4 June 2023 Trinity Sunday
Exodus 34:1-8; Song of the Three Young Men 29-34; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28: 16-20
Last week, in Canungra, I was privileged to do just what Jesus commissions the disciples to do in today’s gospel. I baptised a child in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And the parents and godparents promised to do the rest of that commission – teach this child to obey everything that God has commanded us. Matthew only gives us this one sighting of Jesus after his resurrection, and in it he also hints at the ‘doubt’ some the disciples had about ‘who he is’. Trinity Sunday raises that ‘awkward’ question of trying to explain how Jesus can be ‘Son of God’ yet also God, how the Father is father of the Son yet also same as the Son, how the Holy Spirit can be ‘one’ with the Father and the Son, but still separate from them, and especially how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, can be ‘three’ yet also ‘one’. But don’t worry, I am not about to embark on a longwinded explanation of homoousias vs, all the other ‘ousias’’. Mainly maybe because, while I accept it and believe it, I cannot explain it in words that make sense to me, let alone anyone else.
Suffice to say, the matter was complicated enough for the Council of Nicaea to take many attempts over many years to agree on what we now call the ‘Nicaean Creed’ and most of the discussion surrounded just those issues, one God yet three; all equal; none subordinate to others; one substance; three persons one God; etc.
As we approach Commitment Sunday and later in the year, Ministry Sunday, this great commission in Matthew highlights for us that congregations, people, are buoyed by worship, faith and doubt. The knowledge that the God who created us and all that lives also knows us cares for us and wants us to use our gifts to care for the world, is pretty spectacular, if not daunting, news. But remember I also said this commission had hints of doubt in it. I find it comforting, although maybe disappointing, that some of the disciples, those who knew Jesus best, did not, at first, believe the story of the resurrection, even when they found themselves meeting him face to face. Matthew tells us that even as Jesus commissions these followers to be his witnesses to the world, not all of them are sure they believe that he has really risen. And that sums up humanity really, we are a people of faith and doubt, hope and fear, successes and failures, and because doubt is part and parcel of our life as a community of faith, it is important for us to remember to welcome people wherever they are on their faith journey, and when we find it difficult or daunting to believe the good news we find in Scripture, it is comforting to know that we are not alone in that feeling and God will take responsibility for keeping God’s promises.
One of the things about trying to work out ‘three in one, one in three’ is to remember that God is not always the same. Sometimes we perceive, or are aware of, or are touched by God as Father, sometimes it is Jesus who speaks to us, and other times the Spirit flows through us and around us and leads us into new discovery. God is not static. God is not this or that or the other, God is all and yet not always all. Richard Rohr writes, when speaking of the Trinity[1], Start with the Three and see that this is the deepest nature of the one. And when we start to see the deepest nature of the one, we start to discover that God is dynamic, diverse, communal, hospitable, and finally that God is sacrificial love.
If God is triune, then God does not exist as a rigid, static entity. God moves, God’s self is fluid. We worship a God who is always changing, always moving, spilling over, organic, always a surprise. And this matters because as humans we are often resistant to change; reluctant to accept change, or the unfamiliar, or the uncomfortable. But if God’s nature is movement and flow, then we need to move and flow too. We need to be willing to evolve.
If God exists in three persons, then each person has his, or her, own way of capturing and expressing goodness, love, beauty, and righteousness. Rohr again says[2], ‘for goodness to be goodness, [it]needs contrast and tension, not perfect uniformity’. So if God can incarnate goodness through tension and contrast, we need to ask why can’t we. What is it about difference that we fear so much when difference lies at the heart of God. As we approach the upcoming referendum, God’s innate diversity is a characteristic that begs to be explored.
We need to discern how we can live gracefully and peaceably with difference because, we cannot heal unless we are honest about our fears; unless we are penitent about our histories; and unrelenting in our longing for God’s diverse nature to be found in its fulness in us.
Most of us would agree that God values community, and that God thinks community is good for us, but to say that God is communal, that God is relationship, and intimacy, and connection, and communion, is something different altogether. We find evidence of this divine characteristic all through our Scriptures. When God the Son is baptized, God the Spirit descends upon him and God the Father parts the heavens to speak delight and affirmation. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the Son of God prays to God the Father for help. Through all the Gospel stories, the Three exist interdependently leaning into each other. God is relationship and it is in relationship – with God, ourselves, each other, and the world – that we experience and embody God’s nature.
When we look at that most well known icon of the Trinity, by Andrei Rublev, we see the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, depicted as the three angels who appeared to Abraham at Mamre. They sit around a table, sharing food and drink, their faces nearly identical, they are dressed in different colours. The Father gazes at the Son. The Son gazes at the Father, and gestures to the Spirit. The Spirit gazes at the Father, while pointing toward the Son with one hand and opening the circle with the other, making room for others to join the sacred meal. This icon exudes adoration and intimacy, yet it also exudes openness. There is space at the table for the viewer of the icon. For you. For me. It could be said that the point of the great Three-in-One is not exclusivity but radical hospitality. The point of the Three is always to allow for one more, to extend the invitation, and make the holy table more welcoming and expansive.
At its heart, the Trinity is an expression of deep, unfaltering, and life-giving love between Father, Son and Spirit. The relationship between the persons of the Godhead is unselfish and sacrificial love. So if everything about God is love, and we are created in God’s image, then the question is, who are we. What are we. Are we, like the Triune God whose image we bear, creatures motivated first and foremost by love. Is love what we are known for? We are children of a mysterious, fluid, diverse, communal, hospitable, and loving God who wants to guide us into the whole truth of who God is and who we are. The mystery of the Trinity has the power to transform our hearts, leading us towards unity and diversity, hospitality and self-giving love. Let us be all that we can be to live into the image of the Triune God that we bear.
[1] Richard Rohr The Divine Dance
[2] Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance.