Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Isaiah 6:1-7)
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!”
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
The word “Trinity” is actually not in the bible—and often Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists are quick to point this fact out to us. But when we talk about the Trinity, we are not talking about something abstract—we’re talking about God himself: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The teaching of the Holy Trinity is what Scripture teaches about God. And also, especially in the early times in the church, Christians were forced by false teachers to think about what they believed about the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Christians listened to these voices from the world in which they lived, and they turned to the Scripture and said: what does the Holy Spirit say about this in the word of God?
They knew from Scripture that there was only one God: but there was a Father, a Son and a Holy Spirit, who are all called true God in the New Testament. Jesus says in our Gospel reading today, that “no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” We read last week in our Pentecost reading, that the Father will send the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. Jesus tells us that he will send the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Then of course, Jesus commands the apostles to baptise “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The last verse of 2 Corinthians says: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Also, there’s the baptism of Jesus, where the Father speaks from heaven that the man in the water is his beloved Son, and on him the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove.
So there are all these different things in the Scripture which tell us about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
So when we say the creeds, we have to remember that they are not some little statements that some lone monk from the dark ages just came up with one day out of the blue to solve the problems of the church. The creeds developed over time through prayer, bible-study and experience, as other people around the church threatened to undermine the clear words of Scripture. All sorts of people were killed because they believed what the creed says. This is a serious business!
You see, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the creeds are not simply doctrine: they are a boundary, or a fence. The creeds are the living witness of the church to the clear words of Scripture. If anyone deviates outside of that fence, outside of the boundary, we know that they are deviating outside of the things which the Scripture teaches. So it’s important for us to go over and read the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed. There’s also a third creed, which we don’t use in church very often because it’s extremely long, called the Athanasian Creed.
So when we talk about the Holy Trinity, we’re not talking about words or concepts or ideas, we’re talking about the God who loves us, who is real, and actually exists. When we say the creeds, and confess the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, we are simply describing what we know about God and who he is.
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But the text I’ve chosen to preach on today is out Old Testament reading from Isaiah chapter 6. And this text is chosen in our lectionary because it contains words which foreshadow the Holy Trinity. The angels sing the word: “Holy”, not once, not twice, but three times. “Holy, holy, holy.”
On Ascension just past, I preached at Traralgon church on Ezekiel chapter 1, which is the main passage in the Old Testament about cherubim: the living creatures of God with their wings, their faces, and their wheels which carry them from place to place. Above the cherubim, we read, is an expanse of crystal, and above the expanse is the throne on which God is seated. Jesus has ascended to the right hand of God, so that he is seated with God above the expanse. So our Lord Jesus Christ is “seated enthroned above the cherubim” as it says in Psalm 99, or as it says in Psalm 18: “he rides on the cherubim.”
But in Isaiah 6, this is the central passage about the seraphim. Often in hymns and in the liturgy sometimes, we talk about the cherubim and the seraphim: different living creatures that God has created to serve him.
In fact, this text is the only passage in the whole bible where the word
“seraphim” is used.
“seraphim” is used.
So let’s read the text:
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon the 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, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
In Ezekiel chapter 1, the prophet Ezekiel describes God as being above the cherubim, and the cherubim as below God’s throne. But here in Isaiah, the seraphim are above God and his throne. They do not have a higher position than God, they simply serve God from above.
But we also see in the seraphim their great modesty, and their great humility. In the presence of God, they cover their faces and they cover their feet.
And they call to one another, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
The word for “hosts” in Hebrew is צבאות (tseva’oth). You might have heard this word before, “Lord of Sabaoth.” That word comes from this passage: “Lord of hosts”. God is the Lord not just for himself, but he has hosts: a mighty army of angels and archangels. And not only that, he gathers men and women throughout the centuries, brings them into his church, to be part of that great crowd, that great host. Hebrews says that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
And when Isaiah hears this great song, we read:
And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
This smoke covers Isaiah’s eyes and leaves him in the dark. He has seen what no person on earth can see.
And so he says: “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.”
There is so much in this passage that relates right to the heart and centre of what we gather here in church to do every Sunday. We sing the same song that the angels sing: “Holy, holy, holy”. We say in the liturgy that we sing this together with “angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.”
Also, notice at the end of the reading it says that Isaiah’s guilt is “taken away.” We also sing, “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world.”
You can see that as our creeds came about over centuries, so also our liturgy too confesses things that are very profound and very significant. Often the liturgy doesn’t give us a whole heap of information about things. It’s just there!—and for many years we can go along, and not realise the full significance of what we are saying.
But when we come together as a church, we are coming together to join in with what is already going on in heaven, and to receive from God the gifts that he wants to give us.
The seraphim say: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of your glory!”
Do you notice something missing that we always sing? We don’t say the whole earth is full of your glory. We say, “heaven and earth are full of your glory.”
Why do we add in the word “heaven”? Because what we experience here in church is something different to the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the angels communicated things to us. But now in the New Testament, when we speak the creed, and talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus, and receive the Holy Spirit—the angels are amazed. Our songs amaze the angels in such a way that they cover their faces not just when God is seated on the throne, but when the word of God is preached to us. 1 Peter 1 says that the “things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven” are “things into which angels long to look.”
Ephesians 3:10 also says: “through the church (do you hear that? That’s us! The church) – through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” St Paul says that through the church, through the divine service which we participate in every Sunday, we speak the wisdom of God to the angels and the archangels—to the rulers and the authorities.
And so we say: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; heaven and earth are full of your glory.”
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But what does Isaiah do when he comes into the presence of God? He acknowledges his unworthiness. “Woe to me, for I am lost! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.”
And we see that the seraph comes and takes a coal and touches his lips.
That’s what happens every Sunday. And that’s what we do every time we come before God by ourselves in prayer. The seraph takes a coal and touches our lips.
When our lips are right, everything is right. Isaiah is being sent out as prophet—his teaching, his doctrine, his confession of faith, the words of his lips must be right. As Christians, we’re not groping about for truth in the dark, we are not left in the house full of smoke. We have no life with Jesus, without confessing together with Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” We know that we say all sorts of careless words, but Jesus has died for all of them. We are people of unclean lips, but Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
These words are a solid rock on which we build our faith: but not just a solid rock, but a rock that is set alight and which burns and purifies our lips, forgives our sin, and allows us to share in God’s holiness.
But also, what could be more wonderful than to receive the body and blood of Christ himself? He comes and puts his own body on our tongues and puts his blood to our lips, and “our guilt is taken away”, because this is the same body and blood which atoned for our sin on the cross.
And so as we come to confess our faith and receive the Lord’s Supper, we sing: “Holy, holy, holy”. Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forevermore.
Amen.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Amen.
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