In the name of the holy and glorious Trinity
☩ Father, Son, and Hoy
Spirit. Amen.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed? What a ridiculous question. We’re emerging out of a 15-month global pandemic that disrupted every aspect of our lives. If any of had no prior experience of feeling overwhelmed, this pandemic has certainly changed that. But even without something as disruptive as a pandemic, life is overwhelming. Raising children, caring for aging parents, finding our identity as we enter adulthood, deciding which college to attend, receiving a medical diagnosis, dealing with conflicts, battling an addiction, struggling with debt, getting through a stressful project at work, figuring out how to reopen a church in a way that doesn’t frustrate or alienate both those who are tired of masks and those who still think masks are essential for safety, or even just watching the news – we can be overwhelmed in so many ways that it can feel like we are drowning.
When
we think of being overwhelmed, our minds usually go to the negative – but we can
also be overwhelmed in positive ways. The beauty of a sunset, the majesty of a Beethoven
symphony, holding a newborn in our arms, the glorious smell of incense, these
sorts of things overwhelm our senses and emotions in good ways.
As
you might know, the word “whelm” means to engulf, flow, submerge, or heap up abundantly.
To be underwhelmed is to have less than an abundance and to be overwhelmed is
to have more than we can handle. And life really is overwhelming, it is more
than we can handle.
And
so what do we do about that overwhelmingness? For one, we deny it. “Me, oh, I’m
doing just fine.” But we can only tread water for so long; eventually, we will
tire and be overwhelmed by the waters of chaos.
Another way we
deal with it all is, using the old adage, “all things in moderation.” But that
simply doesn’t cut it. Think of medicine – if your physician prescribes you 3 pills
a day, but you decide to only take one, the medicine won’t do what it is supposed
to do. It was certainly true before the pandemic, and it is my fervent prayer
that it does not continue after the pandemic – a moderated faith. Between
vacations, sports, yard work, and rest – church became one of the things that
overwhelmed our weekends. And so, to make things more manageable, we saw “regular
church attendance” go from meaning being at church 3-4 Sundays a month to
meaning once every 4-5 weeks. And across our society, what did we see during
the pandemic? People who were overwhelmed and did not have a spiritual or
religious foundation to get them through. I’ve talked to a few therapists who
have all told me that the wait for a new client to get an appointment is 6
months. We know that alcohol sales rose significantly over the last year. We’ve
heard stories about the 19 in COVID-19 representing the number of pounds that
stress eating added.
Now I’m not saying
that coming to church will make your life easier or more manageable, but I am
saying that a robust set of faith practices instead of a moderated faith will
give us the foundation to weather the overwhelming storms of life. As Jesus
said in a parable, “The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat
on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.” It is
my hope and prayer that the Holy Spirit uses this pandemic to rekindle the fire
of faith within our community. No, dilution or moderation is not a solution to
being overwhelmed, as watering things down isn’t helpful, nor is denying
reality going to work.
What
might we then do in the face of being overwhelmed by life? Well, the first
thing that we have to do is be honest – say “I am overwhelmed.” Everyone knows it
but most of us are afraid to admit it. Naming the truth is a powerful and holy
act. And in this simple act of acknowledging that we are overwhelmed, we gain a
sense of agency in being overwhelmed. We may not be able to change the fact
that we are overwhelmed, but we can change our focus on what is overwhelming
us. Yes, we can allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by worries, by stress, by uncertainty,
by hatred, by anger; or we can give ourselves to being overwhelmed by God’s
abundant grace, mercy, and love. The simple truth is that we are all overwhelmed,
so instead of running from it, we can acknowledge being overwhelmed and remind
ourselves that we are also overwhelmed by the grandeur of God, and God is so
much bigger, deeper, and life-giving than all of those other things that overwhelm
us.
This
is what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus in the reading we heard from John, “Unless
you are born from above, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” This confuses Nicodemus
though, partially because the phrase “born from above” can also mean “born
again” and Nicodemus is overwhelmingly confused by the notion of being born a
second time. And so Jesus clarifies, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter
the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the
flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished
that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’”
Clearly,
there is Baptismal imagery at play here, and what is Baptism other than the sacramental
sign and the seal of being overwhelmed by God’s grace and love? Whether you are
dunked in water or had water sprinkled on your head as an infant, Baptism is
about being united to Christ, and thereby being buried with him in the overwhelmingness
of Sin and Death and to then share in his overwhelming and abundant Resurrection
life. To be a Christian is to be overwhelmed by God’s love, to trust that there
is more love in God for us than there is sin, doubt, or stress in our lives.
And
this is what today, the Feast of the Holy Trinity, is all about. I’m not going
to try to explain what it means to say both that God is One and that God is
Trinity. That is a mystery. And a mystery is that which is can only be known by
revelation. None of us can fully understand the holiness or the glory of the
Trinity, but we can still allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by God’s salvation,
peace, and presence.
Consider Isaiah; there
he is, in the throne room of God Almighty. If there has ever been an overwhelming
experience, this is it. There he is, in the heavenly temple. And the idea is
that the heavenly temple is a grander version of the Temple in Jerusalem, which
was quite large and spectacular. And in this grand throne room, how much of God
did Isaiah see? The hem of the Lord’s
robe. That’s it. God is so overwhelming that the heavenly throne room is overwhelmed
with just a tiny bit of thread at the bottom of a robe. When it comes to the
majesty and mystery of the Holy Trinity, Isaiah’s encounter ought to remind us
of our need for humility. It would be like meeting someone and having a friend
ask you about your new acquaintance and most you could say “Well, she had green
shoelaces.” Yes, by the gift of revelation, we do know some things about God –
but let us not forget that God will always overwhelm us.
Isaiah then notices
seraphim hovering around the throne of God. Now, what a seraph is, we can’t
exactly say. They have six wings and loud voices. The word “seraph” is related
to the Hebrew word for “burn,” so these are fiery beings of some sort. And Isaiah
recounts that the whole house of the Lord
was filled with smoke, which tells us that these seraphs are something like
heavenly thurifers – filling the temple with incense. And in addition to the
incense, it seems that the seraphim are there to sing praises about the overwhelmingness
of God, as they call to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full
of his glory.”
You might recognize
those as the words of the Sanctus, which is simply the Latin translation
of “holy,” that we sing at the Eucharist. Isaiah tells us that this song is
sung at the very around throne of God, which is why when we say these words at
the Eucharist, you’ll notice that I always bow – because we are joining our voices
with the seraphim to praise God who is high and lofty on the throne. In the
Eucharist, as we are brought into God’s holy presence and stand before the
throne of God, and so I think it is meet and right to bow down. I commend the
practice to you as well.
And that song –
holy, holy, holy – speaks to the overwhelmingness of God. Holy, in Hebrew, is a
word that means “brightness” or “distinctness.” And saying it three times is something
like bolding, underlining, and putting an exclamation mark on it. God is holy,
God is not like us because God is so overwhelming and radiant. We also
understand that this thrice-holy points us towards the deepest essence of God
which we proclaim today – that God the Father is holy, God the Son is holy, and
God the Spirit is holy. Holy, holy, holy, blessed Trinity. The heavenly hosts
know this song and, by God’s grace, we have been taught how to praise God along
with them.
Notice what Isaiah
does. He names the fact that he is overwhelmed, saying “Woe is me! I am lost,
for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet
my eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts!” He doesn’t deny his sinfulness or say that he’s not quite ready to
be here. No. He says he is completely unprepared and unworthy to be here. And
then God makes it clear that God’s overwhelming mercy and forgiveness are given
to Isaiah.
Now, Isaiah had
this vision, but we’ve been given another one. We may not have had a live coal
touch our lips, but our guilt has departed and our sins are blotted out. Our
vision of this forgiveness comes not in the throne room of God, but on a hill
just outside the city walls of Jerusalem where God the Son was enthroned on a
Roman cross. And though a coal did not touch our lips, a sound was heard in our
ears – “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Our guilt has
been taken away.
Being forgiven,
Isaiah then responds to God’s question – “who will go for us?” – by saying “Here
I am; send me.” Jesus has given us a similar commission – “Go into all the
world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” In other words, go and tell people
about the overwhelming holiness and abundant love of God and immerse them into
this reality of being forgiven, of being freed, of being sent.
Without a doubt, life
is overwhelming. On Trinity Sunday, we are given the gift of knowing something of
the overwhelming nature and essence of God – that God is Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, that God is holy, holy, holy, and that the whole earth is full of God’s
glory. And this means that we can be overwhelmed by a love that is the deepest truth
of our lives, overwhelmed by grace beyond all deserving, overwhelmed by
forgiveness that overcomes all sin, overwhelmed by a peace that passes all understanding,
overwhelmed by a Resurrection that makes all things new. And in the face of such
overwhelming grace and glory, we need not deny or dimmish the fact that we are overwhelmed,
but rather allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the glory, the majesty, and the
holiness of the Holy Trinity. In being overwhelmed by God, we find the gift of
knowing that all shall be well.
