Today is Trinity Sunday, the day many churches like to lift up the Trinity,
that confusing three-in-one concept about God as Father-Mother, Son, and Holy
Spirit. That time of year when we talk about how God is like a three-leaf-clover, or
an egg, or three dimensions. Or I just learned about describing the Trinity as love:
“The Father is one who loves, the Son the beloved, and the Spirit the love shared
between them.” Metaphors can help us start to understand the Trinity, but
ultimately the Trinity is a mystery.
To be honest, it’s not that important for us to wrap our heads around the
Trinity as a concept. What’s more important is what the Trinity tells us about God
and how it impacts our faith. The Trinity means that God has always been in
relationship: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- with Godself. “In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth. ... and the Spirit of God was hovering over the
waters.” “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the
Word was God.” From the beginning, God has been Parent-Creator, Son/Word,
and Spirit. Relationship is an inherent part of who God is.
But God didn’t decide to have only that relationship- instead, God then
extended that relationship to all of us. Genesis tells about God’s relationship with
Adam and Eve, Seth and Abel as well as Cain, Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob,
then Joseph and the rest of Jacob’s children, a relationship that continued
throughout the entire Old Testament. And then, Our Creator did more than love us
from afar; God came down to us as Jesus, and the Spirit came to remain with us
and guide us as God with us. God loves us! This morning’s gospel lesson included
John 3:16 & 17: God loves the world so much that Jesus came, not to condemn the
world but to save the world.
This is big. See, “‘world’ across John’s Gospel denotes an entity that is at
complete enmity with God.” As Holly Hearon noted in her Working Preacher
commentary for this week, “The ‘world’ is the all-encompassing object of God’s
concern in the Gospel of John. Despite having been created through the Word, it
has come under the sway of a ruler (12:31) who is described as the devil (8:44):
one devoid of truth and thus the antithesis of Jesus, who embodies truth. The world
is a place where evil thrives.” And yet, “God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Or as Lose says, “God
loves this God-hating world enough to send God’s only Son.”
As David Lose noted one year, “the whole point of the Trinity is that God’s
love is too big, too immense, even, to be described as the love of a single person,
but is more like the loved shared among a community, a love shared so deeply that
it can’t be contained but spills out from the Trinity into the whole world and into
our lives.”
The amazing love that we have from the Triune God means that our lives
should be affected, should change because of this amazing grace and love. The
gospel lesson talks about being born anew: transformed so much that it’s like
we’ve been born a second time. We get to respond to this amazing love we
experience through our Heavenly Parent, Christ, and the Spirit who is always with
us.
Considering the amazing relationship we have been invited into, we get to
respond by being in relationship with others. Is there someone in your life or
maybe even on the periphery you could get to know? Maybe it’s someone you see
at church, or maybe they’re elsewhere in your life. Listen to their story, say “that
sucks” when things are hard and they need an ear. Help them out when you can,
and share your own story. Sometimes that relationship starts with serving. It can
mean being open to questions without having the answers, and really being friends
with those we might not consider friendships with otherwise.
It means paying attention and helping people around you. Being open to
sharing your story and listening to someone else’s. And sharing how God has
impacted your life, while listening to the other person’s experiences, whatever they
might be, without judgment.
Like Jesus in the gospel lesson- he doesn’t judge Nicodemus, or call his
questions silly. He engages with him as Nicodemus is ready: meeting with him at
night, engaging in conversation. The story of Nicodemus offers a picture of a man
who is curious about Jesus, who maybe even wants to believe, but struggles. He
actually appears two more times in the Gospel of John. Near the end of chapter 7,
he “reminds his colleagues that, according to the law, they should not judge Jesus
before giving him a trial. And for offering that reminder he is rebuked. Then he
makes a third appearance… after Jesus’ crucifixion, when Nicodemus
accompanies Joseph of Arimathea to collect, anoint, and bury the body of Jesus….
“[Throughout John’s gospel, we see Nicodemus grow] in his faith. At first
he brings questions and is confused. He later invites others to slow in their
judgment. He finally risks publically honoring the one just executed. Faith… in
Nicodemus’ case, takes time. Indeed, his journey with Jesus continues across most
of the Gospel of John and, we might assume, beyond.”
Faith takes time. And it often takes relationship as well. We’ve been invited
into relationship with God. And we get to then have real relationships with each
other: real friendships where we support and love each other, and remain open to
conversations about faith and doubt. We are immeasurably loved and get to share
that love through our relationships.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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