Trinity

This year I am not following the Trinity Sunday readings; here is a sermon on Trinity Sunday from a few years ago. Looking back in my files, the only one where I have specifically looked at the Trinity.

Trinity Sunday, and I could have read a whole range of theological books on the doctrine of the trinity and attempted to explain it to you.  I could have given you the history of the historical debates on how the doctrine of the trinity was arrived at, but it doesn’t necessarily help us to understand the nature of God, and that is what the doctrine of the trinity tries to do – explain the nature of God. If you are interested in the technicalities or history of the doctrine, I’ll lend you some books. One of the resources I read this week likened the trinity to the internet – you don’t have to understand it for it to be useful! There are some scholars who disagree.

God doesn’t appear the same all the time. In one story we hear of God speaking and the world is created. Then we have Jesus crying over Jerusalem. Paul writes of the prison being opened. There  is the One who died on the cross. Even in our own life, God interacts with us in a variety of ways. How do we know each of these is God, and how do we understand a God who can speak the world into existence and show the depth of love by being executed. 

Hopefully for each of us here, God is not only a concept, something we think about, but God is part of our experience. God is a being with whom we are in relationship. Faith is not agreeing with a set of statements, faith is living in relationship with God.

Trinity helps us to see more of a picture of how God relates to us. When Ian and I go on holidays, we often take a jigsaw puzzle or two. Ian is the jigsaw whiz in our house.  When you are putting a jigsaw together, you get a more complete picture as the pieces go on the board. Even without the picture on the box, you can have  good guess at what the final picture will look like as the puzzle progresses, but you can’t see the detail, and sometimes there are surprises as you complete the picture. A bit like on Spicks and Specks when they show part of a record album cover, and you have to guess the missing bit.

When we think about God, there are a number of different aspects of God that we might think of. In the service today there have been a lot of different words used about God and naming God:  One who made everything well, life-giving Word, Spirit who formed, Giver of grace, Lord, wise, forgiving, caring, holy, playing, loving God, Strong mother God, God who created, warm father God, Prince of peace, old aching God, Spirit of truth and many more. One that stands out for me is never fully known. Because that is very much my experience of God. I am continually being challenged and sometimes surprised at the ways on which God relates to me. The lengths to which God goes to get in touch with me.

I think we can never fully understand or describe what God is like. We can attempt, using the limitations of language, to express our understanding of God from our relationship with God. But that doesn’t mean that that is all there is to God. 

There are some advantages to God relating to us in a myriad of ways. Because we are all different, there is always a way for us to relate to God, and it makes it harder for us to avoid God. Remember when children are small and they leave notes all over the house with what they want for Christmas or birthday – well God is like that, notes all over the place about love and grace, forgiveness and peace.

This doesn’t mean that God can be anything we want. The trinity is interdependent. That is Jesus is not independent of the Father, and the Spirit is not independent of Jesus.

One thing the trinity attempts to explain is the interrelationship between the three – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or creator, redeemer and sanctifier, or any number of other combinations that you might come up with. There are some people outside the Christian Church who suggest that we are not monotheists – people worshipping one God; but tritheists, people worshipping three Gods. As Christians we understand that God is three and one, at the same time. This is not a mathematical oneness, but a living unity – diverse and dynamic. It has been described as a dance.

The main point here is that there is a relationship within the Godhead, a dynamic, diverse relationship. A relationship of love. God is love in action, it was out of love that God became incarnate, became human. God is love in action and we are invited to be included in this vibrant, loving relationship. We don’t have to pass a test, or have an annual appraisal. This is being swept up by the love of God into the relationship of the trinity and the community.

Have you ever been at a party where someone has started a conga line ? and people join in, they are part of the dance, expressing their joy in community with each other.

The power of the trinity for Christians is the freedom to live in community, with each other and God. Not in a hierarchy, or a moral vacuum, but in communion with the living God, whose very being is relationship. God is relationship. And so as Christians we live in relationship with God, and by implication with each other. [1]

One of the implications of the doctrine of the trinity is non-hierarchical relationships; living in community, being co-equals, even when gifted differently; none of the ways in which God relates to us being more important than others. At various times, some images of God, or ways of thinking about God will be more important to us, individually, but that doesn’t mean they are  more important. One of the traps Christians can fall into is taking one part of the trinity out of the relationship. If we see God the Father, as God, and leave out the Son and the Spirit, we can live as if God is distant, or only interested in a particular ethnic or religious group. Elevating the Father, can also lead to a lack of awareness of sin and therefore no need for forgiveness, salvation or transformation for individuals or society. ([2])  

