Matthew 28:16-20
Holy Trinity is not the most popular festival among preachers who…
- For all the other seasons of the church year…
- Ordinarily get to dig into interesting gospel narratives.
- And most festivals…during the church year…celebrate an event.
- We commemorate happenings in the life of Christ:
- Mary’s visit from Gabriel…announcing the miraculous child she was to bear into the world.
- God’s own word made flesh.
- We celebrate the light bearing nature of the season of Epiphany.
- We celebrate the Holy Baptism of our Lord.
- We celebrate the mysterious Transfiguration.
- We celebrate Jesus riding triumphant into Jerusalem amidst palms and cheers.
- We celebrate the empty tomb of Easter…
- The glorious Ascension…the chaotic coming of God’s spirit to the church at Pentecost…
- All leading up to The Holy Trinity Sunday…that’s today…
- When we celebrate a church doctrine.
- Preachers dread this day because we see it as kind of a dry dusty topic…
- After the exciting and earthy part of the liturgical year that came before it.
- The Lord be with you…
It is like there is this glorious party of Easter and Pentecost…
- That comes to a screeching halt while an old crotchety man shuffles up to the pulpit…
- Blows the dust off an enormous leather-bound book…clears his throat saying:
- And now a celebration of church doctrine…Church doctrine Sunday.
So…here we go…God is three persons and one being.
- God is one and yet three.
- The father is not the Son or the Spirit.
- The Son is not the Father or the Spirit.
- The Spirit is not the Father or the Son.
- But the Father…Son and Spirit all are God and God is one.
- So…to review 1+1+1=1.
No wonder…that so many of the early church councils were called to try and make sense of the Trinitarian formula.
- The church took it’s time coming up with the doctrine of the trinity…
- And much ink and much blood have been spilled on the matter.
- So…it is hard to see what there is to celebrate on this Church Doctrine Sunday.
- Where is the good news?
Here’s the thing…it would be easier for everyone if God were easier to peg down…
- But that is not what is revealed in scripture.
- Here we have a hard to peg down God from the Beginning.
- The Genesis account does not say: Let me make humankind in my own image…but let us make humankind in our own image according to our
- This is not a me God…but a we
- God…from the beginning…is not God as bad math (1+1+1=1) …
- But God as community.
- The triune nature of God assures that God is in fellowship with God’s self.
- In the Beginning is Creator…Word and Spirit all co-mingling to bring forth creation…God creates communally.
In the Trinitarian nature of God…the individual and community are related in a beautiful life-giving dance of creation.
- Whatever names we choose to use:
- Father…Son and Holy Ghost…
- Holy Parent…Holy Child and Holy Spirit…
- Creator…Redeemer and Advocate…
- The three aspects remain distinct while the identity remains one…
- Through mutual relatedness of giving and receiving.
- Back and forth together throughout time.
- Maybe this is not some dusty doctrine…
- But the holy fruitfulness of a God who pours out God’s own communal self into the creation.
This image of the relational dance of God with God’s self is wide enough to include us…the created.
- Non-relational images of God do not allow room for us…
- But the mutual indwelling of Father…Son…and Holy Spirit offers us and all creation…
- The divine space in which to live into the fullness of our identity as beloved children of God.
There is a beautiful artistic depiction of this welcome we have into the life of the Trinity in the Russian Orthodox icon originating from the 14th century.
- I encourage you to look at this Trinity icon…
- What you see is an image inspired by the Abraham story of the 3 visitors of God whom he welcomed (Genesis 18).
- The 3 figures in the icon are depicted as angels seated at an altar table.
- They have identical faces…
- But their postures and clothing differ as though we are looking at the same figure shown in three different ways.
- And it is the way in which the figures relate to one another which is so powerful.
The father looks to the son…gesturing toward this Word made flesh.
- Christ gazes back at the Father but points to the Spirit.
- And the Spirit opens up the circle to receive the viewer…us.
- Between the Spirit and the Father is an open space at the table in which the viewer is brought to sit in communion with God.
- So…here we see an image of God’s relational circle into which we are welcomed.
- The Father sends the Son…
- The son sends the Spirit…
- And the Spirit welcomes us to the table.
- It is a lush image of how God relates to God’s self and to us.
A triune image of God – Father…Son and Holy Spirit – Creator…Redeemer and Advocate…
- Is not An Unknown God like the statue Paul encounters in Athens…
- But is a God who is revealed in the Word and in the Meal…
- Shared among the beloved community throughout the ages and in all places.
- This triune God made known through scripture and the prophets…
- The cross and the Gospel…
- The baptismal font and the communion table…
- This God is the one who welcomes us into this sacred life of mission and ministry.
We have a triune God who is impossible to explain yet reveals God’s self not in the intricacies of doctrine…
- But in community…in bread…in wine and water.
- In the waters of baptism…we swim in the crazy beautiful promises of the triune God…
- Who welcomes us into the swirling dance of God’s love poured out for the sake of the world.
- So…maybe…the Holy Trinity is not such a dry dusty doctrine after all…
- But is drenching wet with promise.