St. Mary's Episcopal Church

Trinity Sunday
From Isaiah 6

Trinity Sunday, 2007: In the 7th year of George Bush, Here I am, Send Me From Isaiah 6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.
Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of God's glory."
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!"
In the seventh year of the presidency of George Bush, and fifth year of our war in Iraq, I spent part of Memorial Day sitting in the airport in Atlanta.
I had flown over from Houston to spend a few days with my friends who live in the Georgia mountains, and was waiting for one of those friends to fly into Atlanta herself from a trip to visit family in Phoenix so we could drive up to the mountains together. I had about two hours to wait, and with my ipod and my knitting, I found a cozy chair in a corner of the Atrium gathering area to sit and wait.
The airport in Atlanta always has a large amount of soldiers coming and going, but Memorial Day there seemed to be an especially great number.
I was first struck by this as I rode the long, steep escalator up to baggage claim from the trains that connect the various terminals to the lobby.
As soon as the soldiers got off the escalator, a man dressed in red with the words USO printed on his chest greeted the soldiers with a warm hand shake and directions to the USO.

I found out that there were so many more soldiers there that day because they were returning from two weeks leave with family and friends to return to battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Every fifteen minutes or so, a USO representative would stand in the center of the Atrium and announce that a group of men and women were returning to service, and a parade of men and women dressed in camouflage with stuffed full back packs/duffels on their backs would walk in pairs through the airport lead by an American flag and bagpipes playing.
The people waiting in the airport would stand and clap as the men and women walked by.
It was heart-wrenching for me to watch.
I knew some of these men and women would not come back alive.
As I sat and waited, three soldiers came and sat near me.
I tried to catch their eye and smile.
They looked grim and talked little.
An hour or so later, I saw those three men who had been sitting near me walking in one of those parades of departing soldiers returning to duty in Iraq.
There was only one group that seemed to enjoy the ovations.
They smiled and waved at us as they went to get on their planes.
Bringing up the rear of the group were two young women soldiers pushing luggage carts containing their camouflage duffles as well as a couple of suitcases too.
These were the only two soldiers I saw all day with more than what they could carry on their back.
I decided, correct or not, that this group of soldiers was going off to war for the first time.
They could still take pleasure in the standing ovations.
The two women could still pack like the rest of us-taking more than we can need or carry when we travel to new places. I prayed an awful lot that day.
While I prayed and knitted, I Iistened to a podcast from an APR show called Speaking of Faith and an episode called The Soul of War which was an interview with the Reserve Chaplain and Iraqi war veteran, Major John Morris.
He talked about his experiences serving as a chaplain primarily to reserve soldiers who had been called up for duty.
He talked about his experience celebrating a day of Easter services in Iraq, knowing that some of those who worshipped with him would be dead at the end of the day. The gospel of the resurrection was very real to them.
He talked about how there is a severe shortage of rabbis who are chaplains and about bringing together Jewish soldiers for Passover worship for in a Muslim country that was from where where our common ancestor Abram came and where our Jewish brothers and sisters have lived in exile, "by the waters of Babylon," a sacred geography.
He talked about the great hardships that the families of soldiers take on because of the military service of their loved ones.
He talked about the unique difficulties of reentry home for the National Guard soldiers after they had served in war and the new ministry that has begun to support them and their families called Beyond the Yellow Ribbon.
He also talked about the way that we civilians so often look at and treat the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan as victims.
He said that this is not helpful to the soldiers because they did not feel that way about their service.
Major Morris said that most are willingly serving their country, and noted that the relative lack of desertions during in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
These soldiers in Iraq and Afhanastan have said, "Here I am, send me."
This sermon is not about the war in Iraq and Afghanastan.
It is about people who say yes to a call, maybe not willingly, but saying yes.
It is about people who say yes to a call for which they know they are not being completely prepared.
It is about people who say yes to a call that they know will be hard.
It is about people like the soldiers I saw in the Atlanta airport.
People like us.
When the prophet begins the story of his call with the words, In the Year King Uzziah died, he does so to tell that this is a real story in real time.
In telling us that it is the year that King Uzziah died, the prophet is saying that it is a time of great turmoil in his country.
What will happen in the transition between kings?
What kind of king will the new king be?
What changes are in store that personally affect me and my family?
It is the seventh year of presidency of George Bush and the fifth year of the war in Iraq.
Every day God asks us whom God can send and who will go for God.
We no more know what is ahead for us than those soldiers in the Atlanta airport.
We are not perfectly prepared for what God may have in store for us, but we are prepared enough.
On this Trinity Sunday, we remember and celebrate that God asks us who shall I send, who will go for us, us The Father, us the Son, and us the Holy Spirit.
When we say yes, we will not know for sure what is ahead for us.
In fact, what we think we say yes to do may turn out to be very different than what God will have us do.
But every day we receive a fresh invitation to say yes.
To not desert, but to say that what we have is enough.
For we have God the Father who created each of us and knows every cell, every thought, every temptation we have.
We have God the Son who came into the world to have a relationship with us.
We have God our brother Jesus the Christ who came to show us what a relationship with God looks like.
We have God the Holy Spirit who walks beside us and with us.
We have God the Spirit of Christ who guides us and strengthens us.
We have enough.
In the seventh year of the presidency of George Bush, and the fifth year of the war in Iraq, we heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"
And we said, "Here we are; send us!

Glory to God our Creator.
To Jesus the Christ,.
To the Holy Spirit who dwells in our midst.
Now and forever. AMEN