Trinity Sunday + Year B +
2015 Fr Robert RM Bagwell+
RCL
Readings St
Paul's Church, Savannah
There was a priest who was trying
to explain the doctrine of the Trinity to his congregation and thought of all
of the possibilities for a visual aid to help the congregation to understand
the concept: he thought of water, ice and steam, but was afraid that he might
be drifting a little bit too close to heresy.
He thought of the shamrock, but was afraid that he might arouse the
focus to AGod loves
the Irish best@ rather
than the Trinity. Finally, he decided
that he would use an egg: the shell, the egg white and the yolk. All three egg, but distinct in substances and
character. When Sunday morning came, he
broke open the egg at the appropriate moment and found to his surprise this
particular egg had a double yolk. Boy
was the yolk on the priestCthe
yolkCon the
priestCit=s a yolkCnow
laugh!
Each of the readings you have this morning speaks of a God
who shares his life with us. Does strike
you as odd? If it doesn't may I suggest
it should. Perhaps we've had that life
shared with us for so long, we've just gotten used to the idea, like happens in
some of our human relationships. But our readings go beyond this premise. Our readings go so far as to say God LOVES
us! Now love requires both an object and
a subject. This is the only Sunday of the Church Year in our Kalendar named
after a doctrine.. But this is about more than a doctrine. This Sunday we
celebrate a relationship: God towards us
and us towards God. This relationship
was "consummated" if you will in the birth, death, resurrection and
ascension of Jesus Christ and experienced fully on the Day of Pentecost when
the Holy Spirit of God came to live in our hearts.
The doctrine itself was much wrestled over in the early
centuries of the Church and is so important in our Anglican tradition that it
is the first in our statements of faith in our 39 Articles of Religion. There
we read: I quote: “There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without
body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker,
and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in unity of this
Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost”
It can be said that it is the distinguishing
doctrine of the Christian faith. This
doctrine has been celebrated in the Church since at least the ninth century. It
was a particular favorite of St. Thomas à
Beckett and it is from him that the tradition of calling the season after
Pentecost Trinity season came to
be a unique feature of the Anglican Church.
Have you ever noticed how many of
our hymns have a Trinitarian theme? AHoly, Holy, Holy@
perhaps the most popular, composed in the Church of England actually for
Trinity Sunday, AAncient
of Days who Sits Enthroned in Glory@,
ACome Thou Almighty King@, AHoly
Father, great Creator@Cthe myriad of hymns that only mention
incidental themes of a Trinitarian nature.
Likewise notice the ancient
practice of signing ourselves with the sign of the cross and yet in that
signing characterizing ourselves with a Trinitarian designation. We even teach that the three finger tips
joined together in that Aself
identification, with the cross of ChristCAsignifyCFather,
Son and Holy Spirit in some Catechism classes.
You may think it was alluded to in the first reading where
we read: "holy, holy, holy".
But that is the Hebrew way of stating the superlative. In English we would say: 'holy, holier, and
holiest." Christianity is a
Christo-centric and dynamic theism. As
one pastor put it: The Father Purposes; the Son Purchases and the Spirit
applies the Divine Will. Orthodox
theologian Thomas Hopko says:
"Whatever God is doing it comes from the Father, the Agent is
always the Son who Creates, speaks redeems and sanctifies." Jesus is
called the Word of God. Episcopalian Dorothy
Sayers said the Father provides the idea, the Son the expression and the Spirit
the consciousness (The Mind of the Maker) Someone
has written: "We don’t celebrate a doctrine of the church today, but the
unfathomable mystery that is God, who chose to dwell among us, “fully human and
fully divine,” and then did not leave us orphans, but gave us a continual share
in God’s life through the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is this Spirit that
continues to connect us to God and one another in love."
What is the Fundamental Truth Taught Here? That God
fundamentally is a relating, relational being!
We are created in His image, our fundamental character is relational.
God IS LOVE. We are tri-partite being. We have a body, soul and a spirit.
People have sought to define the Trinity in a million waysCbut all fall short.
God is one in unity and diversity. One writer wrote: " Only the Christian worldview can hold unity and
diversity together, and the reason it can is because Christian teaching is
rooted in the nature and character of a God who is unified and diverse." Divine love unifies the distinct while giving
distinction to the unified. Thus, God is love in motion: dynamic, action ever
moving to the beloved.
God gives life meaning. Without God life is meaning-less. We have meaning in relation to others. We are related to God by adoption. God adopted us so God is Father to us through
Christ by the Holy Spirit. My youth
group in Florida used to sing a song: "We are the Family of
God." That is who we are! What is the Fundamental Truth Taught Here?
That God fundamentally is a relating, relational being! We are created in His image, our fundamental
character is relational. God IS LOVE. We are the only faith that teaches
this. Everything we do therefore in
God's name in our lives must conform to this ethic. God is LOVE.
We are tri-partite being. We have
a body, soul and a spirit. People have sought to define the Trinity in a
million waysCbut all
fall short. It is relationship that defines it.
God chose to be in relationship to you and me. God made you and me in
God's own image, body, soul and spirit. Is the human mind adequate to
understand the being of God. No. It is as the Athanasius creed so aptly says:
"incomprehensible." Gods tripartite
being is more easily experienced. We
share in the Divine life in our hearts when we believe, when we are baptized,
when we receive the Holy Communion. When
we come to this rail, let us remember it is the extension of the Holy Table,
the Altar, and we are eating at God's table each week. When we read those most beautiful words
underneath the cruel tree, the cross on the rood screen, remember that as Jesus
was lifted us so He lifts us up to live with him forever. In closing: May the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us
all. AMEN
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