Trinity Sunday III

Today at church, our first reading for Trinity Sunday was Isaiah 6:1-8.

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 his glory.’ Isaiah 6:1-3

The second reading was Revelation 4:1-11.

After this I looked, and there in heaven a door stood open! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne! And the one seated there looks like jasper and cornelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. Around the throne are twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones are twenty-four elders, dressed in white robes, with golden crowns on their heads. Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God; and in front of the throne there is something like a sea of glass, like crystal.

Around the throne, and on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a face like a human face, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and inside. Day and night without ceasing they sing,

‘Holy, holy, holy,
the Lord God the Almighty,
who was and is and is to come.’

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to the one who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall before the one who is seated on the throne and worship the one who lives for ever and ever; they cast their crowns before the throne, singing,

‘You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honour and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.’

The imagery in these passages causes my imagination to run wild. I want to see them in a painting.
In the first, the Lord sits on the lofty throne with his train filling the temple, and the six-winged seraphs hover with their wings positioned just so. This could be painted.

In the second passage, the imagery is much more complicated and detailed. The one on the throne looks like cornelian and jasper? How would you paint that? A rainbow like an emerald? The elders in the white robes and golden crowns, the flashings of lightening, the flaming torches, and the see of glass would be easy - if you were an artist. The four living creatures, like to a lion, an ox, a human, and an eagle, with all the eyes, inside and out, each with six wings - that would be a challenge.

I'd like to see an attempt. Has it perhaps been done? Is there a half-mad mystic of an artist who tried? Someone like William Blake, perhaps?

The imagery of the twenty-four elders falling down and casting their crowns before the Lord has, for some time, signified to me the proper attitude of heart when we gather together to worship God.

To finish off, I'm stealing this poem on the Trinity by John Donne from Aghaveagh at The Moon By Night:

BATTER my heart, three person'd God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee,'and bend
Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to'another due, 5
Labour to'admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weake or untrue.
Yet dearely'I love you,'and would be loved faine,
But am betroth'd unto your enemie: 10
Divorce mee,'untie, or breake that knot againe;
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you'enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.

The final three lines are magnificent.

Aghaveagh says of the poet:

Today is the feast day of John Donne, priest. I have always felt an affinity to Donne. For him, belief is a turbulent, violent maelstrom. Whether tumbling into lustful union with his mistress, or wrestling with his faith, his is, as he puts it, a "holy discontent."

Surely, this post must appear to be the ranting of a half-mad (not holy) discontent.