"Love: The Essence of the Trinity"

 

Even though I had a seminarian assigned to us, and he is still serving at the altar with me on Sundays, I still went ahead and preached on Trinity Sunday.

The joke is that Trinity Sunday is one of those sermons that the senior most priest punts on and assigns to the younger associate. Nobody really wants to tackle the doctrine of the Trinity in a sermon. And I'm not sure how many in the congregation are that interested. 

However, it is billed as "Trinity" Sunday; so to say nothing would also seem a little strange. 

As I told one of our members, since I am part-time and therefore don't really have the time to do all the weekly classes and other activities normally done by the priest, I use my preaching time to drop in some teaching. That's what I did here with this sermon. 

And the direction in which I moved gave me a chance to say, once more, an important truism about God in this particular moment in the life of the less-than-United States of America. See if you catch it.

Texts: Gen. 1:1-2:4a, BCP

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If we crack open the Bible…and go looking for an entry titled “The Holy Trinity,” we won’t find anything.

Yes, we find words about God the Father.

We know Jesus as the Son of God.

And just last week, we were celebrating the God the Holy Spirit.

Even though our Gospel names these three…there’s nothing that calls them the “Holy Trinity.”

Open the Book of Common Prayer…and we find in the historical documents in the back of the book that Article One of the 39 Articles adopted by the General Convention of 18-01 tells us:

“There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the Maker and the Preserver of all things both visible and invisible.  And in unity of this Godhead is three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

Or there’s the Creed of Athanasius…which goes to great lengths to outline the Trinity…as “one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost…but this Godhead is all one…the Glory equal…the Majesty co-eternal.”

I’ve heard sermons…and I’m sure you have too…where a preacher attempts to take all that language and put it into a visual or some concrete concept.

The Holy Trinity is like a three-leaf clover.

The Holy Trinity is like water…which can be liquid, or frozen, or vapor.

The Holy Trinity is like the sun…star…light…and heat.

All this to attempt to explain and defend a doctrine first articulated by the early church father Tertullian who minted the expression of the Trinity as God in Three Persons.

Tertullian was defending the Chrisitan understanding of God’s three-fold nature against those who insisted that God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were all the same one person without distinction in their form.

Tertullian insisted that God was one with three distinctions…but what the three shared was the same one essence.

His writings on the Trinity would later become the basis for the Council at Nicaea developing the credal statement that we still say to this day.

That’s a very quick lesson on church history and where to find the Holy Trinity on paper.

Because we humans seem invested in certainty…and rationality.

But really… all of these are noble attempts to intellectualize…synthesize…and boxed-in something that ultimately can’t be “understood” in that way.

To understand the Holy Trinity comes down to how we experience and relate to God…as that one Essence:

And that one essence is Love.

Love…as the hymn writer Benjamin Webb says, “O love…how deep…how broad…how high.”

We can see that when we look at the Genesis reading from this morning with this first creation story.

And yes—we have two: this one and the one that follows with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

We hear in this version:

In the beginning…when things were all an indistinguishable mish-mash of stuff…God looked at this chaos and began… speaking.

Not with violent words…or angry commands…or even with force.

God speaks…God breathes out in quiet…gentle…tones “Let this happen.”

Let there be light and dark.

Let there be sky and sea.

Let there be sun and moon and stars.

Let there be fruits and plants.

With each breath…with each invitation…all fell into place…as one beautiful masterpiece.

C.S. Lewis in “The Magician’s Nephew” imagined this Genesis moment as a song that his God character…the lion Aslan…sings creation into existence.

Again…not with some loud clanging noises or even an especially melodious tune.

But a mostly wordless song of various tones…deep bass notes that seem to come from unknown depths…causing lush fields of grass that covered the ground and ran up the mountains…trees emerging from the earth and eventually animals and two-legged creatures appearing.

A different musical imagination of “the beginning.”

As the Genesis writer describes this work of creation…we can see God forming this world in an intentional and interdependent way.

First make the habitat…the seas…the sky…the land with vegetation.

Now bring about the life forms…sea creatures and birds…wild animals.

Finally…God makes human beings.

All of these dependent on each other…living in relationship to each other.

And it was the creation of humanity where our church father Tertullian said he could find the scriptural evidence of the Trinity.

The text…even in Hebrew…has God using a plural pronoun.

“Let us make humankind in our image…according to our likeness.”

God did not say “Let me do this and make them in my likeness.”

It’s us… and our…God the Three Persons…interdependent and in relationship.

They were there and they made humanity in the image of them.

And I don’t think that necessarily meant just bodies with faces…arms…and legs.

This creation of humankind…you and me…were made in the likeness of God…meaning we were created in God’s essence…from Love….out of Love…and for the purposes of Love…to Love.

To care for all these creatures.

Enjoy and nurture this planet with its lands and seas with the same love and support that brought us and all of creation into being in the first place.

Do this with Love for that Love that so loved the world that that same Love sent the Son into the world to live as one of us…give us a down-to-earth…incarnate…vision and understanding of Love…and to show us that no powers or principalities can defeat those who put their faith and trust in Love.

And this Love remains with us…as the breath in our bodies and that Spirit wind at our backs…so that we have the means to extend this Love to each other.

Not just the people who are sitting here in this room.

Treat everyone we encounter…with love…dignity…and respect.

Because this Love isn’t exclusionary.

No one nation or people are held as better than or more important to God.

This Love is universal…to those who believe and even those who don’t…and the ones who doubt.

It’s there for all…with no asterisk or black-out dates.

Love…this three-fold Love… is with us always…seeking relationship with us.

As we go out into the world…may we remember that this essence of Love which is in us…with us…and around us…is the way…the truth…and the life that we now share with others.

In the name of our Holy and Undivided Trinity.