A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Deana Dudley

at Holy Fellowship Metropolitan Community Church, London, Ontario

and Christos Metropolitan Community Church, Toronto, Ontario

15 June 2003 – Trinity Sunday – Father’s Day – Pride Month

You know, there’s a calendar that many, most, churches use, that keeps us moving through the church year, and today – in addition to being Father’s Day – is the day that’s designated to celebrate the Holy Trinity. As near as I can tell, it’s the only Sunday devoted to a doctrine, to an abstraction, to the concept of three-ness. Now, normally, a doctrine isn’t something I’d preach on, and I try not to be TOO abstract, as a rule. But here it is in the calendar, giving us a wonderful opportunity to explore the mystery of the Triune nature of the God who is three persons, yet one God.

In the traditional formulation, God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I always knew a day would come when I’d have to get up and try to explain this, in 15 minutes or less! God help me, it’s not easy. Worse, I have this horrible fear that it’s boring; no one’s interested in it. Who’s interested in doctrine? I mean, I just figure, God is God, and that’s good enough for me, not that God needs my permission.

But what I have found as I’ve kind of reflected on this for a bit, is that really, God’s made known to us in LOTS of different ways. And one of the ways – three of the ways, actually, I guess – that the church has recognized, are these three specific ways, through God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now, we may give these three manifestations of God other deisgnations. You know when I give a blessing at the end of the service, I usually refer to the God who created us, redeems us and sustains us. Well, that’s who I mean. That same Triune God. It’s just a more inclusive way of expressing the same concept. Today, since it is also Father’s Day, I think it’s especially appropriate to look a little bit at the notion of God the Father, and how that imagery might be expanded in our hearts and minds. Because all three of these manifestations of God are one in will and in purpose, but may be varied in their activity in our lives.

Actually, I have no problem with the notion of a God who is 3 in 1. Where I maybe veer off into heresy, is that I also have no problem with a God who might also be, say, 347 in 1. Because I suspect that we cannot ever exhaust all the ways in which in infinite God can be experienced and known. But that’s hard to explain, so like many amateur theologians before me, I’m tempted just to punt and say,.... "It’s a mystery. It’s just a great big freakin’ mystery, OK?"

This concept of a God who is both one and three, also challenges us because it’s not in the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that God is three in one. The scriptures do not explain the doctrineof the Trinity. Only ONCE is the traditional phrase, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, used in the Bible, in the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus gives the Great Commission. Certainly, God as a parent who creates, as a beloved child who redeems, as a Holy Spirit who comforts and sustains us are all present in scripture passages. But the actual doctrine of the Trinity wasn’t actually developed for a few hundred years after Jesus. So we’re faced with a dilemma. As followers of Jesus Christ, who are trying to give the bible its proper due, we’re faced with the absolute silence of scripture on the Trinity. We want to understand, and yet we cannot seek explicit answers on this doctrine of the Trinity from scripture.

So why bother? Who cares? Well, I have a sneaking suspicion that this notion of a Triune God is actually kind of important, but not because it comes from scripture. The doctrine of the Trinity is important to us, though, because it helps us to describe how we know and experience God. When we talk about the Trinity, we’re answering questions about how we experience God. How does God act in our lives? How do we know God is working in us? How do we know God is present and involved with us? How do we know God is THERE?

I suspect that those were questions that bothered the prophet Isaiah too, so we’re in good company. And the passage that we read today from Isaiah describes how the prophet Isaiah experienced God. And Isaiah doesn't use the phrase Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but in a weird kind of way, I think his experience does help us to understand a bit of the mystery of a Triune God.

In Isaiah's vision, God was sitting on a throne. Seraphs were flying around shouting and singing praises to God. And at the sound of their voices, the doors shook and the temple filled with smoke. So in this vision, Isaiah sees God as a very transcendent being, far above anything humans have ever known. Isaiah's experience of God goes beyond any scientific explanation. God’s not like anything else in ordinary experience.

A transcendent God is distant, not because God doesn’t love us, but because God is so different from us, so different from anything created, that we cannot meet God face to face. Isaiah encounters God as the Ruler of the universe, "high and lofty," sitting on the throne. The hem of God’s robe fills the Temple, as if there’s nowhere to escape the presence of God, no place to which God’s power does not extend. Even the seraphs don’t dare look directly at the divine presence; they have to cover their eyes with their wings. Isaiah experiences this transcendence of God, this complete otherness of God, as God sits in majesty on the throne.

And after coming in contact with such a majestic God, Isaiah suddenly becomes brutally aware of his own sinfulness. he suddenly feels aware of his all-too-human frailties, which are now laid bare before God. I kind of picture him trying to fade into the woodwork, going "Ooooops!" He’s a little uncomfortable coming into contact with God’s holiness. Because when he looks at this holy God, he sees himself and the people as helpless and hopeless. "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips."

And that just adds to the sense of separation between God and humans. God’s not just bigger in scope than human beings. God is greater in wisdom and sheer goodness. This transcendent God is separated from humans, not just by distance, but by righteousness. Isaiah felt that in comparison to God's absolute moral authority, he was judged and found wanting. He’s almost paralyzed with a sense of awe in God’s power, and in his own inadequacy.

