May has truly been a wonderful
month here at BPC with 7 wonderful young ladies confirmed as new members, and last week’s heritage celebration; so there
has been much to celebrate. Today is a little different; today is Trinity Sunday,
a Sunday that is often overlooked for many different reasons. How much can really
be said about the Trinity?
This Sunday is a culmination of everything we
celebrate every week. The trinity is often an idea that gets so confused and
complicated that we aren’t able to see the wonder and the joy in it. For
just as I ask each confirmation class, how can one thing be three things, while still being one thing? But the beauty of it is that God didn’t just create, God didn’t just sacrifice, God didn’t
just guide, God has done, is doing, and will continue to do all three. And that
is what it all comes down to.
That the God who created the heavens and the
earth, the God who sent his only son for us, the God who came as a mighty rushing wind, is the God we talk to in the quiet
hours of the night. The God we call upon when the world seems to be falling down
around us. The God we welcome at Christmas, and mourn over on Maundy Thursday,
the God we rejoice with on Easter, and the God we study and reflect on every day; all the same God.
It is this combination that often makes the idea
of the trinity difficult to understand. For the term it self is not Biblical,
but instead it is a term that came about from trying to understand this God of ours and how God has interacted with the world. Many see this idea of the trinity as a polytheistic one, where they disconnect one
from the other and are left with three separate gods. This is obviously not the
case.
As we look at the way in which we have come to
know our God, the ways that God has interacted with the world, we begin at the beginning with creation. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth; the earth was a formless void and darkness
covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then
God said, “Let there be light;” and there was light. And God saw
that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called
the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there
was morning, the first day.”
Through creation, we know that God created the
world not because God had to, but because God wanted to. God loved creation before
it was created; love led to creation, love for what would be. Perhaps much like
a gardener who prepares for a planting season, hope in what might grow, love for what you are growing and joy when growth
begins. To truly appreciate creation every element of it needs to be looked at
with an eye of, this was created by our God. Each and every thing we see in nature
was created distinct and different, just like each one of us. We each are as
different and unique as the flowers in the meadow and the fish in the sea. And
our Psalm reminds us of this greatness, “What are human beings that you should be mindful of them?”
The amazing truth is that God is mindful of us,
we were created out of love and it was through that love that God sent his only son so that we might have life and live it
fully. The second head of the trinity, the son.
God’s word became flesh and dwelt among us. As we hear from John:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He
was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without
him not one thing came into being. What has come into being; in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it…The true
light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children
of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen
his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth…From his fullness we have all received,
grace upon grace. The law indeed
was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close
to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.”
It is through the life of Christ that the Word
of God came among us. The son was sent so that humans would have a greater understanding
of God, a God of love; a God who would come among creation to give them new hope, a hope full of grace. We spend a great deal of time, rightly so, talking about Christ and the saving love of Christ’s sacrifice
for each and every one of us. Through Christmas, we hear how Christ entered this
world, as an infant, needing others to care for every aspect of his life. We
read how he grew and began teaching and sharing God’s love with the world. Christ
gathered disciples and taught from mountaintops and by the lakeside. We know
how Jesus tried to ready those around him for his eventual death and that it would mean something so much greater in the end. We rejoice on Easter as we remember that Christ conquered death and walked among us
again.
And even more Christ shared a little bit more
with us, he shared that another would be sent, God’s Spirit. “The
LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were
no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth— when he
had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first bits of soil. When
he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress
his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily
his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.”
As we celebrated last Sunday, God’s Holy
Spirit was received on the day of Pentecost as a mighty rushing wind. But what
we hear in this scripture is that the holy spirit was always present, from the beginning, just as God the creator, God the
son were present as the world was created. One did not come from the other but
all were one together. God always intended to remain a part of creation. The Holy Spirit is how we understand, through the guidance of God’s spirit we
are able to understand God’s word, experience creation and feel that peace that surpasses all understanding.
The most important question that can be asked
in seeking to understand the big idea of the trinity is to ask yourself, how did you first truly encounter your God? What was that one moment that made everything click or that opened your eyes to a
new and deeper understanding? Perhaps you saw a leaf grow out of a bud and thought
wow, God truly is present through creation. Or maybe you experienced a Christmas
pageant or heard an Easter sermon that made the life and death and resurrection of Christ come alive for you. Maybe you encountered God when coming to the table or the birth of a child, or while witnessing the peaceful
passing of a loved one.
We are all so different, so of course the way
we experience God is different. God didn’t just enter this world and leave
it, God didn’t just send Christ to dwell among us and not follow through; God didn’t just come as a mighty rushing
wind without letting us know what it was all about. God created and continues
to create, God loved and continues to love, God was among us and still dwells with us.
God didn’t just create the world and leave it, God continues to create, love and guide us in all and through
all we do.
Trinity is just another word for love. God so loved the world that he not only created it and sent his son, but God continues to enjoy creation. Each of the expressions of God existed in the beginning, one didn’t follow the
other, they were all there at creation together, for they are all God, they make up the God we know, it is through these expressions
that we come to know our God more fully and deeply so that we might follow the commands we were given. To love the Lord your God with all of your heart, strength and mind; and to love your neighbor as you would
want to be loved.
One final scripture today to bring it all together,
“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have
obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance
produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
A passage that brings all parts of the trinity
together. How the three work together as one, being one. That through God’s spirit, within us we can withstand all with the peace of God through Jesus Christ. God’s saving, redeeming, and loving grace transcends all and can be experienced
in many different ways through the creativity of the God who created us all.
Although a complicated idea, when it comes down
to the basic idea, God so loved the world that God made sure we couldn’t miss God in this world. Through the beauty and discovery of creation; the sacrificial unconditional love, and grace of Christ’s
example; or through the overpowering presence of God’s spirit amongst us. We
can’t miss God at work in this world. When you put all the ways that God
has let us experience God in this world, the evidence for God’s love for us allows us to experience our God wherever
we might have been, currently are, and our headed towards.
So remember, in the beginning God created, God’s
word was present, and the spirit of God inspired. And in this moment, God is
still creating, God’s word is still alive and the spirit of God is with us. Even
better, tomorrow, there will be new creation, God’s word will be heard and the spirit of God will continue to guide
us in all that we do.
As we take our thoughts and questions out from
here today, try to see God in three persons, blessed trinity. For wherever you
look, whoever you encounter, what you experience, God will be there, ready to be experienced, and through all, loving us as
God’s own special and unique creation, having received grace and continuing to be transformed into a new creation through
the presence of the holy spirit.