Where the main object of devotion is Jesus, we can have a religion of pious devotion, where salvation is in the next life and there is little or no effort in overcoming oppression or poverty in this life. ([3]) This type of religion can also be authoritarian as the words or deeds of Jesus become codified rather than living as part of a Trinitarian faith. ([4])  Worshipping the Spirit, without the Father and Jesus tends to elevate the experience of the believer above all else. Here the Spirit is disconnected from God and Jesus.([5])

Trinitarian faith helps us to see God more fully, and to see ourselves more fully. As we worship God in trinity, in relationship, we can be aware of our sin, and our need for forgiveness and transformation. we can be aware of our tendency towards individualism and our need to live in community with God and each other. We can be aware of the injustice around us and work with God to transform society. 

We celebrate communion this morning, and this too has Trinitarian aspects. We remember the Israelites being liberated from bondage in Egypt, we re-enact the last supper of Jesus and the disciples, we are recreated by the Spirit, fed and nurtured in community. We share the Eucharist together, it isn’t something that happens in isolation.

A quote: “God loves in freedom, lives in community and wills creatures to live in community. God is self-sharing, other-regarding, community-forming love.”[6]

As Christians, we have a Trinitarian faith. That means we are included in the love relationship that is God, a relationship that leads to community and allows us to live in freedom.

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[1] Fox, p287

[2] Migliore, p 64.

[3] Migliore, p65.

[4] Dicker, p53.

[5] Migliore, p65

[6] Migliore, p 64.

Being Pentecost People

Pentecost, we've heard again the story of the first Pentecost as recorded by Luke in the book of Acts; the day of wind and fire, the day when people heard the gospel in their own language, the day when Peter preached to thousands of people, the day of the spirit. Pentecost is a celebration in the life of the church, a celebration of the life of the church. Pentecost is a celebration of gift and giftedness, of the remarkable and the everyday.

This reading from Acts is one we hear every year, the coming of the Spirit in wind and fire, not a gentle breeze, but a rushing wind. Enough noise for people to come and see what is happening, enough fire for people to worry and then to be amazed as they realised that the disciples were not harmed by the flame.

In thinking about Pentecost this year, I want us to think about think about how the spirit is active in our lives; what it means for us to be people of the spirit. Let’s go back to the story for a moment, the disciples had travelled with Jesus, they had been there when he died, they saw him after the resurrection, and saw him ascend to heaven. Now they were waiting, behind closed doors, waiting for the spirit to come. And then Luke records this remarkable scene. A story of wind, a strong wind, full of noise; a story of fire, fire that does not burn – where have we heard that before; a story of people being able to communicate the gospel across language and cultural boundaries.

The spirit gave the disciples courage, courage to be themselves. Peter, impetuous, Jesus-denying Peter, now filled with the Holy Spirit addresses the crowd. Some in the crowd made fun of the disciples, suggesting they are drunk. But Peter stands there and tells people, that no, the disciples are not drunk. This is what the prophet Joel had talked about: the coming of the Spirit of God that would enable people to see visions, to dream dreams and to speak God’s word, which is what prophesy means.

Peter stands there and tells the crowd about Jesus, and quotes many passages form the Old Testament to illustrate how Jesus is the fulfilment of the words of the prophets. The people in the crowd are in Jerusalem for the Festival of Pentecost, a major Jewish festival to celebrate the giving of the law. The people in the crowd would have been Jews, Jews from all over the Middle East. Later in chapter 2 of Acts you realise how large the crowd was, for three thousand people were baptised that day. 

The coming of the Holy Spirit into their lives at Pentecost was transforming for the disciples, this group of people who didn’t seem to get much of what Jesus spoke about, this group of people who didn’t know what to do after the crucifixion, this group of people who didn’t know what to make of the empty tomb, this group of ordinary, faithful, confused, bewildered disciples spoke and lived with such faith, such fervour, that they changed the world.

The Holy Spirit transforms us, changes us, and challenges us. It isn’t that God’s spirit makes us do things we can’t do, but gives us courage and strength, so we can be the people God made us to be. What prevents us from being the people God created us to be? It isn’t lack of education, or that we are too old or too young. I suggest that fear is what stops us from being the people that God calls us to be. It may be fear of standing out in the crowd, fear of public speaking, fear of not knowing enough, fear of being laughed at, fear of ….

