Sermon: Trinity Sunday
30 May 2021 –
Archdeacon Mark Long
Isaiah 6:1-8;
Psalm 29; and John 3:1-17; NRSV
I last preached two weeks ago in that liminal space between the Ascension and Pentecost and made the comment that faith is primarily about relationship. Today’s focus on the Trinity continues this theme, asking us to reflect on God’s Kingdom, present in our midst, as primarily about relationship and interconnectedness. The symbol for the Trinity, the Trinity Knot or Triquetra, with its triangular shape of a continuously interlinked line woven into a cirlce is a far better description of what we believe when we speak of God as Trinity than words can ever paint. It did, after all, take the Church close on three centuries to refine the Christian understanding of who God is, and the various Creeds we use – particularly the Apostles, Nicean and Athenasian – reflect this ongoing discussion from the 4th to 6th centuries after Constantine in the Edict of Milan in 313 CE decreed tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire. The Athenasian Creed quite tediously but importantly reminds us that while the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God, at the same time they are not each other. It is their relationship in the fullness of the Godhead that keeps them interconnected and united in their diversity. Trying to describe and/or understand this relationship through either the written or spoken word can be mind-numbing, whereas the image of the Trinity Knot woven into a circle gives space for our awareness to contemplate the relational and interconnected reality of the God we serve.
What I have said so far may already be leaving you somewhat confused, and our understanding of the Trinity is one of the more complex Christian teachings. It may be helpful to recognise in the Gospel account of Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus that we are not alone in our confusion. We can be quite critical of Nicodemus, but he was a respected Jewish scholar and leader of his time, and even he struggled to understand the nature of God and God’s purposes for us in this life. We need to acknowledge Nicodemus’ courage in approaching Jesus, even if it was in the darkness of night, and entering into conversation with him. Nicodemus sought to understand Jesus’ insight into the very nature of life, and we see something of Jesus’ understanding of the roles that he, the Father, and the Spirit play in ensuring we are physically and spiritually alive.
It is important that we grapple with the teachings of our faith, but it is even more important that we experience our faith, particularly what it offers in terms of our daily experience of life and relationship. Rowan Williams helpfully reminds us in his book God with Us that through the Easter journey we are invited into the very heart of the Godhead, into the very heart of the relationship shared by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is an amazing thought, because we acknowledge God as Creator, as the Source of all Being; we acknowledge through our celebration of the Ascension that Jesus is the Eternal Son, restorer of relationship; and the Holy Spirit is the sustainer of all life, and so much more. We are invited to participate in the interconnectedness of all that God is, to ourselves be co-creators and sustainers of life, committed to the important ministry of restorative justice and hope.
Which part of the Godhead are you drawn to? Perhaps reflecting on your favourite hymns will give you an inkling? If I offered you the choice of “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise,” or “What A Friend We Have in Jesus,” or “Spirit of the Living God”, which one would you choose and why? And what does your choice say to you about your relationship to the Trinity; about what you are attracted to in God? And then of course, how do you live this attraction out in your relationships with other people, and with Creation itself? To some degree our personalities and life experience will define the direction of our attraction. However, we also need to remember that relationship and life itself is a journey, the call of our faith is into an ever increasing wholeness. It’s important to remember that we are called into relationship with the fullness of God, not just a part of God. Which parts of God do you need to know better? In recent years I have found myself really attracted to God as the Source of all Being, the creative fullness of God; as a teenager it was all about Jesus; and then as a young adult it was the Spirit that particularly drew me. Our recent Lent and Eastertide journey has awoken within me a desire to revisit my relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and to do so in such a way that my relationship with Jesus and the Spirit is congruent with my understanding of God as the Source of all Being. I’m recognising that there has been too much disconnection in my relationship with the various persons of the Trinity, and I need to embrace a more whole relationship that builds a new consonance in my awareness of the role God plays in and through my life.
How is God prompting you today? Perhaps in recognising which
aspect of God you are presently attracted to there is a need to explore this
aspect further? Or perhaps like me, you may feel a prompting to a greater
congruence in your relationship with all aspects of God? Or even the need just
to explore another aspect of God? There is no one answer and no one response;
and God will be prompting you in a way unique to who you are, and where your
relationship with God presently resides. There are also no easy or quick
answers: it is always a journey. It is also a collective journey, even while
our individual journeys continue, and while we explore our own personal
relationships with God, with God’s kingdom, and with Creation itself, we also
need to be asking these questions of ourselves as a community of Faith. What
are we hearing God, Source of all Being, Eternal Son, and Holy Spirit, saying
to us all today?
Let us pray,
Amen.[1]
No comments:
Post a Comment