Some secrets, when they are told, the cat let out of the bag, have the strange power to say a great deal without saying very much at all, and still leave much unsaid. I can tell you that I saw so-and-so and so-and-so holding hands in Rittenhouse Square last night. And, saying very little, I have suggested much more. And yet there is a great deal that neither one of us knows.
Speaking of the Sacred Trinity – the mystery of the one true God’s identity in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is a bit like telling a secret, letting the mysterious cat out of the bag. We seem to have suggested a great deal about God without saying very much at all. And yet it seems clear that there remains a great deal to be said about God that none of us knows.
The Church is like a gossip who delights to spill the beans about the God whose secret she has learned. And on this Sunday – set apart to reflect on the mystery of what we call God’s triune nature – we are simply blabbing as much as we can about the tiny bit we know. It’s possible that, like any gossip, we even embellish the little bit we know to make it seem as though we know more than we do.
It is difficult for us to admit that when we have said that God is three persons, we have said almost nothing about God and certainly very little that we could explain to an innocent passerby. When we have said that God is three persons, we can only join the six-winged seraphim who hovered in Isaiah’s vision, and even they were reduced to stuttering as they cry to one another, careening about the heavenly throne:
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!
The prophet Isaiah, who heard the angels’ anthem, has seen more of the living God than most of us, has stood closer – if only in his vision – than most of us ever will. He would also become a much more effective gossip than most of us ever could: spilling the beans about God in exquisite poetry that shed light on the truth of God’s work in the world:
…the Lord hath anointed me
to preach good tidings unto the meek;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of prison to them that are bound;
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn….
This from a man whose first reaction to the secret he learned of God was to say, “Woe is me, I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
How different is Isaiah’s reaction from the kind of gossip we hear about God these days. For one thing, we have been told that Isaiah’s vision of God is a delusion, since God is a delusion of the pathetic masses who are prone to believe this kind of silly gossip just because it has been repeated so much over the years.
And we have been led to believe that a prophet who could write, “Woe is me, I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips” must have gone to Catholic schools if he is still carrying around that kind of guilt so far into adulthood.
And we have been encouraged to think that sleeping in, reading the Times, and going to brunch are far better ways to spend a Sunday morning than coming to church to repeat the three-fold “Holies” of the seraphim, with bells ringing as we do, as though it all means something.
Three important lessons, however, could be gleaned from the vision that Isaiah tells us about.
To begin with, the seraphim give us that word – Holy – to describe the unspeakable attributes of the God of glory. It is a useful word, not only for Sundays, when we gather in organized praise, but for moments of grace for which we have no other word:
… in the delivery room when the tiny body of your newborn is placed in your arms for the first time.
… at the top of a mountain where the beauty of God’s creation is seen with new clarity.
… in the dark quiet of the bedroom when you realize that the breathing of the one beside you is the sound of someone you still love after thirty or forty or fifty years.
What can be said about any of these blessings, or a thousand more I could catalogue here without even trying? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!
Next, there is Isaiah’s recognition of his own sinfulness, his own unworthiness: “I am a man of unclean lips.” Yes! And indeed we are a people of unclean lips. To say this is a statement of fact, not an accusation of guilt. The recognition of our unworthiness is a mature outcome of self-reflection and examination. It is not, however, a condemnation; it’s an honest evaluation. We humans are creatures prone to cheating, murder, lust, envy, and greed every bit as much as we are prone to care, generosity, helpfulness and love. It’s childish of us to believe that only half of that assessment is true and it’s dangerous when we forget our faults because it leads us to use our power in the wrong ways. So, yes, we are a people of unclean lips, but still God invites us into his presence. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!
And then there is that beautiful moment when the voice of the Lord – which the psalmist has told us is a powerful voice; it breaks the cedars of Lebanon; splits the flames of fire; shakes the wilderness, makes the oak trees writhe, and strips the forests bare – this voice is heard by the prophet in clear tones, asking, “Whom shall I send; and who will go for us?” And without knowing where he will be going or what he must do Isaiah hears himself answer: “Here am I; send me!” Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!
It was not to a rumor of holiness that Isaiah supplies his answer. It was not to mere gossip that he responded with that easy answer, Here am I; send me. It was to the living God, who knew perfectly well that Isaiah was just a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips.
And the real gossip that the Church has to share, is not just the mystery, let out of the bag, that the God who sits upon the throne of glory is a three-personed God known as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The real dish is that the thunderous voice of that God, the voice that makes the oak trees writhe, has never stopped asking, “Whom shall I send; and who will go for us?”
The fact is that God has given us so much more to gossip about. In John’s gospel we hear Jesus sum up the gossip he is planting in the ear of the church with the kind of brevity and lack of specificity that are both so typical of good gossip: "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."
What are these famous lines other than good gossip for us to spread? In only a few words they suggest so much, but leave a great deal unsaid, unclear, unknown to us. They give us a wonderful rumor of hope to spread in the world.
And that rumor of hope will be spread if people like you and like me are clear about three things:
That God, the Lord of hosts, is holy, holy, holy, and the whole earth is full of his glory.
That although we are a people of unclean lips, God can use our lips to speak his words of love and salvation.
That the thunderous voice of God still calls out, “Whom shall I send; and who will go for us.” He does not say where he is sending people or what they must do.
But he has supplied the gossip: that this three-personed God gave his only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life; not t condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
And although our mothers always told us that we should never gossip; this rumor has the ring of truth about it. So much so that through the ages hundreds of thousands of people – men and women, all of them with unclean lips – have borrowed the words of the prophet to answer that question in a way that would change their lives: Here am I; send me!
God has many secrets. But some of them he has revealed to us – even though they only confuse us. But since God does not wish, himself, to be a secret to us, he has shown us that he is one and three - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And although the truth of this secret is more or less beyond our imagination, it has certainly given us something to talk about, some gossip on God. To which God says, “Go ahead and talk about me all you like! In fact, whom shall I send; and who will go for us to spread this word?”
Who, indeed?
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!
Hosanna in the highest!
Preached by Fr. Sean Mullen
Trinity Sunday, 7 June 2009
Saint Mark’s Church, Philadelphia