Trinity Sunday

By The Rev. Deacon Christine McCloud

Genesis 1:1-2:32
Corinthians 12:(5-10)11-14
Matthew 28:16-60

In the name of the God who created us, the Son who redeems us and the Spirit who sustains us. Amen.

Today is Trinity Sunday. It is one of those celebrations that is a real oddity for the church. It is the only day set aside on the Church calendar that asks us to ponder and consider, maybe even find some clarity, on one of Christianity's most fundamental and undoubtedly, probably one of the least clear doctrines -- the glorious, yet mysterious doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It is also probably the one Sunday of the year that many clergy seem to suddenly find their long lost relatives to bond with or they search doggedly for a guest preacher for the day. And let us pause in quiet for a brief moment and remember the hundreds of poor seminarians, who after weeks of grinding out research papers and honing up for final exams, find themselves standing in the pulpit on this Sunday to preach because its good practice for them. Me... well, always trying to be the good Deacon, just kind of put myself out there, said what the heck, and here I am.

You will be very happy to know that I'm not even going to attempt to stand here and try to explain the church's funny math to you. I can barely master basic math let alone try to think that I could actually explain, with any clarity, on how it is that Three -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- equal One. See, to me, that's funny math and I'm staying far away from that. I also realize that the "traditional" definition of the Trinity is not going to help very much either. I remember the last time someone asked me to explain to them the concept of the Trinity. I am sad to report that my explanation left that person… and me… with more questions than we started off with.

So, I thought, let me turn to the real professionals, the theologians who have spent countless years dissecting and studying the Trinity. The Trinity is explained this way in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church: "the one God exists in three persons and one substance, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is one yet self-differentiated; the God who reveals Himself to mankind is one God equally in three distinct modes of existence, yet remains one through all eternity." There! I'm sure we all NOW understand this doctrine better. Right? I don't know about you, but I sure don't. I'll be honest with you, my eyes glazed over at the first reading of the definition and I certainly haven't gained any further insight since.

It's dawned on me that maybe… just maybe, the more I try to explain and define what the Trinity is the more I limit myself in understanding the fullness of the whole mystery of not only the doctrine of Trinity, but of God Him or Herself. When I slow myself down a bit and let the idea swirl around my mind a bit more, I realize that I can find a richness in the ambiguity of the language I struggle to seek in order to define this concept. The fact is, and I believe blessedly so, that I can not put my boundaries or limits on defining who God is -- He is totally without bounds and is limitless in His fullness -- both in my life and yours if we allow Him to be so.

So with all of that, it seems wise to focus on our readings this morning. In the Genesis reading, we have the creation story. God empties Himself into the creation in an act of self-giving love. Out of nothingness -- comes the fullness of life. This early community of faith knew God as their creator and in whose image they were created. Not only did they know God as their creator, but they knew -- sensed and felt it deeply -- God's love for them as children know the love of a parent. God was in an intimate relationship with them. He was the loving God who revealed himself to the prophets and as the protector, led them out of bondage and slavery. This is not a God who was far off -- He was a God in relationship with them -- even when things don't go so well and they strayed -- He continued to love them and showed his graciousness to them in spite of themselves.

God continued to pour Himself out to them and us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. God becomes flesh and dwells among us. It is Jesus who reveals God to us: the God who created us and is creator of all things; the God who watches over us and calls us into constant relationship with Him; the God who is just and loving, who heals and restores, who forgives and sets free. The disciples experienced directly how God acted in profound ways with His people. They didn't necessarily get it right away -- as a matter of fact, they didn't get it until Jesus' ascension. But, in the end, they came to realize the overwhelming love and care that God, through Jesus His son, poured out upon them. In Paul's letter to the Corinthians, he reminds them that when they agree with one another and live in peace with one another, the "God of love and peace will be with them [you]."

And in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus releases the power of the Holy Spirit upon them on the day of Pentecost as he promised them. The gift of The Holy Spirit brings them full circle with Jesus -- they are filled with life-giving and transformative joy -- which empowers them to go out into the world to "make disciples of all nations" and to bring those new disciples into the fullness of God's love and Jesus redemptive grace for all to live in.

Let's just spend a few moments with the Great Commission given in Matthew's Gospel. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." This commissioning from God, through Christ, is simple and straightforward. Go and make disciples of all. Teach them to obey what I have commanded you – to love the Lord our God and to love one another as God has loved us. Baptize them. And pray down the Holy Spirit upon them so that they too may come to know the fullness of God's love for them.

What is important to remember about the Great Commission is that we are sent out into the world to be the proclaimers and doers of the Word. It is Jesus, through God who has ALL of the authority – not us. We are to be the vessels of grace and peace and hope and to welcome everyone to discover, freely and joyfully, for themselves, the goodness of God's mercy and love. We are not called to impose our standards or cultural norms upon them; instead, we are called to be faithful witnesses of the redemptive power of Christ and God's never-ending love for all.

The Trinity is the name that we give to the God of our Christian story of salvation. It is the adventure story of God, who creates all from nothing. It is about God becoming flesh and living among us – for all time through -- the power of the Spirit. It is God's story of unbridled love for us because it is His love that overcomes and beats down the power of death. It is the story of God's spirit that transforms and sustains us – who calls us from singleness into community with one another and with the One who loved us first and always.

Why do we take the time to celebrate Trinity Sunday? It is a time for us to pause and wrestle with who God is and how God reveals Himself to us -- to wrestle with who we are and how we are to live in our community of faith and how we are connected to one another. We take the time so that we can understand how God acts and lives in our lives so that we can go out and share with assurance the Good News of Christ in the world.

People who are non-believers don't simply come to believe in Jesus because we can articulate some well-formed doctrine or theology. They are drawn to Christ because they see how Jesus is revealed in and through our lives. They are converted and transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit because they witness the grace and love of Christ at work in and through their own lives. They are converted and transformed, because like us, they are caught up in the hands of the God who made us, redeemed us and will never let us go – in other words: caught up in the mysterious life and power of the Trinity.

This Sunday isn't about trying to explain unexplainable doctrine or to work our way through "funny math." It's a day for us to stretch our minds and consider who God is and how God engages us in ways that we might ordinarily take for granted and to examine what our relationship is to God today. It certainly isn't about knowing the right or wrong answers; it's about the willingness to embrace the mystery of the three different faces of God who is One. It's about taking the risk to truly experience for ourselves the completeness of God -- through Jesus – and allowing the Spirit to dwell not only within us, but to blow us out, into the world proclaiming with confidence the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In Christ, with Christ, through Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit we are made one with God the Father. Let us go forth into the world proclaiming with boldness and assurance, the Good News of Christ, this day and always!

Amen.

© 2008 The Rev. Deacon Christine McCloud