Trinity
May 26, 2024
John 3.1-17
+ I usually ask Deacon John to preach on Trinity Sunday every year.
And he does a good job with it.
Better than I do.
But today he is living it up in International Falls.
And Deacons Suzanne doesn’t like preaching.
So, here goes.
When all is said and done, at the end of the day, I can say thisabout myself:
I have been called a heretic a lot in my life as a priest.
And sometimes, I gotta say, that term cuts me to the core.
I don’t think of myself as a heretic.
In fact, I think I’m actually (probably) kinda orthodox on somevery important things.
I don’t say that pridefully.
I’m not bragging.
I’m just saying…
Yes, I know.
I’m pretty liberal.
At least socially.
But theologically, I’m kinda cut and dry.
Let’s face it: for better or for worse, I am very solidly Anglo-Catholicnot only in HOW I worship liturgically, but also in my views about WHO Iworship.
But then, I go and say something or preach something that reallyjust rankles people.
For example, that whole universalist thing.
I’m not apologizing, by the way.
I really do believe that, eventually, we will all—ALL of us—be togetherwith Christ in heaven.
I really do believe that.
I do not believe in an eternal hell.
And I honestly do not believe that Christ is ultimately victoriousif anyone is left in hell.
When I talk on Holy Saturday about the Harrowing of Hell, I reallydo believe in it.
I really do believe that if anyone is in some metaphysical hell,totally separated from God, that even there, Christ will come, will take that personby the hand and lead them out.
NOTHING separates us from the love of God in Christ---not evenhell.
That’s not heresy, in my book.
That, I think, can actually be supported by Scripture and Churchdoctrine.
But then, there’s the Trinity.
Sigh.
The Trinity.
Every time I try to explain it, I find myself nudging over intosome kind of heresy.
Oh, the three-leafed clover is Partialism?
Oh, what you’re preaching now is Modalism?
Now you’re guilty of Sabellianism?
Perichorsis? Where is that in scripture and 2,000 years of Churchtradition.
Despite the jokes, I actually don’t want to be a heretic.
So, I’m not even going to attempt it today.
After all, I’m just a priest. I’m just a poet.
I’m not a theologian, nor have I ever claimed to be one.
Most of us, let’s face it, don’t give the doctrine of the Trinitya lot of thought.
Like you, I really don’t lose a lot of sleep over it.
I approach this Sunday and this doctrine of the Trinity as Iapproach any similar situation, like Christmas or Easter or, as we celebratedlast Sunday, the Holy Spirit and Pentecost.
It’s a mystery.
And I love the mystery of our faith.
And let me tell you, thereis nothing more mysterious than the Trinity.
God as Three-in-One—God as Father or Parent or Creator, God as Sonor Redeemer and God as Spirit or Sanctifier.
I know, I know.
It’s difficult to wrap our minds around this concept of God.
The questions we priests regularly get is: how can God be threeand yet one?
How can we, in all honesty, say that we believe in one God when weworship God as three?
Certainly our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters ask that veryimportant question of us: Aren’t you simply talking about three gods?
(We’re not, by the way—just to be clear about that)
My answer is: I just don’t know.
My mind just doesn’t seem to work that way.
Whole Church councils have debated the issue of the Trinitythroughout history.
The Church actually has split at times over its interpretation ofwhat exactly this Trinity is.
We can debate it all we want this morning.
We can talk about what is orthodox or right-thinking about theTrinity all we want.
But, just so you don’t think I’m a complete theological wimp, orthat I’ve lost my edge, I am going to say this with some sort of conviction.
I do have a pretty solid belief in what the Trinity is NOT.
And I saw my belief in what the Trinity is NOT simplified recentlyin a meme.
I know this:
The Trinity is NOT two men and a bird.
The Trinity is not two white men seated in heaven with a dovefloating around them.
If that is what the Trinity is, then call me a heretic.
And burn me at the stake.
Because, I cannot believe in that.
The Trinity is not two men and a bird.
God is so much more than that.
We can go on and on about theology and philosophy and all mannerof thoughts about God, but ultimately what matters is how we interact with ourGod.
How is our relationship with God and with each other deepened andmade more real by this one God?
That’s what Jesus tells us again and again.
Just love God.
In scripture we don’t find people worrying too much about whetherthey are committing a heresy or not in trying to describe God.
What do we find in scripture?
We find a constant striving toward a more personal and closerrelationship with God.
This is our primary responsibility: our relationship with God.
How can all this talk about God—how can this thinking aboutGod—then deepen our relationship with God?
Our goal is not to understand God: we will never understand God.
God is not some Rubik’s Cube or a puzzle that has to be solved.
Our goal is simply to know God. In our hearts. Passionately.
Our goal is to love God.
Our goal is to try to experience God as God wishes to be experienced byus.
Because God does know us.
God does love us.
And, more likely than not, we have actually experienced our God inmore than one way more than once in our lives.
I personally have experienced God in a—shall we say?—tri-personalkind of way (I don’t know what heresy that might be, but I really don’t care)
I personally have experienced God as a loving and caring parent,especially when I think about those times when I have felt marginalized bypeople or the Church or society or by friends and colleagues.
Or when I simply realize that I am a 54 year old orphan.
I have also known Jesus as my redeemer—as One who has come to mewhere I am, as Jesus who suffered in a body and who, in turn, knows mysuffering because this One also has suffered as well.
And this One has promised that I too can be, like Jesus, a childof this God who is my—and our—Parent.
I have been able to take comfort in the fact that God is not somedistant deity who could not comprehend what I have gone through in my life andin this limited, mortal body.
In Jesus, God knows.
In Jesus, God knows what it was to be limited by our bodies.
There is something wonderful and holy in that realization.
And I have known the healing and renewal of the Spirit of God ofmy life.
Many, many times.
I don’t know what the Trinity is.
But if this tri-personal God is what it is, than that works forme.
If all we do is ponder and argue and debate God and God’s nature,we’ve already thrown in the towel.
And we are defeating the work of God.
But if we simply love God and strive to experience God throughprayer and worship and contemplation andloving others, that is our best bet.
No matter what the theologians argue about, no matter what thosesupposedly learned teachers say, no matter what the heresy Nazis bray about, ultimately, our understanding of God needs tobe based on our own experience to some extent.
Yes, God is beyond our understanding.
Yes, God is mysterious and amazing and incredible.
But God does not have to be a frustrating aspect of our church andour faith.
Our experience of God should rather widen and expand our faithlife and our understanding and experience of God and, in turn, of each other.
So, today, as we ponder God—as we consider how God has worked inour lives in many ways— and who God is in our lives, let us remember howamazing God is in the ways God is revealed to us.
God cannot be limited or quantified or reduced.
God can only be experienced.
And adored.
And pondered.
And loved.
God can only be shared with others as we share love with eachother.
When we do that—when we live out and share our loving God withothers—then we are joining with the amazing and mysterious work of God who ishere with us, loving us with a love deeper than any love we have ever knownbefore.
