A Sermon for Trinity Sunday, May 22, 2016
(Proverbs 8:1-4 & 22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15)
Once I submitted a suggestion to a church that was looking for a new name. It was a large, diverse, and rather ‘trendy’ church. The church needed a name that it could, in all its diversity, gather around. My suggestion: ‘Trinity Baptist Church’.
Of course it wasn’t chosen. Too common. Too traditional. Too hard to obtain the domain name!
I remember – even as I submitted my doomed suggestion – how strongly I felt about the Trinity as church unifier. Surely the doctrine of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, at its core, describes a divine community around which a diverse church can truly unite.
Today is ‘Trinity Sunday’ – the only Sunday the church’s calendar dares to give over to a doctrine!
Of course, there is good reason for this exception. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost – celebrated last week – is often considered the birthday of the church. There has, however, been a long pregnancy: the Father sent Jesus into the world to live, die, rise, and ascend. This one promised to send this Holy Spirit.
And now this Spirit has come. The church is born.
Paul assures us, in Romans, that we are a people at ‘peace with God’ through the justifying work of Jesus and the assurance that comes from hearts filled with the Holy Spirit.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – teamed up to draw us into God.
Our Gospel reading also speaks of the ‘Spirit of truth’ who continues the work of the Jesus who faithfully followed the call of the Father.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – teamed up to draw us into God.
Even our Proverbs reading, in its own way, introduces one who was brought forth before depth, spring, mountain, hill, earth, field, or soil. This one, called ‘wisdom’, was beside God, ‘like a master builder’, from before creation. Surely there are strong connections here between the ruach of Genesis 1, which we translate as wind or Spirit, and the one John initially calls ‘the Word’ who too was ‘with God in the beginning’. He is later introduced as Jesus. This ‘wisdom’ is calling to people.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – teamed up to draw us to God.
And this celebrated community that we call the Trinity is united in the issuing the most remarkable invitation. The Trinity’s invite is beyond our wildest imagining; deeper than our most shameful acts; higher than the heavens above – which the greatest scientific minds still cannot fathom. God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is inviting you – sinner though you are – to join with this most close-knit team!
Getting our heads around this Trinitarian God is much more than contemplating clover and meditating on three legged stools. This is – at its very core – an invitation to relationship. In the revealed action of the Trinity we see the closest of trust relationships.
And it is into this community – this ‘circle of trust’ – that we – together – are invited.
So how sad it is when we, the church, are not able even to live together. Jesus’ core call was to love both God and neighbour. We are together invited to join in community with this one God as three.
Of course, the people who accept this wild God-invitation are many and varied. The church is a divided community on many levels. We struggle with genuine differences. None of us enters perfectly into communion with God and neighbour.
And so I hope that today can be reminder of how desperately we need to be humble listeners. A people who hear both the voice of God and the voice of each other. After all, we are all invited to be a part of this Trinity-initiated community.
I have been blessed with many very dear friends in the church. Many of these are very different to me – both theologically and experientially. Their words and their lives emphasise aspects of God I don’t yet see or experience.
I could name many who – if given opportunity – would advise me: ‘Mark, you would really do well to be more open to the Spirit. The Spirit speaks to us; the Spirit is at work in each and every heart; the Spirit is constantly leading and giving us gifts to share.’ As I look at their lives, I cannot but agree. Their spoken and unspoken voice deepens my desire to be more open to the Spirit
I could also name many who – if given opportunity – would advise me: ‘Mark, you really would do well to live more like a disciple of Jesus and emphasise his saving grace. Jesus calls you among the poor; Jesus asks for your sacrifice; Jesus desires that you take up your cross and follow.’ As I look at their lives, I cannot but agree. Their spoken and unspoken voice deepens my desire to truly live like Jesus.
And of course, there are many who – if given opportunity – would advise me: ‘Mark, you would really do well to stand in wonder and awe at the holiness of the Father. The Father is unlike us; the Father fills us with a biblical ‘fear’; the Father is mysteriously behind all that is.’ As I look at their lives, I cannot but agree. Their spoken and unspoken voice deepens my desire to truly encounter the Father.
It really will take humble listeners to constantly hear such calls from each other. Perhaps the doctrine of the Trinity – one God revealed as three persons – is the only viable pathway we have to such a grace-filled and constantly engaging community.
I suspect today’s celebration of the doctrine of the Trinity is the perfect way to launch into our next season. Next week the church colour will change to green as we move into a time of teaching and growth. We will be asking: ‘What does all this God-activity mean for us and our world?’
Surely the most appropriate place for us to begin such an endeavour is today’s celebration. Today we lay a foundation for this teaching season: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have teamed up to draw us into God.
Amen.