Trinity Sunday St. Luke s 2018 At one point of my life I took a theology class and the professor asked if any of us in the room believed in the Trinity and to my surprise, I was the only one in the room who raised my hand. So, I am going to tell you why I still hold this feast as the heart of my Christian faith. The scriptures that we heard this morning really have little to do with the formal understanding of a concept of Trinity; rather they are seeds. I spent part of my week planting a garden. I planted three rose bushes and some honeysuckle. And I also see the flowers that were planted in early spring beginning to sprout. A seed is a miraculous thing so small you can barely see it, and yet containing within it the power to become the mightiest oak. Part of the miracle is that the fruit of that tiny seed both contains life and sustains life: the harvested crops will provide sustenance to you and me and the rest of creation. And within those fruits are the new seeds that will continue the cycle of life in the next planting season. Many metaphors have been employed to depict and explain the Trinity. St. John of Damascus, a great Eastern theologian of the eighth century, said we should think of the Creator as a root, the Son as a branch, and of the Spirit as a fruit, for the sustenance of these three is one. Today we celebrate this central understanding of our faith our belief in the God who is revealed as Creator, the root that sustains life; Son, the Word of God who grafts us as branches to that life; and Spirit, the harvest of God s love in all, binding all, and given to all. The mystery of the Trinity, which we celebrate this Sunday, is probably the most profound and least understood concept of our faith. If one asks an Episcopalian to describe the Trinity, he or she might answer with one of two images, either two bearded men and a bird or the three leaves on one stem of the shamrock. If we were to read in the morning paper that a fourth person of the Trinity had been discovered, would we be disturbed? And yet the mystery of the Trinity tells us the most important thing about God and about ourselves that we can ever know. The mystery tells us that being in communion, being in relationship, is God s very essence. We who are made in God s
image are made for being in relationship. God does not glory in self-sufficient, aloofness. That is not God. To put the core message of Christianity simply, God is love. The first notions of Trinity begin with the Wisdom readings in the Hebrew Scriptures. And on Trinity Sunday we see Wisdom as Spirit. Wisdom is feminine in the Hebrew. Wisdom states that when there were no depths I was brought forth. The Hebrew word for brought forth can also be translated as whirl, dance, or writhe. Wisdom is not an afterthought. She was there at the beginning and she is Spirit. In the beginning, or even before the beginning, God is there and dancing. And God is love. God is a love so powerful that God can t exist without a beloved. And so the Creator God generates the Son. Or in the language Augustine of Hippo used-the Lover generates the Beloved. And yet the Lover and the Beloved are so unified that there is still only one God. Quite an image! The Trinity is the Lover, the Beloved, and the Love or Spirit all bound into One. And the love doesn t even stay inside the life of God God s love is so powerful and passionate that its spills over into the creation of the world. It becomes the seed of all that is. How does the Hebrew notion of Wisdom evolve and merge into our idea of the Trinity? The idea of the Trinity came about because of the experience of the human race with Jesus. During Jesus lifetime his disciples recognized he was an exceptional man who had come in God s name and called God Abba, meaning that God was a source of life. After his resurrection, Jesus disciples realize that he is Emmanuel- God with us. These first Christians experience the risen Jesus with them, and as Jesus promised, they also experience the Spirit of God working in their hearts. Out of these experiences of God beyond them, with them, within them, above them, around them came the first understanding of God as triune. To express their experience of the triune God, the early Church turned to Greek philosophy, using the terms of substance and essence. In the 4 th century Arius taught that Jesus was of a different substance than God and therefore subordinate. His teaching threatened to decrease the importance of God s becoming human in Jesus. The main idea that flesh itself could be divine was being challenged. Other Church fathers and mothers argued that Jesus was of the same substance of God but a
different person. Here is a question: do these ancient discussions have anything to do with us today? Would we be willing to really argue in the marketplace for these ideas? Histories from the time period state that everyone at the time was arguing about these thoughts even in the barber shop there was nowhere to go without confronting the nature of God, the nature of the Trinity. What is it about God s nature that you would hold sacred? These theologians used the word perichoresis as imaging persons in communion. In the Greek, peri means around as in the perimeter. The word means to circle around. If three persons circle around each other they do not form a hierarchical ladder. No one person is superior or inferior. Unlike this image of the circle, the common two-men-and-a-bird image creates a problem. The oldest man is first, then the young man, and then the bird!! No wonder the Holy Spirit or Wisdom is forgotten! I would like to try something experiential. Let s all try making the sign of the cross does it help us learn a hierarchical image of God or one that speaks of the circle? The eastern and western churches differ on how we cross ourselves. The Eastern Church uses two fingers to explain the nature of Christ as human and divine; then three fingers form the Trinity. And there may be a different form. Try making the sign of cross as a circle what does that feel like? I invite all of you to try a form of Celtic prayer called a lorica. Stand if you wish.we are going to move in a circle prayer..the prayer is to form a protective shield around us in the name of the Trinity. I often pray this lorica in the morning to circle around myself and those I love. As you pray, move either physically or mentally in a circle. 1) pray to God our creator, giving thanks for the created world, call forth creation to be pulled into the circle, pray for all the seeds that they may grow and stand strong.. 2) pray to God our redeemer, thanking God for all the ways that our daily life is blessed, the people, our daily mission, call forth names to be pulled into the circle 3) pray to God, our sanctifier. the name of God who breathes in us, helps us touch the most creative part of our inner heart, name the creative part of our world to be drawn in 4) What did this exercise help you feel?
This image of divine, dynamic communion allows us to believe that God is constantly loving us and all of life---our world, our universe. If God is in communion with God s own self we cannot live isolated lives. Bonds of love and ever-generating life link us and all of creation to God. We too are the seeds. It is in this light that we share parts of the prayer of St. Patrick. I think that he truly got the idea that all are connected You might just want to close your eyes and pray this ancient Celtic prayer of the Trinity. It is my favorite prayer. Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through the belief in the threeness, Through confession of the oneness Of the Creator of Creation. Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism, Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial, Through the strength of his resurrection Through the strength of heaven: Light of sun, Radiance of moon, Splendor of fire, Speed of lightning, Swiftness of wind, Depth of sea, Stability of earth, Firmness of rock. Through God's strength to pilot me: God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me, God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me. Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through belief in the threeness, Through confession of the oneness, Of the Creator of Creation. To this I raise my hand. Amen