Pastor
Carol Cavin Dillion from Christ united Methodist church in Tennessee tells the
story of when she was the asked if she could speak to the first-grade Sunday
school class. The topic was worship, and she was to meet with the children in the
sanctuary so that they could get a close look at the baptismal font, the altar,
and the paraments.
So
she met the youngsters at the front of the sanctuary. The children’s minister
had asked her to wear her robes so that the children could see them and they
could talk about it. After they toured the sanctuary and talked about colors
and symbols, remember the Methodists have a high church style everything has a
purpose and everything has a meaning. She sat down with them and asked if they
had any questions. One little girl looked down, pointed at the white stole and
said, “What’s that thing?”
She
replied, referring to the intricate design upon the stole, “It’s a symbol of
the Trinity.” “What’s the Trinity?” the little girl asked. “Uh. . . .” For the
next five minutes (which seemed like an eternity) she found herself trying to
explain the Trinity to a group of first graders.
By the time she finished hemming and hawing,
they looked so confused! How in the world do you teach a bunch of six-year olds
about the most complicated theological concept in the book? The answer might be
just to wait until they’re older. A six-year-old is too young for Narnia,
much less the Trinity!
Perhaps
we should wait till they’re teenagers. Or even adults. Because we adults can handle such theological
complexities, right? We’ve been to school. We’ve studied literature and algebra
and biology and philosophy. Heck, some of us even have a Masters and PhD! surely
it’s easy for us to understand and explain the Trinity Right?
Okay
Go…
A
professor in a seminary jokingly once tried to explain it like this: “It makes
perfect sense. God is three . . . is one . . . is three. Get it?”
MMMMMMMMMMMM
Okay
this concept is hard to wrap our brains around.
And I admit it is not even part of everyone’s theology. But I grew up with it and so I wanted to
explore the concept. It has been explained like the Shamrock. The Trinity just as the shamrock is one plant
with three leaves; God is one God with three faces. Then there is the water metaphor as H2O can
take three forms in ice, liquid, and steam, so God has three forms. The
Trinity!
To
be honest the Trinity is one of those elements of faith that tends to be taken
for granted. It is a foundation of what many
Christians believe about God, yet I would venture to say, that most don’t even
try to wrap their minds around it. We believe in God the creator, Christ the redeemer
and the Holy Spirit the sustainer and we speak of the three as one and just
leave it at that.
Today,
the first Sunday after Pentecost, is known as Trinity Sunday. But do we have
any idea what we’re talking about? Is the Trinity just an obscure concept that
we give lip service to because the church calendar tells us to or the
traditions we came from declare it as absolute doctrine? Does it have anything
to do with our daily living? Think about it—what does the Trinity mean to you?
In
our readings this morning and throughout our worship this morning we have heard
references to God and how God self is revealed to us. In the opening of Proverb we hear speech of
wisdom and it is spoken of in the feminine which is a common concept of the
spirit. Then later it proclaims how “I”
was given birth before the first acts of creation this is often heard of and
referred to as Jesus. In John 16 Jesus expresses unity with God and the Holy
Spirit, although he speaks of three unique persons doing three different jobs:
Abba God shares the Son; God the Son stands among the disciples, teaching of
the spirit; God the spirit helps interpret and teach the truth that comes from
Abba God and the Son.
We
often speak of God as the creator and God loves creation and wants us to love
creation as well. One way that God teaches us how to love creation and one
another is in the person of Jesus Christ. As Matthew and the other gospel
writers tell us, Jesus walked alongside us on this earth to show us the face of
God. And in Jesus’ death and resurrection, God becomes our Redeemer. Now, we
spend a lot of time in the church talking about Jesus. We learn about Jesus’
teaching, his example, his healing, and his love. The gospel stories give us
something tangible to hold onto. Jesus gives us all sorts of guidance on how to
live our lives. It’s not hard to find ways that Jesus is relevant to our lives.
The
concept of A Trinitarian or triune god speaks of god in relationship. Abba, Son
and Spirit have always existed in relationship, loving relationship, with each
other. Lady wisdom declares I was there
in that moment of creation alongside the Son and Abba. I was having fun, stirring the elements,
sparking life and rejoicing in the dance that was creation. In the opening verse of the song The Lord of the Dance it states:
“I danced in the morning when
the world was young
I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun
I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth
I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun
I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth
That energy that drives the dance…that makes
us want to dance..that is spirit and the dancer is Jesus and God the music of
the universe.
For
many of us, that Spirit is very relevant to our daily living. We recognize the
Spirit’s activity all around us: in those little nudges to call someone or pray
for someone, in the peace that surrounds us before we undergo surgery, in the
inspiration that comes when we’re teaching or praying, in the board meeting where
truth is spoken and consensus is reached. Many of us know the Spirit as our
sustainer, our inspiration, our daily guide and yes the mischief maker.
