Holy! Holy! Holy!
June 7 , 2009
Trinity Sunday
Isaiah 6:1-8
In 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. Above 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. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.And 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!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
And 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.” (ESV).
Who is God? That may be the most important question in life. And everybody has his own opinion. The Hindu will say that there is not one God but many gods. The Buddhist will say that he is searching for the god within himself ... in the inner light of his soul. The Jehovah’s Witnesses will say that there is a big god, Jehovah, and a little god, Jesus. The Muslim will say that there is only one unknowable god and that Muhammad is his prophet. The Mormon will say that there are many gods and that you must learn to become one.1 But if we are wrong about who the true God really is, we are wrong enough to lose our souls for all eternity.2 It will not do to reduce God to a mere euphemism and call him a Supreme Being, or the Great Architect of the Universe, or God-as-you-understand him. The true God will not put up with such foolishness and falsehood.
But we Christians know who the one, true God is. We know because God has revealed his identity in the Bible. But more importantly, we know because God took upon himself human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. And the enfleshed Son of God has revealed the nature and essence of God’s being.
We, therefore, stand on Holy Scripture and say that God is Trinitarian. We believe, teach, and confess that there is only one God. But we also confess that this one God exists in three divine and coequal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is why we begin our services in the name of the Trinity, for it is he that we have gathered to worship. That is why, according to Jesus’ command, that we baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.3 That is why we close our services with the Aaronic benediction, with its threefold reference to the LORD, namely,
The LORD bless you and keep you.
The LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.4
When we go to our text, the seraphim bring forth a triplet of praise to but one God, singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD God of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”5 In this three-fold repetition of “holy” we cannot help but see the praise ascribed to each of the each of the three persons of the Holy Trinity.
We Christians do not believe in three gods, as is sometimes charged. Neither do we believe that God is one person who reveals himself sometimes as the Father, sometimes as the Son, sometimes as the Holy Spirit.6 No, we believe, as the Athanasian Creed says, that …
the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet, there are not three Gods, but one God . . . that there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity none is before or after another; none is greater or less than another. But the whole three persons are coeternal together and coequal, so that in all things . . . the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshiped.
This doctrine of the Holy Trinity is incomprehensible to human reason, for our minds cannot fathom how one God can exist as three distinct persons. Every earthly illustration is imperfect and inaccurate in one way or another. But some are helpful. For example, a shamrock (three leaf clover) has three leaves but is only one plant; a triangle has three sides but is only one triangle.
The most helpful analogy I have found comes from the field of chemistry. Chemists are aware of a phenomenon called the triple point. Suppose, for example, that we take the most common compound on earth, ordinary water, and place it in a laboratory vacuum tube. Suppose we, then, reduce the air pressure in the tube to 4.58 mm of mercury and lower the temperature to 32O F. Once the temperature and pressure are stabilized, we will observe a most interesting phenomenon. We will see ice, liquid water, and water vapor coexisting together at the same time. Each phase is clearly distinguishable from the other two.7 In this tube there is only one compound, H2O, but it exists at one and the same time in three distinct states, solid, liquid, and vapor. The contents of the tube are one as to essence, H2O, and three as to states (or phases) solid (ice), liquid, and vapor. Every college chemistry student knows of this phenomenon. It is called the triple-point of water. If, then, the most common substance on earth can be three-in-one at the same time, then the Creator of this universe surely will have no trouble in being three persons in one divine essence.
But our text teaches more than the Trinitarian nature of God. It begins with these words, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne.”8 The Lord whom Isaiah sees is God himself, for the prophet uses God's personal name, Yahweh, to identify him.9 We note, furthermore, that Yahweh manifests himself to Isaiah in human form, for the prophet identifies him as a king, yes, as a king who sits on a throne and who wears a robe. These actions of “sitting” and “wearing” can only be ascribed, in any real way, to humans and not to God, for God is spirit, without flesh and bones.10 But this Lord whom Isaiah sees appears to him as having flesh and bones.
Who, then, is this Lord who, in appearance, is a man, but who is also God? Could he be the pre-incarnate Christ? Yes! Is there any doubt about it? No! How can we be so sure? Because the apostle John makes the identification for us! In our text, Isaiah specifically says, “I saw the Lord.”11 But now note: St. John--with reference to this same passage in Isaiah--says, “Isaiah said these things because he saw his [Christ’s] glory and spoke of him.”12 How amazing is that?
There is another point to be observed. The “holy, holy, holy” of the seraphim caused the thresholds of the temple to quake and the temple itself to be filled with smoke. This happened because of the unutterable holiness and majesty of the pre-incarnate Christ. But the prophet did not join the angels in this hymn of praise. He couldn't. Standing before the perfect holiness of Christ, he suddenly becomes aware of his sinful depravity. And he is terrified!
