May 30, 2021 – Trinity Sunday

What is the Trinity?

Today is Trinity Sunday, one of the few celebrations of the Christian Year that commemorates a reality and doctrine rather than an event –  for example, the birth of Jesus Christ or the descending of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples – or person – like Blessed Martin, Saint Paul, or even Johann Sebastian Bach. It is celebrated the Sunday after Pentecost, and lasts only one day. On Trinity Sunday we remember and honor the eternal God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

It’s tradition on Trinity Sunday for priests to have seminarians and guest preachers preach, because navigating the Trinity is a slippery slope. It’s a mystery, and incomprehensible. In talking about the Trinity, it’s easy to slide right of the theology road into the ditch.

We could believe simpler stuff about God than the Trinity. We could believe God is in heaven and we are on earth. 

But we believe in one God – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.

How did that happen? 

Go with me on a journey in your mind.
Imagine yourself 2000 years ago in Galilee as a bricklayer or a weaver.
You believe in God.
One God.
A God that is hard to visualize.

So you’re this person 2000 years ago who believes in this big unperceivable God.
You meet Jesus, and you hear his message.
He is preaching about the kingdom of God.
He is teaching that God will rule the earth and there will be justice and peace.
It sounds nice.
You like it.
And you’re attracted to this Jesus and his message.

Then the worst happens.
Jesus is taken by the temple guards to Pontius Pilate.
His death is a foregone conclusion… death on a cross. 

And then he’s dead.
You have nothing to show for your belief in his teachings.
You go back to your daily life – to working as a laborer.
You try to forget about these empty promises of this Jesus.

Months later, you hear rumors – this Jesus is alive.
You don’t believe it.
You can’t go through this again.
Of course there were stories about other people, like Lazarus, being brought back from the dead.
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead after he’d been dead for four days!
But Lazarus wasn’t crucified.
I mean, crucifixion is pretty final.

Then one of the apostles comes to your town.
He tells you of what he has seen.
He saw Jesus after he had risen from the dead.
The scene wasn’t like that of Lazarus –
people knew it was Lazarus right away when he was raised from the dead.
But Jesus was unrecognizable at first. 

When his apostles did recognize him, the truth began to dawn on them.
Jesus hadn’t come back from the dead.
He had actually gone THROUGH death…
and beaten it.
He went through death and was now absolutely alive.

You begin to realize that you are in the presence of the Lord.
God.
God was standing right in front of you, delivering a message of love and peace.
But God was in heaven…
You begin to see that God was both in heaven and in front of you.
Still just one God though.

Somehow it seems fitting that the story of Jesus shouldn’t just end on the cross.
And wait… there’s more.

God sent the Spirit upon the believers at Pentecost.
God’s Spirit, the spirit that energized Jesus and inspired his words and actions.
It was now in his disciples, just as God had promised them would happen.

And you begin to realize one more thing…
If Jesus is Lord – God –
then the Spirit is also the Lord.
God.

So God is in heaven.
And God is beside you, in Jesus the Son.
And God is inside you as the Holy Spirit, making God knowable.

One God…
three places.
Father in heaven.
Son among us.
Spirit within us.
All God.
Just the one God.

Can you imagine how it would have felt 2000 years ago to struggle with this in your head?

Many people believe in one God.
God’s in heaven. Or somewhere else.
How can we know that God?
How can we please that unknowable God?
We can only try as hard as we can.

But suppose this God isn’t like that.
Suppose that this God loves us so much that God becomes one of us.
Suppose that God shows us God’s loving nature.
Suppose that God shows us God’s desire to forgive us.
Suppose that God shows us that God IS love.

God is killed because of upsetting the people in power.
That’s not the end, though.
Death can’t hold him…
God lives today.

And suppose this God can’t contain himself.
God’s love overflows SO much that God doesn’t just become one of us, but comes to us in the Holy Spirit.
This Spirit within us – the spirit that guides and directs us – that Spirit is God too.

This is the Trinity. 

We could believe simpler stuff about God than the Trinity.
We could believe that God is in heaven and we are on earth.
But God isn’t a long way off…
God is right here. 

And we NEED God to be right here.
God might send us to difficult things – like making disciples of all nations.
Following Jesus might lead us into uncomfortable places and situations – places that can be pretty scary.
The Spirit might give us a love for people who are hard to live with.
Or a love for people whose beliefs just don’t mesh with ours. 

But now we know who God is –
what God is like –
and we can do it.
For we have discovered that God loves us, and is with us “always, to the end of the age.” 

When we say we are Episcopalians, this is the God we give ourselves to.
We give ourselves to a God who is the creator of the world.
We give ourselves to a God who is the redeemer of the world.
We give ourselves to a God who is the sanctifier of the world.
Not to a far off God,
but to a God who cares,
who makes life worthwhile,
who gives us forgiveness,
and who loves us all with no exceptions.

Amen