Isaiah 6.1-8 John 3.1-17
I was ordained deacon in Durham Cathedral on Trinity Sunday 1968, and priested there a year later. In those days ordinations took place at Trinity, before being moved to the feast of Peter & Paul at the end of June. I recollect that much has changed in the intervening period. Not just about the date of ordinations. Our whole perception of the concept of the Trinity has changed. It isn’t that we have changed our belief in a Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The change has been in how we view the concept. When at college and in the early days of ministry the emphasis was on the ‘how’ question – how to explain the unexplainable. How to find pictures which tried to be helpful in the quest – was the Trinity like a three leaf clover – could it be seen as three states of the Godhead – like H2O can be ice, water, and steam. Whatever image was used, it fell down because it didn’t encompass all the aspects of Trinity. Convoluted words didn’t help either. In the fourth century, about the time of the completion of the canon of the New Testament, St Athanasius devised the longest of the creeds of the church. A document rarely, if ever, referred to these days. It can be found in the Book of Common Prayer under the title Quicunque Vult. In it Athanasius attempted to attribute the characteristics of the Father to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, those of the Son to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and those of the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son. While attempting to maintain both their identity and their unity – you see how complicated it got!!
That was the beginning of what we call the developed doctrine of the Trinity. In recent years we have come to stress the unity of the Godhead, and the relational nature of the three ‘persons’ of the Godhead. The question has moved from ‘how’ to ‘why’. Our readings today can help us with the ‘why’ question.
The first part of the prophecy of Isaiah started in 742BC and continued to 701BC. Isaiah spoke from the centre of power in Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom of Judah. His prophecy began by recognising God (Yahweh) as the true king – the one whose universal reign brought righteousness and judgement to a sinful people. Before continuing with his prophecy he interjects a passage about the nature of his call. What we read this morning was the beginning of that. It allows us to pinpoint the moment – the year 742 – “the year King Uzziah died”. Isaiah has a vision of being visited by God. He protests his unworthiness for the task God wants him to pursue – “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips.” Symbolically, his lips are cleansed by a burning coal as God asks who will be sent in his name to speak to the people. Isaiah responds “Here I am: send me” with humility and resolution.
Why put this personal story of call here? It serves to show that Isaiah’s words are truly from God. The vision-report gives an account of the prophet’s experience of God, which leads him to worship, to understanding, and finally to action. Action which was to give, at times, unpalatably harsh messages to successive kings until the time, in 701, when the kingdom was over-run by the invasion of the Assyrian king Sennacharib’s army.
The gospel reading from John told us of the Jewish leader, Nicodemus’, first encounter with Jesus. John tells the story of him coming to Jesus under the cover of darkness. He wants to know more about Jesus and his message, without, one supposes, the sanction of his fellow leaders for doing such a thing. There is enough material in this passage to fill at least three sermons. But I am going to concentrate on just two aspects which have a bearing on our quest to understand the Trinity.
The first is Jesus’ assertion, “no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit”. This had been Jesus’ experience; baptised by John the Baptist in the river Jordan, the spirit came upon him and God pronounced himself pleased with his Son to that point in life and ministry.
The second comes at the end of the passage we read. “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.” John adds a postscript – all this was done so that the world might be saved, rather than be condemned.
You will note that these two readings somewhat underplay the role of the Spirit. If we had used the third of the reading set for the day, from the letter to the Romans, this imbalance would have been redressed.
So how does this doctrine of the Trinity, developed in the fourth century, help us understand, as far as we are able, the activity of God in our time? It prompts us to look beyond the narrow confines of the church. As St John says this is about God’s love being for more than just the church – it is for all the world - Jesus came to bring the possibility of eternal life for all.
The doctrine stops us accentuating one part of the Trinity to the exclusion of the other parts. We can’t say we just like the Father as the creator. Or we are just followers of Jesus. Or it’s just the Holy Spirit who appeals to us. The doctrine of the Trinity ensures that we do not make God too small. God is not a God to put in our pocket for a rainy day, but a God who is so big that we continue to be amazed.
May we continue to be inspired by the persons of the Trinity, working in harmony and unity. May we continue to be inspired, as Isaiah was to begin his prophecy in worship to the God of righteousness, mercy, and grace. Isaiah’s experience of God, leads him to worship, to understanding and to action. May our faith in the Holy Trinity – God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit – lead us forward to worship God more fully as we act to support the most needy in our community and our world.
Revd Graham Earney