TRINITY SUNDAY - Isaiah 6:1-8; Canticle 13; Revelation 4:1-11; John 16:5-15 - 3 June 2007 - A sermon given by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

Touched, Healed, Sent

 

INTRODUCTION - Not for ordinands only

 

Our reading from Isaiah today is almost always the first reading heard at the ordination of a bishop or a priest. For a deacon, there is a similar type of reading from Jeremiah. These readings emphasize hearing God’s voice, having a sense of call, and going out into the world on God’s behalf. There is one potential problem with focusing on these types of readings at ordination services. If we’re not careful, we can come to the wrong conclusion in our minds: Only the ordained are called to serve God. To put it another way, only the ordained are ministers. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A minister is someone who serves, and that includes all of us. The Prayer Book makes this very clear. Turn to page 855 of the Prayer Book for a moment, and check out a few of the questions in the Catechism with me.

 

“What is the mission of the Church?

The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.

 

How does the Church pursue its mission?

The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love.

 

Through whom does the Church carry out its mission?

The Church carries out its mission through the ministry of all its members.

 

Who are the ministers of the Church?

The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons.

 

What is the ministry of the laity?

The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be; and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church.”

(The Book of Common Prayer, p. 855)

 

And so I am delighted that this Isaiah 6 reading is right there for all of us today. I am delighted whenever we sing the song Here I Am, Lord, for it reminds us that all of us are called by God and sent to serve Him in the world. (In other words, it reminds us that all of us are ministers.) We are called to serve God and others in different ways, using our different gifts, but we are all called to pray and worship, proclaim the Gospel, and promote justice, peace, and love.

 

HOW DO WE EXPERIENCE GOD AS TRINITY?

And on this Trinity Sunday, I want to look at Isaiah 6 to examine one of the ways that we all experience God as Trinity.

 

I would submit to you that, in different ways, we are all touched, healed, and sent forth into the world by the triune God.

 

The testimony of scripture and our own lives is that God the Creator is active and present in our world. God the Creator is engaging, not aloof, and as such, this God comes into our lives and touches us. God touches us in moments of silence or in moments of listening to beautiful music. God touches us through the beauty of nature, or through the compassionate, attentive voice of a friend or family member. God touches us whenever something happens out of the blue that strikes us as sheer, unexpected, undeserved blessing. Sometimes, as it was for Isaiah, we might experience the touch of God in ways that remind us of our smallness or our inadequacy. We suddenly think to ourselves, “Oh! I am not who God is calling me to be!” And yet, even in these moments of feeling small, we are being touched by God.

 

God shows up in our lives. God is always there, but because we’re not always present to God, sometimes it feels as if God has shown up very suddenly. It is very difficult to express it in words, but we know the Presence, and how His Presence is different than all other presences we experience. There is a certain peace, a certain sense of power and majesty and glory and awe, and sometimes all we can do is shake our heads, or cry, or cry out in pleasure and thankfulness and praise, because words don’t do the experience justice. But we know we have been touched by God.

 

The testimony of scripture and our lives is that God the Redeemer heals us. We experience this healing as the sweet forgiveness of our sins by Jesus’ death on the cross. Like Isaiah, we have a sense that the hot coal has touched our lips, and we, like him, have been made clean. We experience this healing whenever someone we have hurt offers forgiveness to us. We experience it whenever we learn new and important things that transform our habits, our perspectives, our beliefs, or the way that we relate to other people. Whenever we have been sick and return to a place of health, whenever we have been in a tough place in a relationship and we move through the place of pain to a place of reconciliation, whenever we have been in a place of despair or hopelessness and something happens and we have a new sense of hope - founded in God - then we have experienced the kind of healing that only comes to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The testimony of scripture and our lives is that God comes to us as Holy Spirit and sends us out into the world to do the things that all Christians are called to do. We pray and worship and partake of Christ’s body and blood. We confess our sins, repent, and return to the Lord. We proclaim the Good News of God in Christ by our words and by our example. We seek and serve Christ in others, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. We strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of each person that we meet.

 

In other words, we are all part of Christ’s ministry of reconciliation. Each one of is called by God in a different way, and each of responds and serves God in ways that are unique to our particular gifts, talents, and personalities. But each of us, like Isaiah, hears the voice of God, and says, “Here I am, Lord. Send me!”

 

This is not an ordained thing - this sense of being called and sent out by God. This is a common response for all who call themselves Christians, for all who say, “I am a follower of Jesus. He is my Lord and Savior.” Each one of us is sent out and privileged to serve God and love others in His name.

 

CONCLUSION

 

God the Creator - God the Father and Mother of us all - touches us.

 

God the Redeemer - Jesus, the Son of God - heals us.

 

God the Sanctifier - the Holy Spirit who empowers us and leads us into all truth - sends us out to be part of the reconciling love of God.

 

Isaiah was touched, healed, and sent.

 

You and I are touched, healed, and sent.

 

It is not a one-time thing. It is an ongoing process. God continues to touch us. As we open ourselves to God, God continues to deepen our healing. And God continues to send us out, past the place where we went before.

 

We worship the One God, but we experience God in these different ways - Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier - the One who touches, the One who heals, the One who empowers us to go out. This is a loving, engaging, healing, empowering God. This is the God we celebrate today and every day.

 

Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers; You are worthy of praise; glory to You!