Trinity Sunday – June 12, 2022: May God’s words be spoken, may God’s words be heard. Amen.
Well, we all hoped to be outside today for our Mass on the Grass…with Brass! (well… we still have the Brass!!) Still, our church, I think, is one of the most beautiful anywhere – its stunning neo-gothic stonework, the Romanesque main tower that soars above the altar, the Tiffany stained glass windows that rain down an array of sparkling colored lights across the worship space, the large labyrinth that beckons you to a journey in the narthex (or as the kids will tell you – that great big maze in the back to run around), the carvings in the wood that harken to another age – it all captivates the heart and centers our very souls on the sacred. And, even the first rector – up there on the half-shell, well…he’s okay too. So, we worship today not in the beauty of creation, but certainly in the beauty of holiness. And so here we are today – on the Feast of the Holy Trinity.
Now, folks like to answer, when asked about this doctrine – “It’s a mystery.” Others would respond the same way when asked why on earth there is a Trinity Sunday, given that it is the only Sunday given over to a doctrine, rather than a scriptural event or in celebration of our lives in Christ. And everyone will tell preachers – don’t preach about it. And yet, here we are.
A few years ago, that wonderfully satirical online newspaper, The Onion, had the headline “God Quietly Phasing Holy Ghost Out Of Trinity” It read: Calling the Holy Trinity “overstaffed and over budget,” God announced plans Monday to downsize the group by slowly phasing out the Holy Ghost. “Given the poor economic climate and the unclear nature of the Holy Ghost’s duties, I felt this was a sensible and necessary decision,” God said. “The Holy Ghost will be given fewer and fewer responsibilities until [Her] formal resignation from Trinity duty following Easter services [next year]. Thereafter, the Father and the Son shall be referred to as the Holy Duo.” I should think that would be the Dynamic Duo – oh wait…Batman and Robin have that title.
Actually, it seems that the Holy Spirit always seems to be the least understood part of that Trinity. Or, maybe it is just that for many years, based on the King James translation of the bible, many called it the Holy Ghost, which led to a boatload of fun misinterpretations, mostly by children.
There is the story of a family from traveling around California on business. They had left their 11 year-old daughter with some friends who had kids about the same age. Curious about going to church one Sunday morning, she decided to come along with her host family. When they returned home, the host parents asked her what she thought of the service. “I don’t understand why the West Coast isn’t included too,” she replied. When they asked her what she meant, she added, “You know, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the whole East Coast.”
Kids… but truthfully, I think most of us adults don’t get the whole idea of this Trinity thing or how or what is the Holy Spirit any much better than they do. But maybe we are missing the point. And for that matter, what really is the point?
Earlier in the psalm, we hear “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses. What are we that you should be mindful of us, mere mortals that you should seek us out?”
The thing is, when we look around us like that psalmist had done, and as we had hoped to experience today outside, we sense something larger than ourselves is at work, and we seek to know, really know, the creator of it all, and our place in the cosmos. We are seekers, after all, and seekers want to know things.
Yet where we get tripped up is in focusing on the answer, rather than the journey, because the quest for understanding is in itself the answer. Think of it like the koan of Zen Buddhism.
A Zen master will frequently give a novice a koan — a paradoxical story or question — on which to meditate. Perhaps the most famous koan is: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” There’s no answer to the question. As many times as the novice may return with an answer, the master will say, “No, that’s not it” and send the student back to meditating again. The novice must learn, somehow, to live with the question without understanding it. Kathleen Norris writes of an Eastern Orthodox contemplative who gave his disciple a piece of dry wood with the instruction: “Water it until it bears fruit.” The task is impossible to understand — and in that respect, it’s rather like God.
So, we meditate on this Trinitarian thing as a way of understanding something that is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. And yet, if we were to really listen to Jesus in the gospel today, we might discover that he was telling his followers that they too would be given a koan…by way of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said to the disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
There are a few things to to pay attention to (and one to ignore) in this passage: Most importantly for today, remember that Jesus said that the Spirit will glorify Christ. And, ignore the male language for the Holy Spirit, because that will really just tick Her off.
