The Rev. Denise Vaughn

Blessed Trinity

As we processed in this morning we sang the well-known hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy,”  “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.” Less well known and understood is what this hymn truly means. How can the one God be three persons? Our voices and hearts sing what our minds cannot quite grasp. The church since its beginning has struggled with understanding how one God can inhabit three forms. Robert Farrar Capon, in one of his books, says that when humans try to describe God we are like a bunch of oysters trying to describe a ballerina. Yet, it was in the struggling with this issue, that the early church determined and articulated the defining understanding of God by which we as Christians find our very own identity, because we are made in the image of God, we find our identity in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

What this doctrine says, I am certain you have heard this before, there is one God in whom there are three forms or ‘persons’ for lack of a better word, these three forms share one ‘substance’. According to this doctrine, God has a name that helps us understand these ‘persons’—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are many analogies running around to help explain this. For example you have heard the analogy of the egg which has three parts but is one egg or the water analogy. Demonstrate water analogy. But in the end all are the oyster and ballerina explanations.

The Trinity always offers us, like those who came before us, much more thought than any of us can fully understand. Yet, giving a good go at it is the Gospel reading today from John which continues the Farewell Discourse, from which the Gospel readings from the past several Sunday’s was taken so in many ways we are continuing the same discussion we have been having for several weeks about the nature of the relationship among the Trinity. Jesus, in this discourse, has much to say and little time before he departs to the Father. Here he is assuring the disciples that the Holy Spirit will communicate in such a way as to point people to the ‘Trinity.’  “All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” God the Father is said to have all that belongs to Jesus the Son, and the Son is said to have all that belongs to the Father, and the Spirit, the Spirit of Truth takes what belongs to the Son, which also belongs to the Father, and declares it to the disciples.

John sees the work of Jesus and the Spirit to be one and the same because the Spirit, much like Jesus, is sent from the Father and it abides within the community teaching the community about the ways of Jesus, which were all about the works of God. The Spirit functions as the presence of Jesus for the new Church after his death and resurrection as the ongoing teacher in the life of the church. You may be thinking right now enough of this doctrine stuff please, let’s leave it to the theologians. Yet, it is good for us who are made in God’s image to re-remember why this doctrine is important because at our baptism we get the three in one, we get the whole Trinity. It is the work of the Spirit in our lives that provides clarity about all that Jesus said and did which are the works of God, and then empowers us to go about this work in our world.

If the Church throughout the ages had just sat back and did not take seriously the work of God in the world, through the help of the Holy Spirit, the Church could have died. We are no different today. Future generations are counting on us also. When we think back on the original members who started Annunciation, I’m sure their vision was for the future. They wanted a church for their children and grandchildren. They worked hard to build up the body of Christ here in Vidalia, GA. If we sit back and do nothing we run the risk that eventually the church will not be here tomorrow for our children and grandchildren. We have to be about expressing our experience of God to others, so that others will come to know this God of love; a God that expresses that love, that relationship of the Trinity in our lives in so many different ways and seeks to be in relationship with us through our spirits.

It is God’s Spirit that speaks to our spirit and our spirit which in prayer and praise speaks back to God. In psalm 8, we read of King David bursting forth in praise as he gazes upon the vast splendor of the heavens God created. God has made human beings little less than angels in order for us to care for all things under heaven. Like David, we stand in amazement of a God who creates the heavens and who is also mindful of humanity. This psalm is another example of singing what our minds cannot quite grasp; a beloved psalm of praise to the mystery of God’s holiness. Mysteries that evoke wonder instead of explanations. We cannot fully comprehend how God is three in one, yet our God calls us to believe and chooses to be known through a relationship with us. This is the mystery of the Trinity and through the power of the Spirit we believe in the mystery that calls us to burst forth in prayer and praise expressing our experience of God in our words and in our lives.

Paul, in his letter to the Romans, reminds us that God came into the world in the person of Jesus Christ and through our faith we discover God’s faithfulness in loving us always. This love of God “has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” God as a community of the Trinity assures us that we can love and be loved. We see this love and care of God in Jesus who, hours before his death, explains the significance of this to his disciples by speaking about the work of the Spirit: “He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. As Jesus revealed God in his life, death and resurrection, it is now the Holy Spirits task to take what Jesus revealed and manifest it through us.

On this Trinity Sunday, we speak of the wondrous union of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and while three ‘persons’ is the mystery of the Trinity and our hearts sing of things we cannot truly understand, its ok. It’s ok because the Spirit of Truth has been given to us….all of God is given to us in the Spirit who comes to live in us to guide us, to teach us and to send us out in the image of the Triune God. So let our song be today with all creation Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Blessed Trinity.