Trinity Sunday
“‘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”
Summary
Last week we marked the end of Eastertide and the gift of God’s spirit being poured out on God’s people. Today, Trinity Sunday, we begin again the journey of living as a people led by that Spirit. In John 3:1-17, Jesus makes it clear that this is not a matter of knowledge or intellectual understanding, Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, does not know these things. He does not need knowledge, what he needs is to be in relationship with God. Isaiah 6:1-8 expresses some of the anxieties that humans experience when encountering the divine: God is so transcendent, so utterly different from us, that even the seraphs cannot look upon God, covering their faces with their wings. Neither do they allow God to see them: covering their feet (a euphemism for nakedness) with another set of wings. The prophet, “a man of unclean lips”, is afraid to be standing in God’s presence. Yet God chooses Isaiah, as we too are chosen, invited to become a part of God’s life and purpose. Our faith is not about what we believe or understand, it is about allowing the Spirit of God to lead us into an ever deeper relationship of love with God from which we move into a relationship of love with one another and with the world Christ came to restore.
FIRST READING
Isaiah 6:1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: ‘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!’
Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’
GOSPEL
John 3.1-17
‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.
But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them.
‘I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgement, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
