The Holy Trinity Study
THE HOLY TRINITY 05-30-2021
FIRST READING: Isaiah 6:1-8
This reading tells of the call of Isaiah to be God’s prophet to his people, the southern kingdom of Judah.
Have you ever noticed that things aren’t always as they seem at first glance? When Isaiah began his work as a prophet, the nation seemed quite strong and wealthy. But God saw injustice and unconcern toward the poor… and God ached over religious “lip service” to God that never transitioned into faithful obedience… and God was saddened that (divinely inspired) outside threats by nearby neighbors and by faraway monster empires would not bring the people to humble themselves and to seek God’s mercy and intervention… and God was angry that the people would rely instead on their material wealth, religious pretense, or political alliances to get them through the challenges. Something or someone had to wake the people up.
Today’s verses begin with the death of a king. If King Uzziah represented stability to Judah, what would his death mean? Why does God choose this time to call Isaiah?
The call of Isaiah is quite dramatic – the awesome and mighty presence of God, strange six-winged seraphs (some sort of angelic messengers speaking for God?), resounding voices singing praise, structural surroundings shaking and rattling, fire and smoke, the called prophet trembling in fear and humbled down to sheer guilt. Have you ever experienced God’s dramatic presence – “a burning coal” – in a way that caused you to be awestruck? Guilt ridden? Cleansed?
Isaiah’s mouth was touched with a hot coal, burning away his guilt, destroying his sins. Then God asked for a volunteer to represent God’s will and God’s truth. Isaiah – transformed by his experience of God’s glory and might, God’s mercy and will – was willing to go. Are you willing to serve anytime, anywhere? Let God send you!
God meets us in our shame, guilt, disappointment, fearfulness, and smallness… does what it takes to cleanse us and make us whole… and sends us forth to tell, to act, to serve, to love.
“Here am I; send me!” Note the exclamation point. When have you been like Isaiah in your enthusiasm to go for God? When have you been more reluctant and said something like, “OK, I’ll go if I have to.”? Or even, “NO WAY!”?
May we be just as resounding in our responding as Isaiah was!
SECOND READING: Romans 8:12-17
This reading is part of a larger section where Paul discusses Christian life and human experience. Will our lives be “according to the flesh” or “by the Spirit”? Will we “fall back into fear” as if we are slaves to sin or will we be led by the Spirit because we have been “adopted as God’s children” and have become “joint heirs with Christ”?
Do we know how dearly God has loved us… how the death and resurrection of Jesus redeemed us… and that the Holy Spirit leads and encourages and empowers us?
And will this help us to be faithful and encouraged in times of suffering and evil that surround and assail us, and in a world of fading treasures and fleeting pleasures that tempt us, and in those times when we are haunted by whispers that we are unsuccessful failures – even in our Christian walk?
Death, flesh, and slavery stand on one side. Life, spirit, and adoption stand on the other side. Come alive!
GOSPEL READING: John 3:1-17
Many of us are probably familiar with this reading – even if we forget some of the details. We perhaps remember those secretive shadows of night and those clouded shadows of confusion as a trained and learned Pharisee who was a member of the highest Jewish ruling authority, the council known as the Sanhedrin – a man who therefore might represent both the great passion and the rigid righteousness of the established religious leadership – discusses matters of faith and faithfulness with this traveling “rabbi” named Jesus. There is confusion
and puzzlement in that conversation. Being re-born from the human womb and being re-born “from
above”, that is, “of water and the Spirit”. The meaning of “The wind blows where it chooses.” Earthly things and heavenly things. The Son of Man, descending from heaven… then being “lifted up”… then ascending back into heaven. God’s great love. God’s gracious giving and sending. And those powerful two verses:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may
not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn
the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” [John 3:16-17]
The heart of this familiar passage is that we human beings stand in the need of a new self. While Christians might debate the issue of how this can or should be done, the central issue is clear:
We need a new birth from God.
Jesus was telling Nicodemus that this new birth will be accomplished by “lifting up” Jesus on the cross.
It can feel threatening to become vulnerable and dependent, to allow ourselves to “let go and let God” blow us here and there by the “wind” of the Spirit. May we trust God to lead, transform, and sustain us! May we find peace, power, and promise in the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ for us! The truth is”
We need a new birth from God.
More about Nicodemus:
In John 7:50-52 – when other Pharisees, chief priests, and, most likely, members of the Sanhedrin are angrily discussing the “Jesus problem” – Nicodemus takes a risk and speaks out against their willingness to condemn the man without even talking to him. For that he receives scalding criticism.
In John 19:38-42 – after Jesus’ death on the cross – a disciple-in-secret called Joseph of Arimethea asks for and receives permission from the Roman civil authorities to remove the body of Jesus from his cross at the place of the Skull, Golgotha; then he and Nicodemus prepare it for burial with one hundred pounds of spices that Nicodemus has brought, and bury it in a new tomb that has never been used before. Certainly, this was again a risk of public exposure with potential negative results… at such a time as after Jesus is dead and presumably gone.
Was Nicodemus a secret believer in Jesus? Or might he perhaps have been a sincere “seeker” who wasn’t ready to either openly confess faith in Jesus or to vehemently condemn and reject him… who felt drawn to hear more?
Reflection
Have you ever found that your fear of others, that your concern for your reputation and status, was sometimes in conflict with your love for Jesus? Have you ever divided your Christian faith and witness into “public” and “private” expressions? If so, which represents the real you?
Do you understand that your past failures and fears are lifted away and blown aside by the Spirit as you entrust your life to Christ’s love? Jesus invites all of us to receive life as God’s gift.
We need a new birth from God.