Thus, he bursts out in an agonizing cry, “Woe is me!” This one piercing utterance is the spontaneous response of a soul that needs no convincing that it is ripe for judgment and worthy of death. So he cries, “Woe is me, for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”13
Let us learn well from Isaiah. A proper sense of God, especially when it’s up close and personal, always brings with it a terrifying sense of sin. Where there is no sense of sin, there is no proper sense of God. But today, as in Isaiah’s day, man’s sense of sin is terribly dulled because too many people are preoccupied with the pursuit of happiness, money (and the things that it can buy), and self-sufficiency. And self-sufficiency is very dangerous because it can lead to sinful pride. And as we all know pride is the national religion of hell. Indeed, hell’s national anthem is “I did it my way.”14
But self-sufficiency and doing things our way may well keep us away from church, from prayer, and from God's Word. How many people do you suppose used to be troubled when they missed Divine Service but are no longer troubled at all? Could it be that they are no longer bothered by their sins? But when a man comes before the presence of God, as Isaiah did, he shall not boast, but rather say, “Woe is me!” Indeed, when a man hears God say, “Why do you use my name to curse me and swear falsely?” it will move him to say with Isaiah, “I am a man of unclean lips.”15
Isaiah had confessed his unworthiness. What’s next? Scripture says, “If we confess our sins, he[God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”16 Now God would forgive his prophet. One of the seraphim flew to him and, with a live coal, touched the prophet’s lips. The angel said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven.”17
Please note the way God deals with his prophet. Isaiah confesses his sins and forthwith the coal of forgiveness is brought to him. This is a beautiful picture of our Savior’s love. Having offered himself on the cross for our sins, he comes to us, not with a live coal, but with his Word, and with his body and blood in the Sacrament. With his Word he pardons us. With the bread and the wine, he says to us, “Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.” Yes, beloved, St. John writes, “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin.”18 In Word and Sacrament, the Lord delivers his forgiveness to us. We may not feel forgiven. We may even be convinced that we are not forgiven. But we are abundantly forgiven for God has so promised. Feelings mean nothing; the promise means everything! Cling to his promise, beloved. Cling to the promises of our Triune God.
And so, with the Church throughout the ages, we say on Christmas day, “The King is born!” But there is more, much more! On Good Friday we utter the somber truth, “The King is dead!” But on Easter Sunday we joyously proclaim, “Long live the King!” On Ascension Day, the message rings out, “The King is crowned!” And we sing out, “Crown him with many crowns as thrones before him fall; Crown him, ye kings, with many crowns for he is King of all!”19 On Pentecost we declare, “The King's salvation has spread to all nations!” And on this Trinity Sunday, we shout from the mountaintop, “Our King Reigns: Three in One and One in Three to all eternity!”
May we trust, cling to, and sing the praises of the one, true God, the Triune God!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Endnotes
1 See Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 346-47. See also the 7th item at http://www.carm.org/religious-movements/mormonism/what-does-mormonism-teach.
2 God, in the first commandment, forbids the worship of any god but the true God.
3 See Matthew 28:19.
4 See Numbers 6:24-26.
5 See Isaiah 6:3.
6 This heresy is often called Modalism or Monarchianism. One of the first to teach it was Sabbelius, and his theology is often referred to as Sabellianism.
7 My description of how the vacuum tube looks at the triple point is somewhat different from the usual laboratory observation. The actual equipment and observation will look like that shown at the link http://www.npl.co.uk/educate-+-explore/beginners-guides-posters/triple-point-of-water-cell.
8 Historians date King Uzziah’s death at 740 B.C.
9 In verses 3 and 5 Isaiah calls him the LORD [Yahweh] of hosts.
10 On Easter Sunday, Jesus appeared in the upper room. We read, “As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:36-39, ESV).
11 Isaiah 6:1.
12 See John 12:41, ESV. Emphasis mine. See Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1965) p. 237; H.C. Leupold, Exposition of Isaiah, vols. 1 and 2 in 1 vol. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977), pp. 128-129; F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes: Isaiah, trans. James Martin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, n.d.), p. 190; R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Gospel (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1943) pp. 889-890; F.W. Wenzel, The Wenzel Commentary: An Exegetical Study Based on a Harmony of the Gospels, ed. Martin H. Wenzel (Bemidji, Minnesota: Arrow Printing, 1986), p. 612.
13 Take from Isaiah 6:5, KJV.
14 From “My Way” sung by Frank Sinatra et al. See http://www.lyricsondemand.com/f/franksinatralyrics/mywaylyrics.html.
15 Taken from Isaiah 6:5.
16 Taken from 1 John 1:9, ESV.
17 Taken from Isaiah 6:6-7.
18 See 1 John 1:7.
19 See LSB #525, stanza 5.
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