| Trinity Sunday, Year A Canterbury Northwestern |
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.
Source of Love, Love incarnate, Love’s power.
The Trinity – with which part do you identify most often?
I connect with the Holy Spirit the most. Perhaps because I try to keep my life so orderly, the Spirit is the one that guides me the quickest into spontaneity and grace. In those moments that I move out of my own little world, I can experience the power of God – the abundance of God’s love for me and all of creation. I connect with that movement – God moving through the world. God moving through me to bring God’s grace, love, and word to others.
Other people seem to connect with Jesus – being the one who came to earth to walk as a human with us. They connect with knowing that Jesus suffered as humans suffered. They feel the hope in his resurrection and ascension – they are encouraged by his triumph over death and feel peace at knowing that they will join him. They want to be close to that love that walked with us.
Some people connect with the Father or Mother – feel the source of creation and power overwhelm them. They revel in the created order of the universe and are awed by the enormous love that God has for humanity. They contemplate the vastness of God – bigger than anything that can be imagined – the all encompassing love.
The Trinity – the doctrine highlighted by the church today. It’s one of the most confusing parts of Christianity. There’s no real explanation of it in the Bible – there is no cohesive theology outlined for us to turn to. But how we define and understand the Trinity affects how we describe it to other people, both in and outside of our faith.
While the Trinity has no cohesive theology written into the Bible, each person of the one substance is described in different places.
God the Creator – “Let there be light” (Genesis). God the Father – “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son” (John 3:16). God the Father sends steadfast love to the world, trying to show that in different ways.
Jesus – God incarnate walking with us. Foretold in the prophets – “the Lord God will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms” (Isaiah 40:11). Born in a manger, lived among us, and then became a teacher and prophet. We have stories about Him and His words in the Gospels. Jesus is a human who lived without sin – an example for us. God the Redeemer – God breaking through the bonds of death, and Jesus taken to Heaven in Glory. But John also tells us that Jesus has been with God forever – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1) – so there is no time that Jesus was not part of God.
The Holy Spirit – breath or wind – “the earth was a formless void, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). The spirit of God breathes new life into Ezekiel’s bones. The Holy Spirit – a dove at Jesus’ baptism to empower Him. As flames at Pentecost to bestow gifts on the disciples.
So – regardless of which one you connect with most, they are all part of the same substance – a God who loves and cares for us. A God who walked with us to save us and calls us to do ministry. The God who continues to work through us.
We are called to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations, baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The disciples first heard these words after Jesus’ resurrection. He’s there on the mountain, and they come to worship him. However, some of them doubted. They weren’t sure that they wanted to take the risk to open up to God fully – I’m sure that they might have been confused about the events and the significance in their lives. Jesus accepts them – their gifts and strengths, their doubts and fears. God calls them just as they are to proclaim His message.
This is our call as well – to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. God asks only that we bring our authentic selves – all of who we are. This can be awfully scary. What does it mean to walk into prayer or worship declaring all of our emotions, gifts, and faults? It means that we can come to God with all of it – God the Creator knows the creation – God knows us inside and out. We can express our love and our thanksgiving – about the beautiful day or the way we saw God in the sunset. We can also express our grief or fear or doubt. We can shout out our anger and cry out our frustration. Bringing ourselves to God opens up communication so that we can better connect to the God who has redeemed and sustained us.
This authentic self is the person who is called to become a disciple and proclaim the Gospel. As we talk with others about our thoughts and faith, we can share those experiences where we find God working in our lives. We can also talk about those times when we have felt that God has abandoned us or seems far away. We can share our convictions about Jesus Christ and how we have been saved by his death, resurrection, and ascension. We can stand up and declare, “Jesus Christ is Lord in my life.”
Now – the above words make some people really nervous. You might be still searching and trying to figure out where God fits into your life – but it’s okay, God is open to your seeking and questioning, and I hope that you find this to be a safe place to explore your faith. So, if you’re not quite ready to declare yet, that’s okay – search with us to find what you feel called to proclaim.
The other subject about which some people get nervous is when we start talking with people in our other communities. We live in a pluralistic society where people believe a lot of different things. We have friends who are Muslim, or Jew or atheist. How do I proclaim Jesus Christ to them?
For me, part of it comes from being a disciple – a disciple is a learner. As a follower (disciple) of Jesus, I am continually learning about God working in the world. In talking with others, I can share what I know and invite them to be open to learning more with me. This is really important in inter-faith dialogue. When I am convicted about my faith and my beliefs, I can share them with others. When I find other people who are convicted about their beliefs, I can learn what they know and have experienced. None of this necessarily has to do with conversion or condemnation. I am not going to condemn my brother who is a Hindu or my sister who is Buddhist. I will listen to their story and share mine. Only in knowing what I believe, however, can I express the Christian faith to another. Only in recognizing that I am not perfect and do not know everything, can I be open to hearing what others have to say about their experience and faith.
Right along with that, however, are the many people that I meet who are searching for God. I can share my story of faith and doubt – how I have experienced God through Jesus Christ. I don’t tell my stories to force or coerce, I offer my story as the way that has worked for me. I might find that my friend has had similar experiences, but no words to go with them. My friend might be searching for something to fill that God shaped hole, and if the Christian faith works for that person, he or she can become baptized and the church can rejoice in welcoming in another member.
Our faith is a gift. God has bestowed on us a great gift – and this faith changes and grows over time through times of darkness where we might feel lost, through confusion and doubt, into light and clarity. This community and others like it – the gathered church – are where we come to seek God, praise God, and ask for guidance from God. We get the support of the community – those with knowledge, those with questions, and those who are seeking. We come as ourselves to learn how to better proclaim what we know of God.
We return to the world, sharing our stories with those that we meet, learning more about God working in other people’s lives, finding that Grace is bigger than we every could have imagined. We are called to proclaim what we believe, authentically and with confidence. We are called to listen to others share their convictions with us and learn how to better live into our faith because of their insights and knowledge. Our Creator works throughout the world, our Redeemer lives, and our Sustainer gives us courage and energy to proclaim that love.
Posted by Heather Voss at May 23, 2005 10:12 AM