May 25, 2024 – Trinity Sunday

One of the challenges to Trinity Sunday, which we celebrate today, is that it is the only day in our Episcopal calendar devoted to a doctrine and not to a person. But a bigger challenge is that there are no Biblical passages that discuss this peculiar understanding of our faith as God being three persons. The word in the creed is personas, like the mask that Greek actors wore to play difference characters, where it was the same person behind the different personas. Other faiths that are monotheistic – that is where they believe in one God – are utterly baffled by bold assertions in creeds and doctrine of just how the one God of the Abrahamic religions can appear to be three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and still be only one God. These assertions about the Trinity emerge from our reflection upon scripture, but are not found explicitly in the scripture.

Our readings from Isaiah and Psalms today illustrate the compelling power of God’s voice, able to create and destroy creation all at once. And yet, God’s voice is able to convince the most unsuspecting of us to agree – and in fact, proclaim vigorously – “Here I am, send me!” The voice of God can call us to return to the problems of the world, and risk being a prophet, pointing out all the ways in which we as God’s people have lost our way and need to – at the very least – reform our behavior or – at the worst – repent and begin over. People do not like to hear prophetic voices – just look in the Bible, particularly at the story of Jonah.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul leads us into mystical territory with his declaration that we can call God by the more familiar name Abba or Father, suggesting that, although we suffer with Christ, we will also share in his glory. In his Gospel, John writes of Nicodemus asking straightforward questions of Jesus, only to get enigmatic responses about wind and of being born from above, which he mistakes for being born again. Nicky leaves shaking his head and muttering about how these things can be.

So instead of using my voice, it might be helpful instead to turn to those Christians throughout the ages whom we call saints and mystics to get a sense of their thoughts on the Trinity. Take, for example, Julian of Norwich, a woman in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. She lived in a hut, or cell, attached to the outer wall of St. Julian’s Church in Norwich. During her life, the city suffered the effects of the Black Plague, the Peasant’s Revolt, and the suppression of the Lollards, a group of religious reformers. Julian, while in the throes of death, received a series of visions or “showings” which she wrote down in the first book ever written in English by a woman: Revelations of a Divine Love.

Her revelations are often reduced to the popular saying, “All shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of thing shall be well.” But a look into the 31st chapter of the long text of her book may provide us with a bit more insight into the nature of the Holy Trinity and Divine Love. She would spend the rest of her life on earth sharing these insights with those who came to her window seeking spiritual guidance.

She writes, “And our good Lord answered to all the questions and doubts which I could raise, saying most comfortingly: I may make all things well, and I can make all things well, and I shall make all things well, and I will make all things well; and you will see yourself that every kind of thing will be well. When he says, ‘I may’, I understand this to apply to the Father; and when he says ‘I can’, I understand it for the Son; and when he says, ‘I will’, I understand it for the Holy spirit; and when he says, ‘I shall’, I understand it for the unity of the blessed Trinity, three persons and one truth; and when he says, ‘You will see yourself’, I understand it for the union of all men who will be saved in the blessed Trinity. And in these five words God wishes us to be enclosed in rest and peace.”

Julian refers to “these five words”, which are: I may, I can, I will, I shall, and you will. With these five words, we learn that God wants to surround us with divine love and each persona of the Holy Trinity is constantly involved in surrounding us with this love. This love is a quality that we are to share: an ability to put the interests of another weaker person before ours. God’s divine love, as revealed to Julian, is acting with love on behalf of others just as God acts with love on our behalf.

Scripture says that we are each made in the image of God. So we are to be people who exemplify this love towards others in the same way that God desires to enclose us with God’s own love, rest, and peace. So I think the five words are meant for us.

We might think of it as an opportunity to be in God’s image by waking up and saying the five words to ourselves: I may, I can, I will, I shall, you will see yourself. Then to go about our days, generously putting the interests of others ahead of our own. Then we will be surrounded and enfolded by God’s love as we share that love with others. We find ourselves enclosed by rest and peace.

When we say, “I may, I can, I will, I shall, you will see yourself” once a day, it is lifegiving to us to know – to really know – that the love of God in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit means to surround us daily until we are to return to the household of God from whence we come. That day, we will all become one with the God in whose image we were created. Perhaps that’s what “You will see yourself” really means… we will see who we really are and who we are created to be. We will see that we are the people meant to accept and share generously with others the live that those like Isaiah, Paul, Jesus, and others from other faiths have tried so hard to describe and to live through acts of faith. Surely this knowledge of ourselves deserves at least one day yearly to remember who we are and to see ourselves as God sees us – those made in the image of God who may, who can, who will, and who shall share that love with others. ALL others. ESPECIALLY those in need. For it is when we do this that we see ourselves as we really are: God’s beloved children.