The Trinity
On Tuesday, Charlie announced that Trinity Sunday was his favorite Sunday on the liturgical calendar. Because I agree with him, I had to know why it was so meaningful to him. “Because of the music,” he said. Of course.
Trinity ranks high
on my list because it is both an opportunity to teach what might be the most
overlooked tenet in our theological system (i.e. that we worship God in Three persons,
and thus avoid the heresy of Christomonism) AND Trinity Sunday allows me to talk
about what is most central to why I am a follower of Jesus. I get to talk about relationships.
Relationships are front and center as we gather today. The relationship we have formed over these last twenty months is about to change. On Tuesday, you will begin to share your spiritual experiences with Pastors Bates and Bates. It is those shared experiences, particularly unique shared experiences, which help to build relationships. And relationships are what build community. And community is what enables the Church to be the Church. Without relationships – hardly anything at all is possible.
I know that isn’t the kind of line that elicits an “amen,” even from the most vocal of religious traditions. But it is going to be hard for me to press on, without some level of agreement from all of you. Would you agree with me that relationships are essential to the whole enterprise we call “church”? How many of us would be here (be at a Christian worship service) if it weren’t for a relationship with someone who considered Church to be an important part of life? Maybe it was a parent, a grandparent. Perhaps a close friend, or college roommate. It may have been the person you asked to share your life – they may have been the one who brought you to worship and helped you to understand how regular participation could enhance the relationship between the two of you.
Relationships build community. Community is what enables the Church to be the Church. Without relationships – hardly anything at all is possible.
As I considered what to preach on this, Trinity Sunday, I could think of no better approach than to address the issue of relationship. It is (I am going to assume from your agreement with my previous comments) relationship which lead to your being here to hear this sermon. What I would like for you to hear is that our experience runs parallel to the realities of the God whom we gather to worship. Without relationship, we would not be here. Without relationship, God would not be the God to whom Christian Theology gives witness.
That is the heavy line. Now we can break it down a bit.
Relationships are essential to God. This is true for God’s person; it is true for the purposes God intends.
God’s person, and the purposes God intends, is revealed in the relationship God establishes with us. While some would like to ponder whether God could be God without creation, it is a vexing theological question to which we will never have an answer. We can’t arrive at an answer because we can never overcome the reality that we are here. Sure, God is God and certainly God could exist independent of anything else, but then God wouldn’t be the God to whom scripture bears witness. God is spoken of when those whom God has created begin to speak. God is praised when the creatures inhabiting God’s earth look to the heavens.
There is a line in the Eucharistic liturgy we used in campus ministry. It speaks of God creating a world into which the Son would be born. In the very first act of creation, that prayer would suggest, God was already at work, setting up the circumstances in which He would leave behind the heavens and enter the places where we live our lives. God is all about relationships. God’s prime concern, from the very beginning, has been His relationship with those whom God has created.
God is all about relationships. Without relationships, nothing of much consequence is important.
I hope that you hear the tremendous word of affirmation in all of this. Yes, God can be God without a relationship with us – but that isn’t the way God wants to exist. God seeks/God acts in such a way as to ensure that we will be invited into relationship. I am not afraid of sounding a bit like a Pentecostal preacher in asking (then challenging) you to carefully consider your relationship with God. If that relationship isn’t well established, maybe it is time for you to come down to the river and accept Jesus Christ into your life. God has come to be with you. God will not be content as a thought or as a statement of convention or belief. Enter – enter fully – into the relationship. Or follow the path of the rich, young ruler who turns from Jesus to walk away sorrowful.
Without relationships, nothing much is possible. This is true for our life in the world; it is true for our life as participants in the Church of Jesus Christ. It is also true when we speak of God. Unless there is a relationship between us, we are merely learning the lessons and repeating the historical accounts.
There is one other aspect of relationships that I would like to touch on. Here we move to the heart of the observance of Holy Trinity Sunday. In order to help us understand the relationship God has with us, the Church has spoken of God’s person. Trinity Sunday is our annual observance of something that we acknowledge every time we gather. Namely, that the God whom we worship is one, with three persons. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I needed to read the previous sentences very carefully. Sometimes, less well reasoned comments slip from our mouths. It is a heresy to speak of God as one who is experienced as three persons. The Doctrine of the Trinity affirms that God doesn’t merely appear to be three persons, God is three persons.
We can have the hard-line theological discussion at another time. What I want you to discuss this morning is what this says to us about (you guessed it) relationships. Relationships are important; relationships are essential. So essential, that relationships lie at the very heart of God’s own person. God, in God’s self, is a relationship. A relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Always being extremely careful not to subjugate one person of the Trinity to the other two, we can point to the Biblical references of this relationship. Jesus says, I and the Father are one. From the cross, Jesus cries out, My God what have your forsaken me? As he is about to depart from the disciples, Jesus tells them, It is to your advantage that I go away, the (Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
God is this web of relationships. God IS this web of relationships. God desires, above all else, to be a relationship with you. Relationships among us are what make the life of the Church possible and fulfilling. Relationships are essential.
I don’t know if today’s worship experience will accomplish it goal. Will we leave this gathering, strengthened in our relationships with one another? Will we depart this time more confident of God’s desire to be a part of our lives? Is it reasonable to hope that anything which happens here today will strengthen us in our resolve to seek relationship opportunities? We will see. We will hope. And above all we will pray that this might be true.
Some of you remember
when the Rev. John Heyer was pastor at Our Saviour, Greenville. He spent his latter years sitting in the pews
at University Lutheran, Clemson. He
would ask me of every sermon – “What did you tell them to do?” Here is what I am telling you to do – be more
confident in God’s desire to have a relationship with you. Be convinced that God is eager to be in that
relationship. Live out your relationship
with God in all of your human relationships.
See those human relationships as the reflection of your relationship
with the Divine. And then, when
opportunity presents itself, speak to others of God’s desire to be in a
relationship with them. You don’t need
elaborate answers or lots of memorized Bible verses. All you need is the confidence that God is
seeking you out. Speak of the
relationship which is God and the invitation from God to enter into this
affirming, loving relationship.
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