One of the great gifts of being a priest is that people are much more willing to share their faith stories with me. I am blessed when people share their thoughts and feelings, their joys and sorrows, and the ways God has touched their lives. They are also very comfortable asking questions. Without a doubt, the question I hear the most is about the Trinity.
Today is Trinity Sunday, a day set aside to honor our Three-in-one God. We acknowledge the reality of the trinity every day in our worship and in our prayers. But do we really understand it? How can God be three beings at the same time and still be God? How come God came first and Jesus and the Spirit came later? Doesn’t that mean that they are not the same, but are in fact, subsets of God?
Let’s talk about that. First, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not late comers to the party. They have been with God and part of God from the beginning. Remember the opening of John’s gospel. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. “ The word is Jesus Christ. Jesus was with God at the beginning and has always been part of God. His coming to earth in mortal form was a later act, but that was not the creation of Jesus, for Jesus has always been.
Ok, you say. That explains Jesus, but what about the Holy Spirit? How come the spirit didn’t appear until Pentecost? Surely that means the spirit is not equal to God? Sorry, that too is not quite correct. Think about Genesis and the creation story. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” And do you recall how Moses parted the waters of the Red Sea? God sent a strong wind that pushed the waters apart. The Hebrew word for wind is Ruach which also means spirit. The wind that swept over the waters at creation and parted the sea to free the Israelites was in fact, the Holy Spirit.
So, the three aspects of the Trinity have always been. But can we be sure they are separate parts? Well, let us remember the day Jesus was baptized in the Jordan. As Jesus comes out of the water the heavens are opened and the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove. And God’s voice comes from heaven saying “This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” And here we see the intersection of all three images of God. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each demonstrating their uniqueness and yet acting in concert to fulfill God’s will on earth.
We have trouble with the idea of the Trinity, not because they are not real, but because they are unlike anything else in our experience. We tend to think of God as just like us, only bigger and better. And since we can’t be three people, we have a hard time comprehending that God can be. But what we need to remember is that, though we were created in God’s image, the reverse is decidedly not true. God was NOT created in our image. So we can’t think about God as one of us. God is God, not simply a better version of us. Just because we can’t be a triune being, does not prevent God from being one.
So God is three persons in one. OK, I guess I am convinced now. But so what? What does that mean to me? Why does the trinity matter in my life?
The trinity is God’s way of giving us everything we need to live our lives and to be one with Him. God is more powerful than we can ever understand. We have NO power to stand against God. If He chose to, God could compel us to do anything he wanted. But, compelling us is not His way. In today’s first lesson, we see Isaiah being brought into God’s presence. He sees the Seraphim and the heavenly angels and knows that he is completely unworthy to be in the presence of God. And yet, does God demand worship from him? Does God balk at the unclean creature brought before him? No, God simply asks, “Who will go out and do what I ask?” No demands, no arm-twisting, no threats or compulsion. God simply asks for a volunteer.
A volunteer! God has the power to force us to do his will, but that is not his way. For God loves us so much that he wants us to come to him of our own free will. He would rather convince us by his deeds than compel us by force. So the most powerful being in the universe sends part of himself to become one of us. John’s Gospel tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Jesus becomes the willing sacrifice that reconciles us to God and returns us to a right relationship with God the Father. And in so doing, He allows us to murder his son. “God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
We as Christians know that this is the secret to life. The good news that Jesus Christ was born, died, and rose again is the key to eternal life. But it is a secret that is meant to be shared. Jesus calls us to spread the good news to all. We are called to be disciples making other disciples. But how do we do that? God has an answer for that.
The Holy Spirit comes to us to teach and equip us for ministry. We are given unique gifts that enable us to become effective servants of God. The Holy Spirit comes to each of us at baptism and endows us with a variety of gifts that give us the skills and drive we need to be God’s people on earth. But the really great thing is that none of us have the same gifts. Each of us is given different gifts from the Holy Spirit so that we must work together to achieve God’s purpose in the world. That is why Paul speaks of the church as the body of Christ; for each of us is a part of the whole, and none is complete by themselves.
So on Trinity Sunday, we pause to reflect on the three parts of God; Father, Son and Spirit. As they did at the baptism of Jesus, each works together to equip us to be the people God wants us to be. For just as God asked of Isaiah “Whom shall I send”, he asks the same of each of us. So when God asks you, “Whom shall I send,” you can rest assured that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have given you all that you need so that you may answer, “Here I am; Send Me!”