Trinity Sunday-June 16th

John 16:12-15

Last week, as a part of our service, we celebrated Pentecost Sunday. The day we often refer to as the “birthday of the church,” or the moment in which the disciples of Jesus were gifted with the presence of the Holy Spirit. And this Sunday, we are invited to celebrate Trinity Sunday. A day in the church that focuses on an area of our faith that we don’t often talk about or preach on, even though it is an important part of Christian doctrine and faith. In some ways, the Trinity is just there. We assume we all know what is meant by it, because we know it’s important. So what exactly do we mean by the Trinity? And what purpose does it play in our faith? To help give us a place to start, I thought I would share with you a portion of “A Song of Faith,” The statement of Faith that United Church came out with in 2006, which is also a part of our United Church Doctrine. It reads: “God is Holy Mystery, beyond complete knowledge, above perfect description. Yet, in love, the one eternal God seeks relationship. So God creates the universe and with it the possibility of being and relating. God tends the universe, mending the broken and reconciling the estranged. God enlivens the universe, guiding all things toward harmony with their Source. Grateful for God’s loving action, We cannot keep from singing. With the Church through the ages, we speak of God as one and triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We also speak of God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer God, Christ, and Spirit. Mother, Friend, and Comforter Source of Life, Living Word, and Bond of Love, and in other ways that speak faithfully of the One on whom our hearts rely, the fully shared life at the heart of the universe. We witness to Holy Mystery that is Wholly Love.” “God is Holy Mystery. . .” these are the first three words of A Song of Faith. And how true it is. “God is Holy Mystery.” God is God. As the Old Testament says, God is “I am.” Yet even with the knowledge that in many ways, God is a Mystery, we seek God out. We seek to use the words of our language to help understand God. To express our experiences of the Divine in our midst. And the Trinity is a part of this. As Christians, the Trinity is what helps us to seek out God as we seek to understand the many ways in which God is experienced in day to day life. In particular, the Trinity helps us to reflect on God, and the many ways God is experienced through life, and through our scriptures. Because our scriptures offer us many ways to experience the various aspects of the Trinity. And we hear that in our readings today, which were chosen for Trinity Sunday. Our reading from John 16:12-15 offers to us Jesus’ message to his disciples as he introduces the Spirit to them, telling them: “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.” One of many ways to understand one aspect of the Trinity. Which brings us back to how we understand the Trinity in our own lives. In Christian tradition, when we speak of the Trinity, we speak of the idea that God is “three in one.” Meaning that in our day to day lives, we can, and do, experience God in three ways: traditionally speaking, as the “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” The words we use in Baptism, the words we use in Confirmation, and more. As Christians, we experience the active movement of the Divine, through God, often referred to as “Father, in Jesus “the Son,” and through the Holy Spirit, sent to be with us always. Yet I can’t help but wonder, is this all we can say about the Trinity? Often, we stick with the traditional language of “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” in part because it is familiar, comfortable. But as A Song of Faith reminds us, we cannot put the Divine into a box. The Trinity can be understood in many ways, using many beautiful and poetic words that help us be in relationship with the Divine. For example, in other parts of the Gospel of John, the Jesus refers to the Spirit as the ‘Advocate.’ And, as we hear in A Song of Faith, other ways include, but are not limited to: “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer God, Christ, and Spirit, Mother, Friend, and Comforter, Source of Life, Living Word, and Bond of Love.” So what words would you use to describe the Trinity? Would be it be one of the sets of words that I just shared? Would you use something else? Community was invited to share their own images with one another.

For myself, I often find myself drawn to “Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.” but also, the words we sometimes use in Baptismal promises, “Source of Love, Love Incarnate, Love’s Power.” But this past week, I was offered another image that I’m still chewing on, as I explore my own sense of the Trinity. At the lecture series I attended in Truro, our focus was on the Spirituality of Ecology. One of our guest speakers, Michael Dowd offered this image for the Trinity: Creator, Christ Spirit as “Past, Future, Present.” So what images came to your mind when you shared with one another? Invite people to share their images with the wider community.

Our responses today, and the words given to us in a Song of Faith remind us that the ways in which we experience and describe God are endless. That the idea of the Trinity invites us to see and experience God moving in the world around us, and through us. To realize that even as we seek to know God, God seeks to know us. Which is the beauty of our Christian concept of the Trinity. That it is about relationship. The Trinity at it’s heart, expresses relationship. Not only does the nature of the Trinity express relationship: God expressed in, or experienced in three ways, but most importantly, the trinity is about our relationship with God. It is through the Trinity that we find the words to express how we experience God in our lives. Our own personal relationship with the one who moves in and around us, who touches our lives daily. It’s about the relationship we have with God and Jesus, and the words that connect us so that we might be in deeper relationship. Which is why I believe we are invited, encouraged even, to express the Trinity in ways that bring meaning to our lives and our faith. To be open to new and different ways of experiencing the Divine through the Trinity, and through our beautiful language that helps us to express the inexpressible. God. “Holy Mystery. beyond complete knowledge, above perfect description.” The one in whom we live and move. And so, may we be touched this day, by our experiences of God in our midst, through the gift of the Trinity. Through the beauty of our own personal experiences, and through the many ways in which our language can help draw us closer in relationship and faith. And may we always seek to know more, learn more, experience more. Each and every day.

A Song of Faith: https://www.united-church.ca/community-faith/welcome-united-church-canada/song-faith

Rev. Michael Dowd www.thegreatstory.org