Now, here’s the thing…Glorify in the gospel of John doesn’t mean what you might think. It doesn’t mean to sing praises or to bow down. Glorify in this gospel – is to make visible the presence of God. So, Jesus is saying that the Spirit would make visible God’s presence to them. And as we know, from before time, when the Spirit moved over the deep, to the force of power that propelled the apostles on Pentecost, and through then centuries to today, God’s presence continues to be revealed in the same way it has always been.
Now, you might think – you mean…by fire, wind, and all that stuff?
No. In the passage we heard this morning from St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans, he said “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
“God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
That is how God is revealed through the Holy Spirit. That is how God is revealed in Jesus Christ. That is how God is revealed throughout all creation, and all of time – through love.
God’s presence is revealed in love.
Or, as our Presiding Bishop often says, “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.”
And the whole reason that we have this Trinitarian thing is because it is one way for us to get at that essential thing about God – relationship. Loving relationship.
The psalmist asked “What are we that you should be mindful of us, mere mortals that you should seek us out?”
Well, the answer is found in the question.
God seeks us out, because in that act, we find an invitation into relationship – one God hopes we continually accept, because as we come into deeper relationship with God, we become empowered to be the people we were born to be, the people we committed to being in our baptism – the trinitarian people rooted in unconditional love. And by this we reveal the presence of God, or as Jesus made clear earlier in this fourth gospel – they will know you are mine by your love.
The truth of this whole doctrine of the Trinity thing that we celebrate today isn’t about getting God right, but about getting ourselves right – or put another way – it never was about answering the question, any more than watering a dead piece of wood should expect to grow anything out of it. It is instead about revealing the truth that as a people made in God’s image, we too are each made to be in loving relationship with God, and with all creation. And that comes with a charge. For as St. Paul put it, we are to “share the glory of God.” We are to reveal the presence of God to others.
And how do we do that?
Well…by being the very living, breathing, trinitarian beings we are – the ones called into that eternal dance of loving relationship with God the Spirit, God the Son, and God the Mother & Father of us all.
We, the people of God, made in God’s image, reveal God’s presence in the world through our deep, abiding, and unconditional love poured out in relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation.
And oh how God needs us to be our Trinitarian selves, because there are many who are suffering in this world today – left hopeless by the cruelty of humanity against God’s creation and all that dwell within it. I have heard from so many of late who feel such despair at all the hate and violence that abounds throughout the world today. They yearn for a path forward, a way to make sense of the incomprehensible.
But there is hope. There is always hope. And it is found in the knowledge of God, revealed through us. For all the world should have the joy of the Psalmist who wondered about God: “What are we that you should be mindful of us, mere mortals that you should seek us out?” All the world should feel sought out, invited into relationship, and come to experience the knowledge that they are deeply and unconditionally loved by God, because we have been the people Jesus calls us to be.
That is how we reveal God’s presence – not through written doctrine – but by a living one – by unconditional love.
And folks – there is nothing more powerful than that.
There is nothing more powerful than unconditional love – God’s love most of all.
And when we come to understand that, when we really begin to comprehend the vastness of God’s great love for us, and share that in the world, there is nothing we cannot do.
When we reveal the presence of God through love, we will be the light of Christ that overcomes all darkness.
When we reveal the presence of God through love, we will be the force of the Spirit that ignites the torch of peace throughout the world.
When we reveal the presence of God through love, we will destroy walls of hate and build instead the beloved community our Creator dreams for us.
Amen.
For the audio, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here (also available on Audible):
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
June 12, 2022
Trinity Sunday – Year C – Mass on the Grass…with Brass!
1st Reading – Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Psalm 8
2nd Reading – Romans 5:1-5
Gospel – John 16:12-15
