by the Rev. Frances A. Hills, Rector
It’s Trinity Sunday, the great day of glory and wonder when
we celebrate the way
we’ve come to speak of God as “One God in Three
Persons”—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—Blessed Trinity.
What a glorious day in our Christian faith! What a monumental
day and weekend for us here! We have a new Bishop-Elect Doug Fisher! We’ll be
looking forward to his ordination in Springfield on December 1.And today we will choose a new name for
our consolidated parish! So in addition to being this great feast of the glory
of our Triune God, it is and will be a New Day for this “Episcopal Community in
the Southern Berkshires” and for the
Diocese of Western Massachusetts. So, we need to be thinking about what that
New Day will look like? What is our mission in the New Day? What will prepare us to meet the challenge of the New Day?
I believe through these years in the wilderness, the Holy
Spirit has guarded us and guided us to this place in amazing ways, and we can
learn from our experience.
We’ve learned to Trust God the Father, the One who creates us and calls us his beloved children.
It’s clear that God hasn’t let go of us so far, so we have no reason to fear
that God would let go of us in the future. We’ve learned we’re never alone,
because Jesus, the Son,
our companion, our brother, our shepherd, is with us always…even to the end of the age. In his being with us through our
joys, pain and grief, we’re learning that God loves us unconditionally. God
takes us just as we are. Our faults, sins, and weaknesses are redeemed and then
used to the Glory of God. In these years,
we’ve learned to recognize more and more that the Holy Spirit is with us, giving us courage and joy, making us
longsuffering and loving, and deepening our faith. We’ve been learning how to
listen for God’s voice in Holy Scripture, in one another, and in the wider
community. We’ve been learning to notice and pay attention to the way the
Spirit nudges us…Often/usually in ways we could never anticipate.
It’s important for us to remember these ways our Triune God has
been with us as we think about what the future consolidated parish might look
like. What is God calling us to do? Where is God calling us to join in God’s
mission, during this time of great transition in the Church and the world? How can we—who are created and loved by the Father, reconciled by the Son, and
empowered by the Holy Spirit—be more ready to begin this adventure of being a
New Church, with a new name, and a new bishop, in a world that is increasingly
secular?
It’s a world full of people who are hungry for the very love,
reconciliation, and empowerment that our Triune God so generously offers; yet they
are people who have no idea that God is the real
source of all they truly need and deeply desire. They don’t know God’s love, reconciliation, and empowerment
are theirs for the asking. I think we are uniquely positioned to get that
message to them because of the way we have survived, thrived, and come together
and because of the way we love one another and reach out across boundaries with
unconditional love.
So what can help us be
prepared to spread this Good News in our community today? I think we can look at today’s Isaiah passage (about his call to serve God)
for some important clues. In fact, in this story, we can find
a pattern to follow as we move forward to answer God’s call. First, this
mystical vision happens to Isaiah
while he’s in the temple, during a time of great
transition…It’s “The year (long-reigning) King Uzziah died.”Times of transition
are stressful. They make us vulnerable and especially open to the Spirit, creativity,
experimentation, and new life!
Isaiah is transported to the very throne of God, to the very
presence of God. God’s train/robe fills the temple as he sits “high and lofty”
on the throne! And seraphims, strange, six-winged creatures, are flying all
around singing “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.” Just try to imagine
it! We’re praying here at Crissey Farm, during this year of great transition…In
the year that Gordon Scruton retired. In the year Saints James and George
consolidated. In the year Doug Fisher was elected bishop. Like Isaiah we’re
vulnerable and open to the Spirit, when all of a sudden we’re somehow in the
very Presence of God!
Annie Dillard writes (Holy
the Firm),
“Ushers should issue life preservers
and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews…For the sleeping God may
awake someday and take offense, or the waking God may draw us out to where we
can never return.”
For Isaiah it was such holy ground that the place shook and
was filled with smoke…perhaps with the fragrance of God’s very self!
Now what happens here is so
important…
Confronted
with God’s Holiness,
Confronted with the very Truth,
Confronted with the source of
Goodness,
Isaiah’s response is to see
everything clearly, and to admit his
and the world’s truth: He, and the world, are “lost” and have “unclean
lips”.
In the Presence of the Truth, Isaiah is spiritually convicted
and confesses his brokenness. He seems amazed that even in his own fallen
state, he’s actually allowed in the Presence of God. (How could God love a
sinner like me?) And then what happens? A seraphim touches his mouth with a
hot coal and says, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed
and your sin is blotted out.” Isaiah confessed
his sins, and he’s absolved!
After that, Isaiah is able to hear the Lord’s call, and
he’s empowered to respond:
“Whom shall I
send, and who will go for us?”
Isaiah says simply, “Here am I;
send me!”
What happens with Isaiah in this story of his call is
actually the classic pattern for reconciliation. This is what I think can
inform and equip us at this transitional time in our diocese and our church, so that we are able to hear and respond wholeheartedly to God’s call to us.
When we are in the presence of Goodness, Love, the Holy, the
Truth, we can see our own truth
clearly and confess it, all of it…our
shortcomings and grief, the bad things we’ve done, and the good things we’ve
left undone. The way we wish the world would be, but isn’t. The way we resist
surrendering our illusions of control, that keep us from “Letting go and letting God”. Having
admitted the truth about ourselves (no more and no less than we are), we can
receive absolution. Our guilt is departed, and our sin is blotted out. Then we
can hear and fully embrace the call, the mission, the
works of love and service that God will call us to do.
This pattern of reconciliation that’s part of Isaiah’s call is
essential for us as we move forward into
the New Day that’s dawning. And we can approach
this with confidence because we are loved by the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.
Amen.
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