And in response, God has one of the seraphs touch Isaiah's mouth with a glowing coal from the fire on the altar. He’s cleansed, and he experiences God’s forgiveness. He gets to let go of that "woe is me" baggage. And after the forgiveness is pronounced, after he lets go, then Isaiah hears God calling him, saying "Who will go for me?" and Isaiah says, "Here, I am; send me!" Send me to tell your good news, God. ‘Cause now I’ve experienced it.... I know you’re with me God.

So in Isaiah’s vision, God is not only transcendent and holy, but God is also immanent, fully present. Although God is distant and greater than humans, God seeks us out. God does not just remain distant, far off, unconcerned with the need of the world for redemption, leaving us to our own problems. God wills that we would come to know God, to know God’s love and grace and mercy, up close and personal, so God extends an invitation to the people. Here, Isaiah experiences the immanence of God, who is present, not far off, but right there in front of him. A God who is always seeking to reach across the vast gulf between us to be in relationship with us.

I need to digress from Isaiah for a minute, and tell you a little bit about my family reunion. While I was there, I got to spend some time talking with my cousin Jim. Actually, Jim is my mother’s first cousin, which makes him my first cousin, once removed. Anyhow, Jim has always been near and dear to my heart ‘cause he’s just a good ol’ boy, and a real sweetheart. And, he indirectly led to my coming out to my entire family, nearly giving him a heart attack in the process, but that’s not the Jim story I want to tell; that’s another story, and it’s a hoot – ask me later.

Anyhow, Jim was telling me what it was like when he came home from the war, WWII. He was in the Navy, in the Pacific, and saw some nasty fighting, and when he got mustered out at the end of the war, he was never so glad to get shed of any organization in his life as he was to leave the U.S. Navy. The first thing he did was, he took his mustering out pay and went and bought a whole suit of brand new clothes, and just left his uniform on the dressing room floor. Even new shoes. And then he headed straight home. Well, it took him a few days, hitching rides, to get back to Southern Illinois, and he had to walk a good bit of the last stretch. And when he got to his parents’ house, he hugged his mom, and she told him "Your Pa’s out plowing in the back field."

So Jim dropped his bags right there and headed straight for that field. And his father, my great-uncle Doc, spotted him from a ways off, across the field, and looked and squinted, and then finally, with great joy, he recognized his son. And I think he recognized Jim from a distance because partly because for that whole time he was gone, Uncle Doc was kind of always scanning the horizion... waiting for him to come home. God is always scanning the horizon for us always looking for us to show up and say, like Isaiah,... "Here I am"

And Uncle Doc just dropped the reins – he was plowing with a team of horses – and came running across the newly plowed field and grabbed him and hugged him and just cried for joy,that his son was home safe from the war. I’ve often thought that might just be one of the best descriptions of what heaven will be like as I’ve ever heard.

When Jim told me this, he also added, that after all the rejoicing, Uncle Doc just put him straight back to work on the farm. There was a lot to do, and Uncle Doc kept him pretty busy. But Jim also noted that Uncle Doc also didn’t get TOO upset when he sent him to town to fetch something, and he didn’t get back for a couple of days. There was some grace and forgiveness, too. And I just love that picture of that father-son reunion. They had their differences over the years, but just then, they were THERE for each other and they renewed a wonderful relationship. I’m guessing, it’s at least in part because when Jim headed out to the field to meet his father, he left his baggage back at the house. I find that sometimes, when I want to have a relationship with a Father God... or with my father, God rest his soul, .... I have to leave some baggage behind, too.

So what’s that got to do with Isaiah? Well, we need to know that God is not just that transcendent, inexpressible, other-worldly, distant ruler of the universe. And although God does appear in judgment, we need to leave some of that baggage behind, God invites us to leave it behind, because God also appears in mercy and redemption. After Isaiah confesses his sinfulness in the presence of this holy God, he is forgiven , and his relationship with God is restored. He’s been renewed, given new life, and now he receives a commission from God.

God tells the prophet that he’s going to be speaking to a people that won’t listen and won’t understand what God’s doing. But God tells him, "Go anyway! Go offer them grace and mercy and redemption, even if they don’t accept it." This immanent and fully present God extends grace even if we’re not ready to accept it. This almighty, holy God is not unconcerned or distant. Not too high and mighty to want to be with us. In fact, God gives us the power of God’s Spirit, and the grace to face even the foulest places in our own souls. Isaiah experienced this transcendent, holy, and immanent God in his vision of the temple. This holy, transcendent, inexpressible God comes to us in immanence, fully present with us at every moment. Now, THAT’S a great big freakin’ mystery.

This mystery of the transcendence and holiness, immanence and presence – all happening at once – kind of sheds a little light, for me at least, on the mystery of a Triune God. God the Father/Creator/Ruler is indescribable and mysterious. And yet that distant God came close to us, revealed most fully in God the Son, God the Redeemer. And God is fully present with us even now, through the working of God the Holy Spirit, the Sustainer of our souls.

So in the end, this isn’t just an intellectual exercise. It gives us a starting point for understanding how we know God personally and intimately. The Trinity isn’t just a doctrine to be unquestioningly accepted, but explains what it means to come face to face with the God who is transcendent, holy, and immanent, who has chosen to dwell with us, to love us, to redeem us and to sustain us forever.