Trinity Sunday / Year B

Isaiah 6:1-8; Ps. 29; Romans 8:12-17; John3:1-17

Pastor Gayle M. Pope

So Far Away and Yet So Near

Have you seen the LORD lately?

Isaiah saw the Lord. We heard about it in the first reading this morning. “I saw the LORD sitting on a throne, high and lofty,” Isaiah said. Heavenly beings called seraphs attended the Lord and one called out, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

This is the Lord who is praised in Psalm 29, the Lord who sits, “enthroned above the flood” “as king forevermore.”

This is the LORD God our creator who we talk about experiencing in nature – awesome, powerful, amazing, glorious, holy. In the presence of this God, we are suddenly very aware of our own creaturely-ness, our fallen-ness, our unworthiness. Like Isaiah whose first reaction was, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips!”

This is the same feeling we hear in Psalm 8: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”

And yet …

This is not the ONLY image of God revealed to us in the Scriptures … There is also the LORD Jesus Christ – the Word of God made flesh – small, humble and close at hand.

This is the Lord Jesus Christ we read about in Philippians 2, who “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.”

In Jesus, God came down to our level and entered into close, intimate relationships with people. “I do not call you servants any longer … I have called you friends,” Jesus said to the disciples.

This is the Lord recognized by Mary early in the morning outside his empty tomb when he called her name, “Mary.” This is the Lord recognized by the disciples he met on the road to Emmaus when he joined them for supper and broke bread with them.

This is the risen Lord who came to the disciples huddled in fear in the upper room and said, "Peace be with you. Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself.”

But that was then and this is now. Jesus – God the Son – isn’t here any longer. He has ascended and is again highly exalted, seated in heaven at the right hand of God the Father.

And yet …

God is STILL close at hand – closer to us now even than Jesus was to his disciples and friends – as close as our breath and our heartbeat because now, God the Holy Spirit dwells WITHIN us by faith.

The awesome, powerful, omnipotent, omnipresent God, Creator of the universe, who is so far beyond our comprehension, in whose presence we cannot bear to stand because of our sin – this God who created us and loves us has COME to us and broken down the barrier of sin and death that separates us and made a way for us to be in a close and intimate relationship with Him forever.

By faith, the Holy Spirit comes to us in the waters of Baptism and makes us children of God. When we receive the Holy Spirit we are “born again” as Jesus told Nicodemus. Paul wrote that we have received a spirit of adoption so that, “When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

Well … so what! Blah, blah, blah … Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We hear it all the time. Some of us make the sign of the cross. We say we believe in the Triune God – Father Son and Holy Spirit – every Sunday when we stand and recite the Creed. So what?

There’s a song called, “He’s Everything to Me,” and it goes like this:

In the stars His handiwork I see,

On the wind He speaks with majesty.

Though he rules over land and sea,

What is that to me?

I will celebrate Nativity,

For it has a place in history.

Sure, He came to set His people free,

What is that to me?

'Til by faith I met Him face to face,

And I felt the wonder of His grace,

Then I knew that He was more than just

a God who didn't care

Who lived away out there and

Now He walks beside me day by day,

Ever watching o'er me lest I stray,

Helping me to find that narrow way,

He's everything to me.

God IS awesome and powerful and amazing – far above us, filling heaven and earth!

But if that’s ALL God is to us, we are missing the best part. Because God also came to us in the flesh to save us, and God is also close at hand, loving us and walking with us.

God IS Father, Son and Spirit – three in one. We know this because this is the only way we CAN know God. And when we DO know God personally, by faith, it DOES make all the difference in the world in our everyday lives.

When God is alive in us by the Holy Spirit, we see ourselves and our world in a new light. Earthly things no longer matter in the same way.

Life is meaningful and significant only as it relates to the advancement of God’s Kingdom here on earth. The things of God’s Kingdom – love, healing, justice, peace, reconciliation – those are the important things. That is the “so what” of knowing God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

But there is one more thing to realize.

This triune God is alive and moving. To open our hearts and let God in is like stepping on an escalator. We don’t control an escalator, we just step on and let it take us where it will. It’s a little frightening. We have to be willing to go with the flow – to say, like Isaiah, “Here I am, Lord, send me!”

Jesus told Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it chooses and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Have you seen the Lord lately? He is here! He is everywhere! He is moving. You may have stepped off the escalator, but you can turn around at any time and get back on! Praise the Lord!

When you open your hearts to the life of the Holy Spirit within you, you WILL see the Lord, high and lifted up, and close at hand. Amen.