Sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday 2011

Sermon

Text: Genesis 1:1-2:4a , Matthew 28:16-20, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

In my bedroom is a picture of the Three Stooges. Curly is laying on the ground pointing one direction, Larry is kneeling behind him holding a football on his head, and Moe is postured like he is going to try to kick the ball off Curly's head, however he is obviously going to kick Curly instead. I've had it ever since freshman year of college when I bought it in a campus poster sale.

An author I read this week, Pastor Michael Danner, confessed that he sometimes thinks of the Trinity as three stooges. He wonders how sacrilegious it is to giggle inwardly on whether the Spirit pulls chairs out from under Jesus, or Jesus pulls the Father's anthropomorphic nose? He then agrees that it's not a very good of the Trinity. But, it gets to the point of what the Trinity represents. God as a relational God.

Other analogies attempt to explain the Trinity. One of my favorites is from Pastor Mary Anderson of St. Paul Lutheran in Evanston, Illinios. She says:

At the age of three I had a memorable experience of the three-in-one, I was watching my grandmother sleep during her afternoon nap. As I contemplated her existence, I thought wisely, "That's Grandmamma, Mamma and Odelle." She smiled in her sleep as I called her by the names used for her by her grandchildren, her daughter and her husband, Three names, three relationships -- and yet the same person. Amazing!

She continues, expanding upon both of these ideas of analogies:

Some have chosen a favorite member of the Trinity and have put all of their theological eggs in one basket. Some, concerned that the Trinity expressed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit portrays the Godhead as overly male, have worked to change the language. Some opt to ignore the Father-Son relationship and speak only of the functions of the three: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Others are outraged that Christians, especially Christian leaders, tinker so casually with the ancient language of the faith, the faith in which we baptize. No doubt the conversation and the debates will continue, and well they should.

Yet how important is it to explain the mystery of God revealed to us in three distinct ways? Mysteries explained cease to be mysteries, don't they? Perhaps the doctrine of the Trinity challenges our secret wish to know God fully and eliminate all mystery. This, after all, was the burning desire of our first parents in the Garden, a desire that ultimately caused them to fall from grace. Does this temptation to dispel all mystery still burn within us? 1

When we spend all our time attempting to explain and understand the Trinity we miss the important message that it says about our God, and the reason that God is described this way at all. God in relationship.

That's what we understand through the Trinity. What we see in the Trinity is the fact that three in one are in relationship with each other. We could now get into a discussion of the differences between Economic Trinity versus Ontological Trinity. Economic talking of how God works in relation to the World, and Ontological how God works inwardly. But in all the discussion it points again to God in relationship. God in relationship with God's self, and God in relationship with creation.

God speaks creation into being by being in continuing relationship with creation, as we see in Genesis from this morning. Creation is good, God cares for creation, God interacts and gets into the process of creation and still does so. God is in continual relationship with creation through Christ's completion of creation for all times, past, present, and future, in his death, and in the Spirit's indwelling amongst us now, and at all times.

But, the Holy Trinity does more than show us God in relationship with us, it shows us God's command for us to be in relationship with those around us. Matthew 28:19-20 are what is commonly called the great commission. It's also happens to be my confirmation verse.

In this text we see that we are called to make disciples of all nations, and we do this by baptizing and teaching. We baptize because through baptism we are connected to the Trinity, brought into complete relationship with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the names in which we are baptized. But the Trinity is also in the words of the common blessing found in 2 Corinthians. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” Pastor Danner after beginning at the ridiculous notion of God as three stooges seriously reflects on this verse from Paul:

We live in a place where it’s a miracle if three people can live in order, unity and peace for a week or two. The Holy Trinity does it eternally. How do they do that? What is it about grace, love and presence that makes relationships hum?

After a long letter, with some difficult words, Paul sneaks the key-to-it-all into a benediction. Somewhere between the challenging task of explaining the Holy Trinity and nice words of blessing found in benediction formulas, perhaps there is something else to which we should attend; The Holy Trinity as eternally life-giving community.

In this we think, the Trinity is in relationship, we should be in relationship. It is so much more than that though. The Trinity is our relationship. Without the indwelling of the Spirit, the continuing creating action of the Father, the redeeming action of the Son, we have no relationship. We are called to make disciples of all nations, not to establish the relationship, but because that relationship is already there. Because God is already in relationship with all places. For that is the way that God is truly with us, to the end of the age. Because there is no place we can go where God is not already.

Amen