O Trinity of Love and Light

Genesis 1:1-2, 26-27 p1

When God began creating the heavens and the earth,2the 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. 26 Then God said “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have stewardship of the fish in the sea, and of the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing upon the earth. So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God, God created them; male and female God created them.




Matthew 28:16-20 p 812
16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.17When they saw Jesus, they worshiped him; but some doubted.18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”




This day, in the church calendar, is called Trinity Sunday. It is the only day in the church year that celebrates a doctrine, a theological idea or theorem. And, one I suppose, that many of us care little about. Today will come and go- and we will still have bills to pay, and sick children to take care of, and a spouse we worry about. Our loved ones will serve overseas, our physical pain will continue, the grass will still need to be mowed, the laundry need to be done. The doctrine of the Trinity—or any doctrine, for that matter, seems at best far away, something academicians talk about in ivory towers, but having very little to do with our every day lives.
And yet—and yet—the doctrine of the Trinity, the notion of a God so large, so awe inspiring, so overwhelming that one description of God is not enough, that mere language is not enough—is a notion of comfort, a way to explain- just a little- the mystery of overflowing love.
But what IS useful for us is the idea that God IS community- and that God, in God’s own self, demonstrates how to be community. And the community we are talking about is, of course, the church.
In Genesis, in the beginning--- God. When God began creating, God breathes and speaks, sees and creates. And God speaks in plural: “Let us make God in our image” God says. And this is a part of our understanding of Trinity- that God is plural, even before we have language to think about it, talk about it. At the beginning, even before the beginning, God is already community. This God of community and mystery is a relational God who loves, and in loving, chooses to create, redeem, and sustain creation, regardless of the ability of different parts of creation to respond in particular ways.
And this God loves us, and loves creation: “it is good”, God says. And this passage uses the name for God, Elohim – a plural form—in three different ways: in verse 1, Elohim is creating- out of nothing! In verse 2, the wind, or spirit or breath of Elohim is hovering, and in verse 4, Elohim is seeing and naming- that creation is good.
James Weldon Johnson was an African American poet, author and hymn writer. He wrote “Lift every voice and Sing”, which is in our hymn book. He also wrote a poem called The Creation, which begins “And God stepped out on space. Then he looked around and said—I’m lonely—I’ll make me a world.”
Now, I do not doubt Mr. Johnson’s talent or his place in history. But I disagree with him here. It is not loneliness which causes God to create—it is pure, overflowing love—the same way that the waters spill out of the pitcher and font and land on the floor every Sunday, the same way that light spills from the skies and illuminates everything in its path, the same way that having another child doesn’t mean you have less love, it just means there is more love to go around—God, the Triune God, the already community God, had so much love that God just had to share—with creation and with us.
If you have been in the Lodi historical society building, the old Lodi Methodist church, perhaps you have noticed a small stained glass window. The window is triangular in shape, in which a smaller, rounded off triangle is depicted in stained glass- and the three points of the triangle are the Latin words for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the middle of the triangle is the word Deus- God. Linking each of the points of the triangle are the words, in Latin, for “is not” the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, etc- but all three persons are linked, like spokes on a bicycle wheel, in the middle to the word God. And all of those links have the word “is”- the Son IS God, the Holy Spirit IS God, the Father IS God. And while this is technically correct, doctrinally correct, it seems to me like a math theorem.
There are many ways, many images for God as Trinity: Water: overflowing font, living water, flowing river. Rock, Cornerstone and Temple. St Augustine used a living tree: the root is wood, the branch is wood, the trunk is wood- all are wood, all are different, all are inextricably linked in a mutual life.
But I like the image of a dancing God best.
One of the images for the Trinity is the idea of a circle dance-perichoresis, the same word that we get choreography from. And in that image, God in Three persons is dancing—intertwined, arms linked, feet moving joyously in a dance of freedom and love. When our boys were little, and Jim would finally get home from long hours at work, and a long commute on the Thruway, the boys would say jump around and yell “family hug, family hug!” And Jim and I would hug, and then boost the boys up on our arms—my image if the Trinity is something like that—that we are all linked together.
The Gospel of Matthew ends with the words of Jesus. The portion we heard this morning is called the Great Commission. And I don’t think that there were many hugs on that mountaintop that morning—maybe just grabbing onto each other in fear. This is the first time the disciples have seen Jesus, since they abandoned him, since they fled during his arrest. There are only 11 disciples mentioned, so the community has already experienced trauma and betrayal and death—and resurrection. The disciples are still shell shocked. The women had come running from the tomb, that Easter morning, and told the men what they had been told: go to Galilee, because Jesus will meet you there…the whole community, went to Galilee- about 70 or 80 miles…to wait for Jesus. What will he say to them? How much shame are they bearing, having to see Jesus again, face to face? And when the disciples see Jesus, they worship…but some doubt….literally, they are of two minds—and Jesus appears to them.
This I think, if one of the best descriptions of the church I have ever seen, the community of faith, made up of disparate people, some of whom have heard the words of the resurrected Jesus, some of whom have heard the other’s description of that event, all of whom are on a journey—of two minds- worshipping and doubting at the same time, marked by grief and death—and receiving the gracious words of Jesus, words of power and resurrection and of comfort.
Jesus is not shaming them, Jesus is not reproaching them. Jesus is giving them work to do. Jesus is giving them their marching orders- Go- Go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching. And remember, I am with you—always. Immanuel- God with us.
And as the community of faith, we can look to that moment, that God on the mountaintop, and see what kind of community the Triune God calls us to be:
We have work to do
God calls us to that work, whether we are screw-ups, or have failures in our life, for surely we do, or whether we doubt or worship or are of two minds, or any of the above- God calls us.
We are to do so without recriminations, without backbiting, with love- because that is what Jesus commands: we are to go and teach others , baptizing, making disciples of every nation, teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you- and what is that command? Love. Mutual love, upbuilding love, respectful love- the love that the Trinity, God in God’s own self, displays. Love that does not override someone else, but love in which all participants are joined- as in a circle dance—and separate and distinct, equal and equally loving, in relationship with each other and with God.
“We cannot speak of this God without recognizing that Trinity is not an optional “extra” to God, but is the very nature of God as revealed to us in Scripture. To lose the vocabulary of the Trinity is to miss out on a full understanding of who God is,” Charles Wiley writes.
Rodger Nishioka, this past week, at Montreat Youth Conference, said to over 1600 youth- “You cannot be a Christian by yourself”. We need each other. In the same way that the Three-ness of God is essential to who God is, the community-ness of the church is essential to who the church is. I have heard many times since we’ve moved up here- “you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian” and I agree, going to church does not make you a Christian, as they say, anymore than being in the garage makes you a car. But I can’t imagine how one could be a Christian without a community—because I find the work of being a Christian so hard, that I need others who are on the journey with me.
The Trinitarian God points to the relational nature of our lives. God in three persons is a relational idea- the three persons of the Trinity relate to each other in divine love. Each person of the Trinity has a distinct identity and yet all are connected and linked. Surely this means that just as love characterizes the eternal Trinity, so love should characterize our lives as a community of faith as well.

May we be shelter for each other, as we go out, making disciples, baptizing, teaching. May we reflect the Triune God in our common life together. May we be community, in the way God is community. In the name of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.