St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cleveland, Tennessee

Fifth Sunday of Lent
March 21, 2010
Mrs. Pamela K. Park

THE ICON OF THE HOLY TRINITY

In the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

As you know, today is the fifth Sunday of Lent. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and the following Sunday we will celebrate what, in the Eastern Church is called Pascha, or as we know it, Easter, the greatest feast day of our faith—the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ.

Because the Season of Lent is a time of introspection and devotion, I would like to offer this morning a meditation on the Icon of the Holy Trinity. I painted the icon you see on the altar at a workshop at Kanuga a few weeks ago. It is my very humble attempt to paint one of the most cherished icons ever written. The original of this particular portrayal of the Holy Trinity was painted by Russian iconographer and monk, Andre Rublev, in the fifteenth century.

The Holy Trinity icon is not specifically a Lenten icon. Yet, in my experience of prayer and paint with this icon, it evokes such a meditative and devotional quality that, I think, it is entirely appropriate to consider during Lent.

This Trinity icon is so packed with theological and spiritual symbolism that I could not possibly go into all the icon holds within it. And, in all honesty, I doubt that you would want me to do so on a Sunday morning. So, I have selected a few points that I hope will enable you to behold the beauty of the Lord expressed in and through this icon.

According to the Orthodox Church, Rublev's icon is said to have attained the highest spiritual vision, theological expression, and artistic perfection of any icon ever written. St. Andre Rublev is said to be the greatest iconographer who has ever painted. His portrayal expresses through line and color the biblical story of the visitation of the three men, said to be angels, to Abraham and Sarah at the Oaks of Mamre in Genesis 18. Another name for this icon is the Hospitality of Abraham.

Henri Nouwen says of the biblical story that “this angelic appearance is the prefiguration of the divine mission by which God sends us his only Son to sacrifice himself for our sins, and gives us new life through the Spirit.”

Rublev's was not the first depiction of this ancient story. But the reason his icon attained the heights of perfection is that he concerned himself with the essence of the visitation as opposed to the outer accoutrements of the story. His was not a concern for the literal retelling, but was a result of a prayerful contemplation of the action of God in the biblical account.

Orthodox theology says that we cannot know God in God's essence, but we can know God through God's actions in the world. We say the same thing, just a bit differently. I think the Orthodox explain it rather well, when they use the story of Moses' approaching God on Mt. Sinai in Exodus 33. Moses asks God to allow him to see God's face. God tells Moses that it is not possible for humanity to gaze upon the face of God because our human vessel is not strong enough to contain the vision of God. God places Moses in the cleft of a rock so that Moses is only able to see the back of God. I love that story. To me, it's a beautiful way of expressing humanity's desire to know God and God desire to come close to those whom he has created.

The art of iconography is another expression of our desire to see and to come nearer the Holy. Icons are another way to tell the story of God's eternal presence with us in this life and the next.

Rublev, being a man of prayer and contemplation, brought his mystic's understanding of God's action in the world to his iconographer's art through the story of Abraham and Sarah's hospitality to the three strangers and created a masterpiece that has served as an invitation to prayer for centuries.

If you will look at the copy of Rublev's icon you were handed as you entered the church, you will see the three angels. As this is a black and white copy you will need to look at the icon on the altar to see the quality of color used by Rublev to depict the angels. This icon does not copy well in black and white so much of the detail of the icon above the heads of the angels is difficult to discern, but I will explain it to you as we go along.

The angels are depicted on the icon from left to right in the order of the “Symbol of Faith” as expressed in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. I believe in God, the Father, who is the angel on your left, God, the Son, the angel in the center, and God, the Holy Spirit, the angel on your right.”

Each of the angels wears a garment of blue which represents their one essence. Blue represents the immaterial, heavenly realm and is considered a highly spiritual color signifying transcendence. In addition, each angel also wears a garment of a different color, representing their particular action in the world.

The angel to the left, symbolic of the first Person of the Trinity, the Father, wears and outer tunic of muted pink. Pink is a combination of white, which represents purity and transcendence, and red, which represents limitlessness and life.

If you look above the head of the angel representing the Father, you will see a building. This is the house of Abraham and Sarah. It is symbolic of the Old Covenant and Temple worship, which leads us to the church, and into the Kingdom of God. Jesus said, “In my Father's house there are many mansions.”

The central angel, symbolizing the second Person of the Trinity, the Son, wears clothing and colors that are associated with icons of Christ throughout the centuries. His outer tunic is a deep, dark red, representing the blood of Christ and the Eucharist. A golden, priestly stole rests on his right shoulder in the manner worn by deacons, in order to represent his servant ministry. This angel is drawn more boldly than the two angels to either side signifying the Incarnation.

The tree, depicted above this angel, has “associations which take us from the oak of Mamre to the wood of the Cross, and to the Tree of Life.”

The third angel, symbolic of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is dressed in an outer tunic of green and represents life and spiritual regeneration.

The mountain above the third angel represents Mount Sinai, the mountain upon which God made Covenant with Moses, and Mount Tabor, the mountain associated with the Tranfiguration and with the New Covenant through Christ. Mountains also signify the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The images of the house, tree and mountain are signs which have their roots in the story of the hospitality of Abraham and Sarah, but in true iconographic style, they point us beyond the story to the New Covenant, to the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross, to the Resurrection of Christ, and, thereby, to our own redemption.

The three angels are sitting at a table upon which rests a chalice. Inside the chalice is the head of a lamb, signifying the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

As Henri Nouwen says, “Andre Rublev painted this icon not only to share the fruits of his own meditation on the mystery of the Holy Trinity but also to offer his fellow monks,” and I would say, those of us gazing upon this icon today, “a way to keep their,” and our, “hearts centered in God while living in the midst” of a sometimes violent and troubled world. Nouwen says that “the more we look at this holy image with the eyes of faith, the more we come to realize that it is painted not as a lovely decoration for a convent church, nor as a helpful explanation of a difficult doctrine, but as a holy place to enter and stay within.”

As we kneel at the altar this morning to receive the Sacrament, let us allow the icon to softly and gently invite us “to take our place among the three divine angels and to join them around the table.” Amen.

BOOKS CONSULTED IN THE WRITING OF THIS SERMON:

Nouwen, Henri, J.M., Behold the Beauty of the Lord , Ave Maria Press: Notre Dame, IN:1993.

Baggley, John, Festival Icons for the Christian Year , Mowbray, London, 2000