Being a disciple of Jesus is risky; a few years ago there was material around for Uniting Church congregations called Risking the way of Jesus. Living the Jesus way is risky. Living as people of cross, empty tomb and Pentecost is risky, and at times challenging.

SOUL AND RISK

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another person is to risk involvement.
To expose your feelings is to risk being your true self.
To place your dreams and ideas before the crowd is to risk their rejection.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing.
This person can avoid suffering and sorrow, but cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, or really live.
He is chained by his certitude. He is a slave. He has forfeited freedom.
A person who risks is free.

From A Canopy of Stars: Some Reflections for the Journey by Fr Christopher Gleeson SJ [David Lovell Publishing 2003]

One of the Ministers I talk with on the internet told a story last week of a church that decided to cancel Pentecost; there were lots of special services and it just didn’t fit in the calendar. I wondered, in what ways do we try and avoid the Holy Spirit from being active in our lives. Do we discount the Spirit’s promptings as a daydream, drunken or not, too ridiculous to bring to life? Do we crowd out the Holy Spirit by keeping busy, by filling our lives up with noise and activity, surely God can’t really expect us to fit in any more!

Maybe it is like this cartoon, where we make up excuses for why the Holy Spirit can’t come into this or that part of our lives. We are unwilling to risk living the way of Jesus, to risk the Holy Spirit setting us on fire, or blowing us in a different direction. We worry about what people will think about us, or say about us, and miss out on the opportunities the Spirit gives us to live more fully for God.

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

What would we do if we weren’t afraid?

What would it mean to your life, to our life together, if we went with the Spirit, into new places, new relationships, new ministries, new lives?

What would it mean to your life, and our life, if we risked being Pentecost people?

Witnesses

A shorter sermon this week, becasue I will allow time for people to reflect as we go.

This week at retreat, we looked at the theme of Grace. We thought about times we had experienced Grace, we thought about images that remind us of grace – and some of us made symbols. We thought about Bible passages that speak to us of grace. We heard the story known as the prodigal son, and thought about how to speak of grace to the older brother. We thought about people who had mediated grace to us. We reflected on the places in our lives where we are wounded, and how for some the wounds are infected and making us ill, and for others the wounds are now scars, we continue to be shaped by them, but they do not make us sick any more. And then we were invited to write a letter to God about grace, and listen for God’s response. It seems like a lot, putting it all together like this, but this was over three days.

Jesus tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit will come, and they will be his witnesses. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth; this is like saying, Engadine, Sutherland Shire, Australia, and all over the earth.  We are to be witnesses.

A witness can stand back and watch something happening without getting involved. A witness can be someone who is specifically called to be present to see that something happens as it should. A witness can be someone who countersigns documents. A witness can be someone who tells what they have seen or experienced.

Thinking about being a witness, I wondered how we witness to God’s presence in our lives, as individuals and as a community of faith. 

As we reflect this morning, you may like to get comfortable and close your eyes.

1. I invite you to think about one person who told you, with words or actions, about God, the gospel, about God’s love, grace, and forgiveness?
1. Hold that person in your mind and Thank God for that person, ask God to bless them.
2. I invite you to think about a time you seen someone living out the gospel.
1. Hold that person in your mind and Thank God for that person, ask God to bless them.
3. Now I invite you to think of the work of this congregation – worship, OOSH, meetings, social activities – what does our life together say about God?
1. What else would you like your life to say about God?
2. Ask God to help you make that a reality.

……………………

Our lives touch others’ lives; our lives can be a positive or a negative influence in the lives of those around us.

When we witness, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the presence and activity of God in the world, we change the world around us. Listen again to his verse form the reading this morning:

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus didn’t say, you might, or there is a raffle or lucky dip, or just a chosen few – in speaking with the disciples, Jesus said ‘you will’.  You will receive power from the Holy Spirit, and you will be my witnesses.

Our lives are witnesses to Jesus. What kind of witnesses are we, Engadine Uniting Church; what does our life say about Jesus, about God, about grace.

Our life as a church does speak about God.

Is our witness to God one of inclusion or exclusion; is our witness one that tells of God’s love; is our witness one that shows the love and faithfulness of Jesus; is our witness one that tells of the power and presence of God.

Next week is Pentecost, when we again celebrate the Holy Spirit in our lives. In what area of our life together, do we seek a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, so that we might be able to fulfil Christ’s call to be witnesses?

In what area of your life, do you seek a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, so that you might be able to fulfil Christ’s call to be a witness?