holy place
to be reminded that the Spirit empowers us to be agents of reconciliation
in this broken and sinful world.
So…I invite each of us as we go forth from this place
to envision ourselves sitting before the throne of God, and reporting:
“Then one of the seraphs flew to me,
holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.
“The seraph touched my mouth with it and said:
‘Now that this has touched your lips,
your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying,
‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’
And I said, ‘Here am I;
send me!’”
Send me!
Come, Holy Sprit, come.
AMEN.
