Reading the Rublev Trinity

This sermon was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for Midweek Advent Worship on Wednesday, December 3, 2025. The icon in question, Andrei Rublev’s Icon of the Holy Trinity, can be seen at the bottom of the sermon transcript.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Tonight, as I alluded to at Sunday worship, we'll be doing something a little bit different. The text for us to interpret this evening is Genesis 18, yes, but it is also the text of an icon. It is the icon of the Rublev Holy Trinity icon here.

Many of you have probably already seen this because I bring this out at the Feast of the Holy Trinity every year. It's a beautiful icon. It's probably one of the, if not the most famous piece of art in Russian history. It is very, very significant.

History of the Icon

It was commissioned in the 1400s. There's some dispute as to when it was commissioned. 11 or sometime between 1425 and 1427 is the general consensus.

It was commissioned to honor St. Sergius of Redonezh at a monastery near Moscow. It is the most famous of all Russian icons. It's one of the most famous pieces of Russian art in history.

Icons are one of those things that if you don't have much exposure to them, you don't really know what you're looking at. Icons, generally speaking, aren't just paintings. Yeah, they are painted. This one is not. This one is printed. This is a reproduction. But they are, generally speaking, they are made with paints.

Meaning of Icons

The icon of the Holy Trinity, or icons in general, are symbols which point to something else. When we look at our computers, we click on icons. An icon is just an image that represents something else.

We use the word icon, it's originally a Greek word, in order to talk about this image which points to some underlying reality.

Now, most of y'all here are probably old enough to remember the good old three and a half inch floppy disk. I am getting up there in years when it was pointed out that many people, many young people now are confused by why is it that the save icon on their computer is a small vending machine? Because that's what it looks like to them. They've never had to deal with the little three and a half inch floppy with the little slider and all that sort of thing.

So images change over time. The meaning of them change. The interpretation of the Holy Trinity icon has changed over time as well. This is just one incarnation of it. It has been painted many times throughout history.

Actually, to even use the word painted is incorrect. Icons, the correct term for creating an icon is not to paint them or to draw them, but the term that is used is we write them. They are written as if they are like the word of God. Not saying that this is the same thing as the Bible. That's not the case at all. But it is an important symbol for us. We write an icon.

They're done with natural materials. There's a reason why, as strange as it might seem, yes, you can get a print on a piece of paper of any icon you like. You can go, there's stores that sell these things online. In fact, that's where this basically came from. A Russian Orthodox monastery in Wisconsin. One of the things they do is produce that.

But if you flip it over, you'll find that it's a solid piece of wood. It's a nice piece of wood. Because icons are constructed with all natural materials, only with the things that God has given us.

So traditionally, they're painted with egg-based paints, tempera paints. They're painted on wood. Larger icons are painted on multiple pieces of wood that are glued or fastened together.

Description of the Rublev Holy Trinity Icon

Your bulletin this evening, it has the order of service and the text. But if you flip it over to the other side, I've kind of switched up our bulletins tonight because I've given you your own little paper icon. You can take this home and you can hang it up someplace as a reminder.

I want to take you through this a little bit. The first thing you might notice, is that this was painted across three boards. Over the centuries, it has begun to split a little bit. You can see that there are seams running down. That's not an artifact of the photography or the printing. That is the wood separating and twisting because it's made of natural materials.

What we have here is based on, this is an interpretation of an icon idea. Called the hospitality of Abraham. But it is for us in modern times, considered to be the icon of the Holy Trinity. We'll get to why that is.

What we have here, is we have three angels sitting at a table. They're all dressed similarly. Some things that you'll see that they have in common.

• They all have halos, which is a sign of them being holy figures. Halos are very common in iconography for saints, for angels, and for Jesus Christ himself.
• The angels are sitting around a table. But you'll notice that they are not completely surrounding the table. There is room in this gathering of visitors for another to sit there in the front.
• They're sitting around a table. In the center of the table, and it's kind of hard to make out, but I am assured that the cup in the center of the table contains the head of a calf - of a baby cow. Abraham has brought his angelic visitors a fatted calf. We see that symbolized there.

In the background, and it is rather faint, but you can see it. Above the first angel, you'll see that there's a house. It's thought to be Abraham's house. Or a representation of it. We don't know what Abraham's house looked like. But we do know the city that it was originally in. Before he moved to the promised land. We found the city of Ur, where he came from.

