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TRINITY SUNDAY

This is our first Sunday after P-Day and the lessons for the day promises great possibilities for proclamation. The first lesson is a story about encounter, presence, and transformation which confronts us with the unearthly God of Isaiah. We enter Paul’s teaching about the Spirit and adoption in the second lesson, while the gospel lesson supplies the well-known story of a conversation that Jesus has with a religious leader under the cover of night. One connecting motif might be transformation or new life or perhaps "the Spirit’s transformative work." The lessons can easily stand alone as a helpful word about the Spirit / new life, but this is one of those special times when all three lessons can be interwoven with integrity and unity of theme. Enjoy!

Isaiah 6:1-8-A Deeply Moving Experience

Isaiah’s call to be a prophet came in the Temple amidst a celebration in honor of God. In the setting of this feast with its singing, its incense, its emotional atmosphere, Isaiah penetrated to the meaning of God. He experienced Yahweh as something "wholly other." From this time God was to be for him the wholly Other. This moment of awareness will mark Isaiah as no other experience he has encountered. From this time onward God will be for him the Holy One of Israel, completely above all so that anything by contrast is limited and sinful. Such an epiphany first levels before it exalts. Thus, Isaiah becomes acutely aware of his own unworthiness. He identifies with the sinfulness of His People and God who cannot abide sin. The Good News? God takes the initiative and cleanses Isaiah. Then, as God debates with his heavenly advisers, Isaiah offers himself for the mission to which God has called him.

 

Romans 8:12-17-New Life in the Spirit

This lesson joins Paul in the middle of his great discussion of life in the Spirit at the point where he states that no one is obliged or need cave into compulsions that take us down the wrong path. Sounds a little like Beck’s "cognitive therapy" in that he spends little time rehearsing past causes that lead to wrong behavior as much as in urging his listeners to change their thinking. "Son/s (or children, better) of God" is an appellation that occurs in the Hebrew Scriptures, sometimes referring to the "heavenly court," at other times referring to a single person or group. At the source of this familial relationship with God for the Christian is the triune God who provides the actions necessary for son/daughter ship, and who also provides a way to make us aware of this new relationship through Christ.

 

John 3:1-17-Jesus and a Son of Israel

What a rich fabric of text for the exegete and proclaimer! A familiar narrative begins the passage with a religious leader coming to Jesus by night pondering Jesus’ identity. The conversation is profound and laden with insight as the reader listens in on the conversation. This story has probably been the single greatest factor in supplying fodder for new birth theology. The paragraph that immediately follows the famous dictum of John 3:16 is an intriguing move that recalls Israel in the wilderness and one particular episode-the serpent on the pole.