What
is God Doing?" by PastorKipp Holy Trinity Isaiah 6:1-8 Romans
Where
does the doctrine of the Holy Trinity come from? The answer is
simple and complex. It comes from having to come to terms with a God
who can be transcendent - the God we cannot see; while
being immanent - human, born of the virgin's womb. When God became incarnate,
we were suddenly faced with having to grasp a God who could be two distantly
different things at the same time, while continuing to be God. Suddenly
God was both immortal and mortal at the same time.
We can rightfully ask the question, what is God doing?
In the Isaiah text, Isaiah is confronted with a vision of the invisible
God. It is a vision that terrifies him. Isaiah becomes
aware of his smallness in the presence of the great and powerful
God. He becomes immediately aware of his sinfulness. However,
what he finds amidst the shaking pivots and smoke is a God who wants this
mortal to share in the work of God. God wants to talk with his
people and God asks Isaiah to have a share in that will and
purpose. God would rather forgive the sinfulness and give Isaiah
what he needs to share this work with God than to cast him away.
Paul's letter to the Romans addresses the sinfulness of humanity and God's gift
of Spirit that entered into relationship with our humanity and transformed us
into "children of God." Unlike Isaiah in his vision, we
are given leave to call God daddy (Abba).
John's gospel brings the matter to a head.
John not only asks what God is doing, but answers also the question, why
is God doing this? Why did God enter the world? Why did
God send human prophets? Why did God ultimately send Jesus the
Christ into human form? God did it out of love and a will to be in
relationship with his people. God's motive is love - the love that
sent Jesus Christ to die with us and for us. The motive was love for
the world that reached out from behind the invisibility cloak of shaking pivots
and smoke to join with us in a form that we could understand - face to face,
human to human.
John talks about a love that had to be lifted up, first in the life of ministry
of Jesus; then lifted up on the cross to give the ultimate sacrifice for those
who suffer and have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God
now asks us to lift Jesus up in our day and age. That means enabling
the world to see Jesus alive in us. By our words as we tell the
story of how Jesus has rescued me; by our actions of love, one to another; by
our joining forces with God's fight for holy justice in the world we lift Jesus
up for the world to see.