Holy, Holy, Holy

 

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord,

God of power and might.

Heaven and Earth are full of  your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

 

(The Sanctus from the Holy Communion service)

This 'song' is an important part of the Eucharist and we're invited to sing it along with all the angels. Just before we sing or say the Sanctus, the priest says, "Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we proclaim your great and glorious name, for ever praising you and saying..."

 

In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah records how he saw the Lord sitting on a throne, and around Him he saw angels. The angels cried to each other, "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory." Isaiah immediately becomes very aware of his smallness and uncleanness. An angel touches a burning coal to Isaiah's lips and reassures him that he will be cleansed from his sin, and the passage ends with Isaiah offering to go wherever God sends him.

At the Sanctus, I see an invitation to us to enter something of Isaiah's experience - to be humbled by God's greatness and purity, a God so great and pure that one "holy" isn't enough to describe Him. Just like a burning coal is put to Isaiah's lips in order to purify him, we're about to receive Jesus in the Holy Communion on our lips and this has a healing and cleansing effect in us. Then, just like Isaiah offers himself to be sent out by God for His purposes, the Eucharist ends with us being sent out to live and work to His praise and glory. At an even deeper level, the way we join in with the angels' song at this moment in the service lifts us out of time and space, and somehow puts us in place where Heaven and Earth and all time are overlapping. It's not just the visible congregation singing this song and celebrating this Eucharist. Something deeply mystical is happening. Maybe that's why I sometimes get goosebumps when singing the Sanctus!