"In God's Name" based upon Isaiah 6:1-8 & The Invocation
Sunday of the Holy Trinity (B) -
Pastor Troy Slater - Our
One’s name of course means a lot. After all, a person’s name becomes more than
just a way to identify them, it comes to include their
personality, their actions and accomplishments, their reputation, their
associations. For example if I say the
name George Washington you might get a picture in your head of Washington
crossing the Delaware or the Revolutionary War or the one dollar bill or maybe
you are reminded of the presidency or you even get patriotic feelings of
freedom and democracy welling up inside of you.
Just the mention of the name, George Washington, can do that.
Or say I mention the name “Bob”. Maybe you think of your Uncle Bob who used to
take you fishing and all the fun that you had.
Or maybe you think of Bob that old neighbor of yours who was the biggest
crab around, whom you tried to avoid. Just
the mention of a person’s name can bring all sorts of memories or
emotions. One’s name does mean a lot.
And of course that’s why there are
laws on our books against slandering another person’s good name. And of course that’s why God even included a
commandment against “giving false testimony” or “bearing false witness” against
your neighbor - you are not to ruin his good name. For again, one’s name means a lot. …
Following our opening hymn this
morning, we began our service with a name. We began “In the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit” and all God’s people said, “Amen.” We began with the name of our God – the name
we unapologetically confess to be the name of the one and only true God.
And that
name, it does tell us a lot about the God whom we are gathered before in
worship today, doesn’t it? For starters,
it tells us that this God is triune – that is, that there are three persons in
this one Godhead. After all, we come in
“the name” – singular – not “the names” – plural; one God but yet three distinct
persons – God the Father – that is, our creator, protector and provider; God
the Son – God’s only-begotten Son from eternity, our Savior; and God the Holy
Spirit – the life-giving breath who breathes that gift of faith in us. It’s the mystery of the Holy Trinity, one God
yet three persons. God's name tells us
that.
But is that
it? Does the “invocation” as we call
that opening portion of our service, does it merely serve as a reminder for us of
the doctrine of the Trinity? Does it
merely distinguish us as Christians from all the Unitarian religions such as
the Muslims or the Jews or the Mormons? …
Well again, one’s name means a lot. And if that is true for our names, certainly
that is true for God’s – actually even more so for God’s name. For God has attached some promises to His
name. And on this Sunday of the Holy
Trinity we remember those promises as we live our lives in the name of God. Today as we have been brought together in
this place, we celebrate those promises that our Lord God has attached to His
name as we live in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. …
In our OT
reading for today the prophet Isaiah is brought into the presence of God - into
the very throne room of God. In our reading, Isaiah says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I
saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe
filled the temple. Above him were
seraphs, each with six wings … And they were calling to one another: 'Holy,
holy, holy is the LORD Almighty the whole earth is full of his glory.' And at the sound of their voices the
doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke." .. Now I suppose
when we first hear all of that it sounds like to be in the presence of the Holy
God would be an awesome experience, a good thing, not a bad place to be.
But Isaiah quickly realizes and
confesses that to be brought into the presence of the Holy Trinity,
this is a rather dangerous place for an unholy man to be. Isaiah recognizes that this could get very
ugly for him. And so suddenly aware of
himself in the midst of such a scene he cries, "Woe to me! I am ruined! I am a
dead man! For I am a man of unclean
lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the
King, the LORD Almighty." Isaiah
comes face to face with the absolute holiness of the Triune God - Father, Son
and Holy Spirit - and all he can do is confess his own wretchedness and
inherent filthiness. All he can do is
confess the fact that he deserves nothing but God's present and eternal
punishment. "I'm a dead man." "I'm ruined." This is what our whole predicament after the
fall comes down to: sin and therefore sinners cannot live in a holy God's
presence. And so Isaiah's got a problem.
