Holy Trinity Sunday is not the most popular festival among preachers who, for all the other seasons and special days of the church year, normally get to dig into interesting gospel narratives.
Most other festivals of the church 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 also the light bearing nature of the season of Epiphany, we celebrate the messy Baptism of our Lord, the confusing Transfiguration, and 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 that we celebrated last Sunday amid all of the red…all leading up to today’s Holy Trinity Sunday, when we celebrate a church doctrine. [1]
Many preachers dread this day because they see it as kind of a dry, dusty theological topic after such the exciting and earthy part of the liturgical year that came before it. It is like there is this raucous party of Easter and Pentecost that comes to a screeching halt while an old crotchety minister, 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”, causing the music to fade, the last of the Pentecost streamers still floating to the ground. Yep. Church doctrine Sunday.
Lucky for you, the clergy of St. Augustines does not feel this way! For the last two Sundays, Reverend Jim and Rev Thomas have “teed” up this most exciting and important of Sundays. Rev. Thomas gave us a dramatic demonstration of oneness in God using his Russian nesting dolls who bore the faces of the Beetles as he talked about love and the indwelling of God in us and we in him. And then Rev. Jim who spoke last week on God’s sending the Holy Spirit, the great advocate, the breath of God, to swirl around us, to bring comfort and the continued presence of God. And this morning, well, I am the closer! The one to bring all of this to a grand conclusion.
So, let’s get right down to it, shall we? 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. To review: 1+1+1=1. That is simple enough.
It is no wonder that so many of the early church councils were called to try and make sense of the Trinitarian formula. The church took its time coming up with the doctrine of the Trinity and much ink and much blood has been spilled on the matter.
There are many printed formulas and symbols to help define and explain the concept. The one I love the most is the 14th century Russian Orthodox icon by Andrei Rublev that I have inserted in your bulletins. This is a beautiful artistic depiction of this welcome that we have into the life of the Trinity. I encourage you to look at this Trinity icon – what you see is an image inspired by the Abraham story of the three visitors of God whom he welcomed. Some have suggested that all three of these “men” were angelic beings who appeared to Abraham in the form of men. However, Genesis 18:1 says that it was “the LORD” (Yahweh) who appeared to Abraham. (thegospelcoalition.org)
Rublev depicts the three figures in the icon as angels seated at an altar table. [2] You will notice that they have identical faces, but their postures and clothing differ as though we are looking at the same figure shown in three different ways. But it is the way in which the figures relate to one another which is so compelling. 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. Between the Spirit and the Father in the Trinity icon is an open space at the table in which the viewer is brought to sit in communion with the God head. 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 making a place for us at His table.
There are references to the Trinity throughout scripture that we may have missed. The first is in the second sentence of the first book in the Bible: Genesis Chapter 1 verse 1: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and the darkness was over the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
In verse 26 when God created man, God’s words are written using the plural: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Just as important, if not more so, is experiencing the Trinity, God, in our daily lives. In the Trinitarian nature of God, individuality and communality 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 nature of giving and receiving. Back and forth together throughout time. Maybe this is not some dusty doctrine, but it is about a God who pours out God’s own communal self into all of creation.
Ours 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 know through scripture and the prophets, the cross and the Gospel, the baptismal font and the Eucharistic table, this God is the one who welcomes us into this sacred life of mission commanded by Christ in the Gospel. Perhaps it would be a lot easier for everyone if we had a God who was a bit easier to peg down, but luckily that is not the case.
And while like the prophets and theologians of past and present struggle to explain the Godhead, we do not have to. We just believe and experience the love and saving grace of a God that comes to us in whatever form we need. At the exact time that we need.
I have experienced God many times and sometimes I knew it at the exact moment it happened. Other times it has taken me years removed from an event to see God’s hand in it.
Let me tell you about two visceral experiences I had with God though the Holy Spirit that stand out to me to this day.
The first happened at Convention about 15 years ago. I was a newly ordained deacon at the time. The deacons had decided to gather together during our lunch break so that we could pray with and for each other. Specifically, one of our deacons was to undergo a procedure tied to cancer, and we wanted to lay hands on her and have prayer. She sat in a chair in the middle of the room, and we all gathered around. About 20 of us, laid hands on her or the person in front of us creating quite a huddled mass of collared clergy.
The Deacon who led the prayer was a member of the Order of St. John, an order that promotes physical, mental and spiritual health and resilience. He began the prayer by saying over and over, “Come Holy Spirit, come.” Mind you it was lunch time, and I was hungry. I became a bit impatient after about five minutes of his continued beckoning.
But it was not long after that he began to pray. And as he did, every hair on my body stood on end, even the hair on my head prickled with the energy of some unseen power in that room.
After he finished the prayer, we all left in silence, and I pulled my friend Becky aside and whispered, “Did you feel that?!”She looked at me and nodded, a knowing look that let me know that she too felt the power of that prayer and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
The same thing happened again years later when I was at Sewanee studying to become a priest. We always had chapel before lunch, with different folks, sometimes students, sometimes faculty, offering a short homily. That particular day, one of the faculty was appointed. And when she began to speak about the death of her mother, using this event as an example for a point she was making, I once again experienced the hair tingling power of the presence of God. Afterward, I found myself standing in line behind her in the cafeteria, and she was telling the woman with her, “I felt my mother with me today. Something powerful happened in that chapel!” I smiled, and touched her on the shoulder and said, “I felt it too.”
I do not know how God touches you. Or how Jesus speaks to you. Or how you sense the Holy Spirit when she is called upon. But there is no doubt that there is a love and a power so overwhelming encompassing this universe, that it cannot be contained. And the good news is that we are all a part of this relational dance with God, in which we are invited to live into the fullness of our identity as beloved children of God.
As is reflected in our icon, there is room at the table for us all to sit in the presence of God.
This most holy space is filled with physical items, outward signs of our walk with our God: The baptismal font which is placed so that we walk past it on our way to the table. Christ on the cross overhead to remind us of our victory over death through His. And in the elements of bread and wine of communion in which we believe Jesus’ physical body and blood is present. Signs of the Trinitarian God that are referenced in our readings today:
The Holy Spirit… wisdom… in our reading from Proverbs.
Jesus Christ who gives us access to God’s grace in our reading from Romans
And God who sends the Spirit of truth so that we can continue to have faith as stated in our reading of the Gospel of John.
And so, my prayer for us all, is that we continue to feel the tingle and hear the whisper and feel the breath of God every day of our lives as we find our way back to Him.
Amen.
Sources:
1. Nadia Bolz-Weber. www.pathos.com.
2. Andrei Rublev. Cloudfront.net