In the middle, we have an oak tree. The oaks of Mamre. You've got to remember that Abraham was a wanderer. He was a nomadic traveler. You know, a tribesman. He was traveling around in a tent.

Over here, on the other side, we have a mountain. Which is thought to be Mount Moriah. The mountain of God.

Interpretation of the Angels

The angels here. This is one where maybe you have to hold it out a little bit and squint. But you'll notice that the angels, the position of their wings, the location of the halos. You see that there's a circle inscribed here. That'll become important here in a little bit.

Each one of them is also carrying, and it's difficult to see, but each one of them is carrying a spear. These little thin brown lines are spears. They might also be walking sticks, but they were probably weapons.

You'll notice that the angels have different hand gestures. That's important too.

As we read the icon, by the way, we don't just interpret an icon, we read it. As you read this icon, starting on the left, the leftmost angel is thought to represent God the Father. Blessing the cup. His hand is extended in blessing. That blessing is a two-fingered blessing, kind of like this. You'll see me do a similar kind of gesture at certain times in our Eucharist services on weekends.

The Father is blessing the cup, but his hand is sort of at a distance, as if he has passed the cup. To the Son, who's seated in the center. Above that left angel is this house. The house is thought to be Abraham's house, although we think that Abraham lived in a tent. This is really calling us to a bigger interpretation here, a broader interpretation, that perhaps this house isn't just Abraham's house, but rather perhaps it is God's house in the heavens.

A Soviet art collector and interpreter, art critic, Viktor Lazarev, suggests that the central angel represents Jesus Christ, who in turn blesses the cup and seems to be accepting it with a bow. Notice his head is bowed towards the angel who represents the Father. As if saying, "Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will."

The rightmost angel here on this side is the Holy Spirit.

You might notice a few things about the facial features of these angels. The facial features are not, as we think of in modern art, intended to represent what a person actually looked like. Well, we don't know what these angels would have looked like in the first place, but that's actually not the point.

You'll notice some common features of these angels. Common facial features, you will often see long noses. If you look at these three figures, they have very long noses. What does a long nose mean? Well, it is a symbol of wisdom.

Similarly, the eyebrows and the brow line are often exaggerated as they are in this picture. The combination of the long nose and the eyebrow lines makes a palm tree, which is another way of talking about wisdom.

In some icons, you'll even see, you don't see it in this one, but you'll see icons where they have multiple wrinkles on their foreheads, almost looking bony. Those are additional signs of wisdom. If you have a bony forehead or a long nose or strong eyebrows, well, that's just God showing the world that you are wise.

Symbolism of Colors and Elements

The colors that they're wearing are also significant.

• All of them are wearing blue, which is a symbol of divinity.
• But beyond that, they have different clothing. The leftmost figure, the one representing God, is blue, but then he is clothed in gold. The gold is symbolic of God as king.
• The center angel, also blue, but not just blue, but also brown. The blue is an outer coating that goes around the brown inner layer. We see that this one in the center is both of blue, which is the divine, and also of brown, which is human. Remember that in Genesis, that humanity is made of the dust of the earth, and God breathes into the dust to give it life.
• The outer garment is of green. Green is a symbol of new life.

The mountain above the Holy Spirit here is the mountain of God, meant to show us that this Trinity is about an ascent to God, a spiritual ascent to the mountain of God.

This icon gives us a beautiful picture of this relationship that God has within himself. Three persons in one Trinity, in one God, joined together in perfect humility, perfect mutual submission, perfect interpenetration, perfect love.

Theological Connection and Conclusion

This trinity appeared to Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre, and they came to bear him good news. He was extremely aged. I believe she was about 98 years old at this time. She would become pregnant and bear a son.

That son would be the fulfilling of God's promise to Abraham, which he had never stopped believing. He had never stopped believing that God would provide for him a son who would make him the father of many nations, so that as he trusts in him, he would become the father of a multitude.

Through Isaac, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and all their descendants, they became a numerous nation in Israel. They became a numerous nation from whom is descended our Lord Jesus Christ, who is for us the fulfillment of all of God's promises, especially those made to Abraham, that the righteous shall live by faith.

Abram believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and so too we gather together this evening, the table with this Holy Trinity, and remember his good and gracious will for us, that in the fullness of time, he sent his son Jesus Christ to die for us on the cross, to hang upon the tree, so that we might be restored to relationship with him.

May you follow and love this Holy Trinity. May you know the presence of Christ coming at Christmas, and may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds, strong in Christ Jesus our Lord, to life everlasting. Amen.