…
He's
got a problem but … and there's always that "but" when it comes to
God, isn't there? .. But the Lord God - the Holy Trinity - did not treat
an unholy Isaiah according to Isaiah's sin, rather that God treated Isaiah
according to grace. "One of the seraphs," Isaiah says, "flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with
tongs from the altar. With it he touched
my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away
and your sin atoned for.'" God
did something for Isaiah - He cleansed his lips, He purified His soul. The Lord God absolved Isaiah of his sin using
a hot coal and touching his lips with it.
Brought into the presence of the holy and triune God, Isaiah was not
ruined, as he feared and as he deserved, rather he was given refuge. He was given refuge in the presence of God
and in that refuge, as a forgiven sinner Isaiah was even sent to declare the
wonders of God. "Here I am Lord, send me, send me." …
Incredible
when you think about it. Here was a man
who should have been a dead man; a man totally, absolutely unworthy to stand in
the presence of the Holy and Triune God, but yet here he is, absolved of all
sin, standing before God and even sent by that God to be His messenger in
declaring the wonders of God's grace. Incredible. …
Today, we have
been brought into the very presence of God.
You and I have been gathered before the throne of the Almighty - the
Holy One - the Maker of heaven and earth.
And no, we're not here because we are any better than anyone else, we're
not here because of our ancestry or position or status or knowledge or anything
about us. For as we confessed earlier,
by our own doing we are but "poor, miserable sinners" justly
deserving of God our Father's temporal and eternal punishment. We are not here by our own doing but - and
there's that "but" again - but rather we are here because of a name -
because of God's name. We are here
because of God's name.
For earlier I said how God has
attached some promises to His name. God's
name is more than just a way for us as Christians to distinguish this God whom
we worship and confess from all the false gods of this world. God's name - Father, Son and Holy Spirit -
brings His promises with it. It means
something. In fact it means something
for you. For you have
been baptized into that name.
With the water and the Word you were baptized in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
God's name was placed upon you.
You were marked as one belonging to Him, as one redeemed by Christ the
crucified. God's name was put upon you
and God's name, it brings His promises.
It brings His promises. "Everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved." "Repent
and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of sins. And you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The
promise is for you and your children."
"Where two or three gather together in my name," Jesus
says, "there am I with them." …
Today we gather together in the name
of our Lord. Today we are here because
God has put His name upon us and promised to absolve our sins, to cleanse our
lips, to purify our souls. Today we acknowledge
that we are here only by His name. We are here only because of what the Triune God
has done for us and done to us - baptizing us as His creatures whom He has redeemed
by the precious blood of the Son, Jesus Christ.
We acknowledge we are here only because He has given us that faith to
believe and to confess that it's only by Jesus that we can ever stand before
our good and gracious God. We don't
deserve it, we haven't earned it, but we come, in the name of our God. We come, clinging to those promises that the
Lord has attached to His name. We come
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. …
And so let us on this Sunday of the
Holy Trinity, let us take refuge in that name of our gracious
and Triune God. Let us boldly take
refuge in Him. But
certainly not just today, but everyday.
Luther suggests starting each day with the name of God as we remember
our baptisms. He says, “In the morning
when you get up, make the sign of the holy cross and say: In the name of the
Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.” That gives a whole new
perspective on the day, doesn’t it? For
it says, “Lord, you have made me your own – redeemed me from sin and
death. You’ve put your name upon me
through those waters of Holy Baptism. I
am yours. Whatever you give me to do
today, enable me to do it for your glory, forgive me for Jesus' sake when I go
wrong. In whatever vocation you give me
as a father, a mother, a brother or sister, a neighbor, a rancher, a teacher, a
store-owner, a friend, let me do it all as Your servant. By word and deed let me declare Your wonders
to the world you place me in. .. Here I am Lord, in
your name, send me, send me.” …
God gives us
His promises; He gives us His name. May
we use that name, calling upon Him in the day of trouble. May we take refuge in that name, boldly
taking hold of his grace that he gives us as His redeemed people. May we live by that name, loving, serving,
living, in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.