Trinity Sunday Sermon at St. Matthias

Trinity Sunday

St. Matthias

May 27, 2018

The Rev. John Stewart, Deacon

Two of the things I remember most about my Daddy's workshop were his soldering iron and his can of 3 in 1 Oil.  The soldering iron had been retired from the phone company and was the size of a small baseball bat to my young eyes.  It really was about a foot long and the solder smelled like a cross between burning metal and pine trees.  The 3 in 1 Oil was even more fascinating to a 6 year old.  It came in a little can and made a very appealing "tip-tap-blump" noise when Daddy mashed the can, and then a drop of oil came out.  He used it on bike chains, car and door hinges and anything else than squeaked or what he said "had binded up."

3 in 1 oil was invented in 1894 to lubricate bike chains.  The oil is a mixture of three ingredients:  Spindle oil, Citronella oil and a corrosion inhibitor.  The name refers to the inventor's purpose to provide an oil to, "clean, lubricate and protect."

Clean.  Lubricate.  Protect.  A pretty tall order for such a little can.

In today's readings, we are presented with all of these.

In one of the most vivid images of "cleaning" in Scripture, Isaiah has a vision of the Lord of Hosts sitting on a throne: "I said: '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!'

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: 'Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.' Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?'  And I said, 'Here am I; send me!' "

Isaiah, cleansed from the very altar of God, is then able to answer the prophetic call to go into Israel and the world proclaiming God's message, including the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah to save the world.  As followers of Christ, we are all cleansed through baptism and called to boldly proclaim his message of salvation, of love, of the Kingdom of God coming into the world.

Lubricate.  verb .  To smooth over, as a difficulty or human relationship; ease:    example -  to lubricate the friction between enemies.

Does Christ's Salvation not do this for us and for the world?   God so loved us that he sent his only begotten Son into the world.   We are commanded by Jesus to love our enemies and to pray for them.   St. Paul tells us to treat them with extra kindness, meeting their violence and hatred with an added measure of love.  In today's reading Paul calls us brothers and sisters and adopted children of God, and says Jesus is now our brother.   Jesus, in his dying words, forgives his enemies in their ignorance.   Isaiah himself in another passage, calls for paths to be made smooth for the coming of the Messiah.   Being brothers and sisters in Christ does not remove all the friction, since brothers and sisters still fight between themselves and with others, but Jesus eases the relationships of human beings by his transformative power.

In the third ingredient of 3 in One oil, we come to "protect."

I believe that one of the greatest gifts of God - in all three persons - is comfort, security, and protection.  In reading the Psalms, one of the constants, one of the repeated themes, is an assurance of safety and protection.  In spite of our own arrogance and the assaults of our enemies, God is always a comfort: a rock, a crag, a tower of strength, a shield, a giant bird protecting us under its wings.  We are protected from arrows and from assaults.  In today's Psalm we are again promised protection and comfort by the Almighty:  "The Lord shall give strength to his people;  the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace." 

3 in One oil.  Three ingredients, three uses, one tiny little can.  Always found in God’s workshop.  Amen.