We
see daily evidence of God our Creator. We strive to follow the concrete example
of Jesus the Christ. We look for signs of the Holy Spirit around us.
Individually, the three persons of the Trinity make sense to us. But what does
it mean for the three to be one and the one to be three? Abba God, Son, and
Holy Spirit. Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. One in three in one. Ice and liquid
and steam. Three leaves of a shamrock. What power can this mysterious concept
have for us?
Whether
you relate most to God the Creator, Jesus the Redeemer, or the Holy Spirit
Sustainer, the mystery of the Trinity has
something to teach us. There is something beautiful and powerful about a God in
three persons. There is something God can reveal to us when we ponder the
mystery of the Trinity.
The
triune God of our faith is a mystery, revealed to us only partially and
gradually. God goes way beyond our human
capability of comprehension and understanding and our language. Yet we are offered an opportunity to reach
out, touch, and try to understand how these three, these three in one touch and
bless our lives. Heck, it wasn’t until
long after the books of the creation of all, the passing on of the stories of
God active in our world...Long after someone decided to write down the stories
then collect them into a book, did we even conceive of this nature of God.
In
the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, there is an icon of the Holy
Trinity painted by Andrei Rublev sometime around 1400 C.E. For those of you who
are unfamiliar with icons, they are pictures that are used in prayer. Believers
are to gaze at them prayerfully until they become like a window into the heart
of God. God can reveal Godself to us as we are praying through the image of an
icon.
Jeff
could you show the image again.
On
one level this picture shows three angels seated under Abraham's tree, but on another
it is a visual expression of what the Trinity means, what is the nature of God,
and how we approach God. Reading the picture from left to right, we see Abba
creator, Son the redeemer, Holy Spirit the Sustainer.
Rublev
gives each person of the Trinity different clothing. On the right, the Holy
Spirit has a garment of the clear blue of the sky, wrapped over with a robe of
a fragile green. So the Spirit of creation moves in sky and water, breathes in
heaven and earth. All living things owe their freshness to her touch.
The
Son has the deepest colors; a thick heavy garment of the reddish-brown of earth
and a cloak of the blue of heaven. In his person he unites heaven and earth,
the two natures are present in him, and over his right shoulder (the Government
shall be upon his shoulder) there is a band of gold shot through the earthly
garment, as his divinity suffuses and transfigures his earthly being.
The
Creator seems to wear all the colors in a kind of fabric that changes with the
light, that seems transparent, that cannot be described or confined in words.
And this is how it should be. No one has seen Abba, but the vision of Abba
fills the universe.
The
Creator looks forward, raising a hand in blessing to the Son. this gesture
expresses a movement towards the Son. The hand of the Son points on, around the
circle, to the Spirit. In this simple array we see the movement of life towards
us; we are the fourth being at this table, the life flows clockwise around the
circle. And we complete the circle The Spirit touches us, even though we do not
know who it is that is touching us. The spirit leads us and moves us in ways we
are unaware until we look back. In
moments of stillness and clarity can we see where the spirit, the hand of God
has touched and moved us.
It
is interesting to note that each of these great winged creatures have staffs
for a journey. They each have a staff
because we are on a journey and instead of flying on ahead, avoiding all trials
and trouble they walk with us, beside us on our individual journeys in this
life here and now.[1]
In
many traditions this concept of the trinity is a doctrine; a belief written in
stone that must be believed, three separate beings and yet one God. I perceive them more as aspects of God. Different parts of one personality or
being. The three are in communion with
each other as we are one community and yet each one of us is a unique
expression of this community. The
Trinity is a community of Love.
As
we think about the community of love that has been within God since the
beginning of time, the trinity. Let us understand that there is an invitation
for us to be part of that community. Just as Andrei’s icon shows us a place at
the table so we can see it for real, as
the invitation stands open to all at this table, God’s table. As we see real, concrete examples of how God
has created us, redeemed us, and sustained us, let us respond with love and
gratitude. Let us add our love to the Trinity’s communion of love.
Let
us allow God be revealed in our community. The concept of the Trinity teaches us
that no one ever stands alone. As soon as we accept God’s love and reflect that
love back out to the world, we are members of a community. We cannot be a
community without being connected to one another. If we are to embrace the
triune aspects of God the creator, Christ the redeemer, and the Holy Spirit the
sustainer then we are called to embrace each other as community and reach out
beyond these walls to those who challenge us, need us, who are hungry for a
message of love. The love we find in the Trinity, in the communion, we find with one another, is
not just for our own sakes. It’s for the sake of the world. It’s meant to be
shared.[2]
The
world needs love. The world needs grace. The world needs community. May the
Triune God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer—help us to share the message of
the Trinity with all creation. Carol
Cavin Dillion[3]
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