Today is
Trinity Sunday, one of the important feasts of the church year. Trinity Sunday
can be a confusing feast, though, because we’re not celebrating a person or an
event. If you think about our other Holy Days, they are all connected to an
event or a person in the midst of events. Saints Day’s celebrate a particular
saint or saints. And Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, just as the days
of Holy Week mark Jesus’ journey to the cross and Easter celebrates his
resurrection. But today, well the idea of God in three persons or ways of being
seems a bit odd when contrasted against how else we celebrate in the church.
Maybe you’ve even wondered how we came up with this triune or three-part God and
why we bother to celebrate God this way.
Trinity Sunday is a day of
celebration, a day when we honor and celebrate God in three aspects, or
persons, or perhaps ways of being and acting. And therein lies the enigma of
this feast day. What we’re celebrating is a concept and maybe we should call
today “Concept Sunday.” But if it helps to have company in your confusion about
how this whole Trinity thing works, I’m right there with you. And if you’re not
confused, see me later. I’m sure we can work on that together.
The Trinity is
(are?) complicated to understand, and for some of us the more we think about it
the more confused we get. Trying to comprehend something that is three separate
and co-equal beings, yet at the same time is (are?) inseparable, is about as confusing
as it gets. I can’t even talk about the Trinity without getting messed up in
grammar: should the Trinity be singular or plural, and if it’s both we need a
new pronoun!
The year before
I entered seminary, I visited three seminaries in three different parts of the
country. The interview requirements were different at each one. One seminary
had us interview with a professor and a student. Another seminary had us
interviewed by a group of students. And the third had us interview with a
student and professor, and then a final interview with the dean of the
seminary. At the end of the interview with the dean, he asked me if I was
scared of preaching. I blurted out, “I’m most afraid I’ll commit some major
heresy when I preach.”
The dean
laughed. And then he said, “I wouldn’t worry about it. No one can preach longer
than five minutes on the Trinity without committing major heresy.” I knew that
was the right seminary for me. And, I guess, since I’m close to five minutes
already today, I should probably quit while I’m ahead.
Trinity Sunday is about the existence
of God in three ways. And today’s readings, including the Canticle we sang address
different aspects of God.
Ever wonder how we got this far in
describing God? Most people think the concept of the Trinity was invented by a
bunch of ivory tower theologians with long beards mumbling together until they
came up with a concept to confuse us. Not so! It was people just like us who
came up with the idea of God working in three separate but co-equal entities
that were really still one God.
Why? Simple enough: people’s
experiences were of God working in different ways in their lives. Again, just
reread today’s lessons. And if that’s not enough, how about the Almighty God
who appeared on the Mount of Olives and in other times and places? And the God
embodied in Jesus the Christ as a man both human and divine? And then there’s
God as breath, wind, and fire; the Holy Spirit enlivening and encouraging our
faith and action.
It was only after regular people
starting talking about all this that theologians retreated to their ivory
towers to think it through. They took what people were already experiencing,
and what was revealed in scripture, and began to talk about these three faces,
or aspects, or ways we experience God.
So on this
Trinity Sunday, let’s think about what the Trinity means for our faith and for
each of us. At its essence, the Trinity is about a relationship, or perhaps
relationships plural. That is, the relationship between Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Or, if you prefer, it is the relationship that exists between the
Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sustainer. All three are in that relationship as
equals, each with a way of being and operating. Yet at the same time, so far as
we know, there is no arguing about who does what. One part of the Trinity
doesn’t say to another part, “Wait, no, I’ll do that!” Each aspect of the
Trinity has a role and a reason for being that is theirs to be and to do. And
while these three equals operate independently, they are at no time separated.
They are always and forever joined in relationship, to one another and to us.
Throughout the
centuries various theologians have used different metaphors to describe the
relationship between the three aspects or beings of the Trinity. Legend has it
St. Patrick used a cloverleaf to describe the Trinity. Others have used various
symbols such as interlocked circles, or overlapping rings. The cover of our
bulletin today is one example. There are many ways to describe something none of us
fully understands, and probably never will this side of our meeting God face to
face.
So think about
this to get a sense of what God in three beings, blessed Trinity does for us
and for our relationships with one another.
The Trinity
connects us one to another through an inseparable relationship that none of us
can destroy. We can part from one another, but the Trinity still holds us, both
separately and together. The tripartite or three part God in relationship with
God’s self is in relationship with us and never lets us go. And God’s relationship
with us and within us connects us to one another. We are connected, one to
another, by a blessed Trinity that nothing can separate. And we are connected
through that blessed Trinity to family, workmates, housemates, spouses,
partners, lovers, friends, and enemies, acquaintances on the street, those we
have met, and those we have not, the alien, the poor, the prisoner, the living
and the dead.
Is this
astonishing? Is this comforting or uncomfortable or both? Is this challenging? Most
likely, yes to all. This is God in three persons, blessed Trinity. AMEN.
The Rev Nicolette
Papanek
©2016
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