Thoughts on...
June 7, 2009: Trinity Sunday
Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 6:1-8

Trinity Sunday celebrates how we encounter God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. While this language is not perfect, it is helpful in order to express some reality of our faith. As we encounter God in our worship, we respond to the presence of God in a number of ways.

1. The presence of God fills us with awe. The throne, high and lofty, is a place of royalty. The seraphs covering faces and feet remind us of the holiness of God. We feel the grandeur of God full of power in the powerful voices shaking the threshold and smoke filling the house.

2. In response to the power and royalty we come before God in humility. The prophet Isaiah declares, "Woe is me." Realizing our unrighteousness, "I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips..." we humbly stand in the presence of God knowing that we are not worthy and yet can go nowhere else.

3. As we receive forgiveness and our guilt is burned away, we respond as did Isaiah, "Here am I; Send me!" God's forgiveness draws us into service rather than away from it.

The structure of our worship service follows this form of response. In our gathering, praising, confessing, praying, hearing and responding, we are responding to the holy God who claims us. Worship is a meeting ground between God and humanity. It is how we meet and interact with our Sovereign God.