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| Photo by Magda Ehlers |
The Liturgical Year
After Pentecost comes this wonderful and complicated holiday: Trinity Sunday, which is this Sunday (4 June 2023). The reading from the lectionary this year is from one of my absolute favorite Scripture passages in all of the Bible: Isaiah 6 (CEB):
In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, the edges of his robe filling the temple. Winged creatures were stationed around him. Each had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew about.
They shouted to each other, saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of heavenly forces! All the earth is filled with God's glory!"
The doorframe shook at the sound of their shouting and the house was filled with smoke.
I said, "Mourn me; I'm ruined! I'm a man with unclean lips and I live among people with unclean lips. Yet I've seen the king, the Lord of heavenly forces!
Then one of the winged creatures flew to me, holding a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips. Your guilt has departed and your sin is removed."
Then I heard the Lord's voice saying, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?"
I said, "I'm here; send me."
God said, "Go and say to this people: Listen intently, but don't understand; look carefully, but don't comprehend. Make the minds of this people dull. Make their ears deaf and their eyes blind, so they can't see with their eyes or hear with their ears, or understand with their minds, and turn, and be healed."
I said, "How long, Lord?" And God said, "Until cities lie ruined with no one living in them, until there are house without people and the land is left devastated."
The Language of the Angels
When learning Hebrew in college, I was told by my professor, Dr. Owen Dickens, that the Hebrew language was sometimes called "the language of the angels." When studying this passage in Hebrew, it was so majestic. It rolled off my tongue like poetry. I loved reciting it out loud. There are certain things that one misses when reading it in English.
First of all: God is vast. God is described as so large. There are strange creatures flying around God. In fact, the word often used in English to call these creatures is the same word in Hebrew: Seraphim. This is the only location in the Bible we have mention of these creatures. The root consonants in Hebrew are the same words they use for both fire and venomous snakes. So some people have speculated that they are winged snakes, but this is probably unlikely.
More than likely in Isaiah's mind they were fiery creatures with six wings. Two wings were used to cover their faces. There is this prevailing thought among ancient Hebrews that to view the face of God, one would die. (Think of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.) The other 2 wings were used to cover their feet. Feet were often a euphemism for genitals in Hebrew. (Remember the story of Ruth and Boaz?) The final two wings were to fly around the throne.
These creatures were flying around, stating that all of the Earth was filled with the glory of God. In Hebrew, "glory" was something palpable, something to be felt and experienced.
Shame
The first thing Isaiah felt was shame. He was ashamed of being in the presence of God and living with people he was also ashamed to be around. One of these creatures came and touched Isaiah's lips with a hot coal. I always laugh at this verse when the creature said, "See, this coal has touched your lips." Ouch! That must hurt.
How often have I felt shame? Shame at who I am, the failures I experienced in my life?
I felt shame at being told that being queer is a sin. I felt shame when I was told by a superior that I am a heretic. I felt shame when my supervisor told me I should have known I would get kicked out of The Salvation Army when I came out as bisexual. I felt shame and disgust when my old church rejected me.
However, just like Isaiah, God reminded me that my sins are forgiven. Who I am is not wrong and even though I live among people who wish me harm, that doesn't change who I am.
Not Understanding
This Trinity Sunday, I always have a difficult time trying to describe the mystery of the Trinity. Perhaps mysteries are best left like that. The idea that God is three persons in one is a mystery that Christians have been blessed with.
God gave Isaiah an impossible task: to be a prophet to a people who wouldn't listen to him.
Sometimes I feel the same way. I can go around, saying that being queer is not a sin and that God loves me as queer, but so many people refuse to believe me.
They refuse to believe me and call me a heretic. They refuse to believe me and say I'm going to Hell. They refuse to believe me and kick me out of their church.
Then there are those who do understand: Finding a church that does accept me, finding love with a man who reminds me that I am loved as I am. Realizing my children don't care that I am bisexual.
I once got the sweetest text from my oldest son, who said (speaking about my boyfriend and me), "The important thing is that you both love each other and that's all that matters. It doesn't matter about if they're a guy or a girl, etc. But the important thing is that you love each other and communicate well."
He understands.
Here is praying that all of us will eventually understand.
