Sermon: Trinity Sunday

IT’S REALLY QUITE SIMPLE
Sermon Notes of The Reverend Canon Robert A. Picken
Cathedral of the Incarnation, Garden City
Trinity Sunday
June 19, 2011


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As you know, or have come to figure out, today is Trinity Sunday. The Trinity – the One God in Three Persons – is a mystery. A mystery by definition cannot be explained. Therefore, I will not try to explain it. Please stand for the Creed -- No such luck, sorry!

This is always a Sunday that provides most clergy with some stress as we try to prepare a sermon on the Trinity that is not boring or so full of theological jargon you will fall asleep. Today is no exception for me, but part of me thinks ‘it’s really quite simple.’ Sort of.

The Trinity is our blueprint for God: Three persons in one Being -- God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Or, as the poet-priest George Herbert wrote, “Lord, who hast form’d me out of mud / And hast redeem’d me through thy bloud / And sanctifi’d me to do good” – the one, true and living God, who created us, redeemed us, and abides with us and blesses us still and is in all things what we call: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

But, what does this all mean for us really? What does God as Trinity mean in our lives of faith? To what does Trinity Sunday call us?

Jesus said, “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.” Some scholars argue that this was written back into the Gospel, centuries later by theologians who developed the doctrine of the Trinity. Some scholars, not me.

Those first hearers of Jesus’ words knew their story, as we find it now in the Old Testament and Gospel stories. They knew God as their creator. Not only did they know God as their creator, but also God created all that was and is. Remember, if you can, the language that God is depicted using: Let us make humankind in our image. God was not only their creator but they were created in God’s image. (And, note well, God’s image is plural!) So, for the disciples God was more than just their creator, God was in an intimate relationship with them, for they were – and we are – created in God’s image.

For those first disciples another understanding of God came through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. God became flesh and dwelt among us: the incarnate Word. It wasn't until after Jesus' resurrection that His life made sense to the apostles. God was made manifest in Jesus
to ensure that the faith community understood that God was not just up there, but God lived as one of us -- as our brother through Jesus. The new community had also experienced the resurrected Christ and knew like Mary that with God nothing was impossible.

Through the early apostles and disciples, the first Christians heard the story of Jesus and how God lived and acted in new and profound ways among the people; offering the way to salvation and redemption. Now the new community of believers had all those stories to know God as not only their creator, but as their incarnate Savior and Redeemer.

Finally, these first believers understood God as the Holy Spirit. As promised by Jesus, the gift of the Spirit came on Pentecost, which we celebrated last week. It came to the whole community, not just a select few. They spoke in different languages and were from different cultures yet they heard and understood the word of God. This was the same Spirit who breathed over creation, who spoke through the prophets; and, who Jesus promised would be with them and us always. The community now has experienced God the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of the Trinity, I believe, is not some “top down” theology created by Augustine or Aquinas or St. Patrick with a shamrock. Rather, the Trinity is a “grassroots” understanding. Throughout our tradition and the stories handed down, this is still the best way to understand God. These blueprints have been around for a while and it’s really quite simple.

So, why do we celebrate Trinity Sunday? For us it is the time when we begin the struggle to understand how it is we live as Christians and in this community of faith, here and now. We are at a major turning point in our liturgical year. Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter all had us focused on the drama of Jesus’ life and how we have, through the Resurrection, become the Body of Christ on earth.

We shift now from focusing on the events of Jesus’ life to Jesus’ teachings and how to apply them to our lives as Christians today. We move into what is commonly called “ordinary time.” Better yet, we move into the season after Trinity – the longest season of the church year, where the ordinary is actually quite extra-ordinary in our world. Our ordinary actions as Christians, as believers in the God who created, redeemed and sanctifies, as quite contrary to what we find outside our doors. Yet, it is our Great Commission, the same commission given to those first disciples: we are the ones to go out into the world to proclaim the good news and to baptize.

And, like those first disciples, we must see how God acts and lives in our lives in order to share the good news in the world. People are not converted to Jesus because we can articulate a theological doctrine, but because we can share our faith in very real, human terms.

Trinity Sunday is a day for the church to celebrate how it understands God, but also how it lives out that understanding. It is an opportunity for us to wrestle with and to celebrate the meaning of God in our lives and in the life of our community. And, then share it.

It’s really quite simple.