Nowhere in the bible is there mention of the Trinity.  Nowhere does Christ teach about the triune nature of God…there is no prophet, no martyr, no teacher or saint in the scriptures who tells us about the Trinity.

The trinity is doctrine, not scripture…that means…it is a way people have tried to explain the nature of God.  Doctrines like that of the Trinity were written by men and women who spent their lifetime struggling with scripture and their own experiences; working to understand who God is and how God, Christ and the Spirit are in relationship with each other and with us.

However, throughout scripture there are inspirations, mentions of each of the three aspects of the Trinity, even moments where all three coincide.  Indications that God is three in one, even if it is never explicitly stated.

And throughout scripture we are given histories, remembrances of people who have experienced God…Such as Nicodemus in our Gospel today, such as Paul’s debates around the work of the Spirit and such as Isaiah in our reading today who had a very unique experience of God.

Today, we read about the call story of Isaiah and how his experience changed not only his life, but that of a nation and indeed thousands of generations of people of faith.

In the year that King Uzziah died…our text opens with context…letting us know when things are happening.  This is important to set the stage and to locate Isaiah’s vision in the reality of history.

Isaiah wants us to know this is a moment of truth, a moment in history, an extraordinary moment that took place in an ordinary time.

King Uzziah died in the 8th C before Christ and that is important because, is that in the years following the king’s death Judah, the southern part of what we call Israel would be subjugated…laid low, and it would be a very difficult time for the people of Judah.  A time when people would struggle with bad political leaders, failing economies and a general lack of faith.  A time when a prophet would be badly needed and Isaiah would fill that role.

And Isaiah saw the Lord, rather the magnificence of the Lord filling the temple… Isaiah saw the Lord and thought he was going to die.  And who could blame him.

It seems like one of those be careful what you wish for situations, Israel was in a difficult time, and in such times many people wonder: where is God?  They wonder why God hasn’t acted in favour of his people.  It makes you wonder if Isaiah has been one of those who pleaded, Lord…if you truly care for your people…do something!!!

Be careful what you wish for.

We each believe in God, worship God…and still many would likely want some concrete proof of God… but from all accounts seeing God, truly seeing God… is a traumatic experience.

And no one who sees God…leaves the way they came.   There is always death when you meet God…and rebirth, a change into something new…something different…something holy.

Isaiah’s sins, if they were anything like ours, were many, and Isaiah understood himself to be a man of unclean lips… lips that say words later wished unspoken… that speak of things meant to be left unsaid…lips that had likely said things that should not have been said and lips that  too often stay firmly pressed shut locking sin and anger deep in our hearts, and keeping us from speaking truth and justice.

And Isaiah isn’t the only one with unclean lips, in fact Isaiah is aware that most of those around him are much the same.  And he is shocked that such a person as he, from such a people as were his …sin filled and unclean…would be allowed to see God.  Isaiah, just like many of us, seemed to be laboring under the misapprehension that God only speaks to those who are holy, perfect, and sinless.

But Isaiah’s sins didn’t prevent the Lord from speaking to him…using him…inspiring him.

Nor did the fact that Isaiah lived among a people much the same as he…sinful.  Much the same as us…all the sins of unclean lips seem to flourish in our society where hatred, bulling and lying seem to face us daily.  Yet, none of this changed Isaiah’s call.  None of this changed that fact that God called out to him.

One of the seraphs flew to Isaiah…holding a live coal from the altar,and touched it to his lips… your guilt has departed and your sins are blotted out.

One of the most common objections to the idea that any of us could be called to God’s service, is as old as the first prophet called.  I am not worthy.  As Isaiah puts it…I am a man of unclean lips.

Or as someone here might say; I’m not good enough... I don’t go to church each Sunday, or I am not as generous as I should be, or I have an addiction, or am ill tempered, or tend to gossip.  I am too young, old, unwell, unfaithful…I am not good enough.

It doesn’t matter to God, nor has it ever.

We may not have many coals here…but here in this place consecrated elements will touch your lips…sanctified by the sacrifice of Christ…and they in their way can blot out your sins and make you clean and whole once more.

We each recognize our sins, pray, repent and return to the Lord…we are each forgiven and through Christ’s sacrifice are sanctified.  It is not the pure and clean, the sinless and perfect who Christ died for, nor is it only those invited to the altar …to the sacrifice of the Great Thanksgiving…the Eucharist.

It is all of us sinners, people of unclean lips.  Just like Isaiah, the greatest prophet of the old testament.

And once Isaiah felt that burning coal, accepted that sanctification, knew that he was a man of unclean lips made clean…

Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord saying “who shall I send? And who will go for us?      

The voice of the Lord was calling for a prophet from among a people of unclean lips… calling for a missionary to be sent out… a preacher to speak the word of God.  A prophet to comfort and succor the people of Israel in the darkest of times.

It is a call heard throughout the bible and throughout all of our history…

The voice of the Lord asking : Who shall I send?!

And Isaiah answered … and I’ll tell you what he didn’t say:

He didn’t say… send to do what exactly?  Or how will this affect me?  Or will this change things?  Or sorry God, that is not how we do things here.

He didn’t say…now that’s a good question I’ll take that to the committee.

Isaiah said “here I am; send me!”  he knew he was already changed…he had already been affected.  By hearing the call of God, by experiencing God and accepting that he was made clean by God…he already knew that he was a servant of God and when a master tells the servant whom shall I send…the servant doesn’t say…I don’t know?   The servant says send me!

We are a people of unclean lips, living with people of unclean lips…but we are also a people who have been called by God, sanctified by Christ and sent out with the Spirit to speak the words God has given us.

We, like Isaiah, live in uncertain times.  Politics is troubling, faith is dwindling, violence is escalating and trust in God is a rare thing.  It is times like these when prophets are called…ordinary people with unclean lips.

Called to speak out to the changes that God is enacting in the midst of us.

To show where God’s hand has guided us and remind us that God walks with us.

This is the time when prophets are called.  People who know Christ, experience the Spirit and trust in God to be there in the midst of whatever goes on around us.

We are people who are called to worry less about meetings, buildings, and changing times…and to concern ourselves more with being the people that God, Christ and the Spirit, the Holy and life giving Trinity have sent out into the world.

A mission we accepted at our baptism and every time we reaffirm that promise, every time we are called to be prophets of the trinity, speaking God’s truth to a world of unclean lips.

The Trinitarian God is a God who sends…

and a Christian is one who says send me.

Each of us, individually and as a church, have missions to go on…journeys we have been sent on.  We are the ones who are sent.

In the final year of the reign of Bishop Phillips, in the Diocese of Rupert’s land, the year that St. Stephens faced fear and loss in new and very real ways…

the people the parish heard the voice of the Lord saying…

”whom shall I send and who will go for us?”

The question is … what shall we answer?