Homily for Trinity Sunday

Rev. Tommy Thompson

Trinity Sunday, Year C 2010

30 May 2010

The great fifty days of Easter have been a true gift this year. We’ve journeyed together from resurrection to ascension and from ascension to pentecost. I celebrate the new creation that continues to grow around us as we faithfully celebrate the good news of Easter. But all good things eventually come to an end...well, not really, as the ultimate good will never end, but you know what I mean. The great fifty days are now over...at least until next year.

But why the white and gold you ask? If Easter is over, why not green? Don’t we need a bit of a rest after all that celebrating?

Because Easter has been leading us somewhere. Jesus death, resurrection, ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost are not ends in themsevels...instead they open a new door for us, and indeed a new door needed to be opened.

Our lives were characterized by sinfulness...ill-being. We became obsessed with ourselves. Rather than living out the mission that we were given in our creation, our mission became the mission of those annoying birds in the movie Finding Nemo: “Mine, mine, mine, mine...” Our slogan became: It’s all about me. We learned to serve a new but unholy Trinity: me, myself, and I.

Jesus death and resurrection...his ascension to the Father’s right hand...the sending of the Holy Spirit...all this is God’s response to the mess we got ourselves in. God is putting the world to rights...the one that we distorted through sinfulness. That’s what we’ve been celebrating the last eight Sundays.

And today we begin a new season with white rather than green because today we are invited to preview what lies behind the door that the triune activity of the Easter season has opened for us.

And what do we see when we crack open the door and peek our heads inside? We see the life of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our original home...the space where a place has been prepared for us...the world’s true future.

But this life is so different than the life we’ve learned to live in sin. This life is not a life of “mine, mine, mine...” It is not the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I. Instead, it is the life of ultimate love. power expressed in loving humility, not pride. selflessness, not selfishness. other centered, not self-centered. Through Easter, the door is opened for us and it reveals the truth of our God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, yet one God.

We were not accustomed to seeing anything like this...a multiplicity of persons unified perfectly in love so that they are one. A world that has been torn apart by division and war cannot understand how this could be, but it is. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...three distinct persons unified perfectly in love.

Can you hear the music when you crack open the door? God is like a great fugue, where there are two or more melodic lines in two or more voices which is moving us somewhere...from exposition, to development to recapitulation. All the melodies working together, sharing the same subject or theme, alternating differing ways of presenting the same theme...just one of the lines wouldn’t make much sense by itself...but all together they present one beautiful and dynamic musical composition.

God’s life is like the fugue. The three persons do everything together, alternating back and forth, presenting the same life of love...which is why the Son says he only does the work of His Father and the Spirit is revealed as only speaking what He hears and the Father says, “Listen to Him!”. The three persons, like the melodic lines, do not work apart from one another, that’s impossible, they’re that inseparable! And the life revealed is the order of beauty, of life, of love--the kind of order that God intends for all that He has created.

The door Easter has opened for us has revealed the right way of being: The Father, Son and Spirit live in a life of constant giving and receiving from the other and into the other. Each person emptying himself into the other and receiving the fullness of the other and that constantly. The result of such loving interconnectedness is fruitfulness, new life springs into existence without ceasing.

Brothers and sisters, when Jesus took our humanity upon himself in the incarnation and then sat down at the right hand of the Father in our flesh in the ascension, we entered this life. The Spirit was poured out upon us so that effects of the Son’s work on our behalf might come to fruition in our lives and the disease of sin’s working in our lives might be cured!

The door of God’s life has been opened for us so that we might be healed from the disease of sin and join God’s mission by revealing the triune life to the world through the way we live life together in triune community. The early Christians got this. They didn’t have to put on huge programs to attract people from the outside...the pastor didn’t have to preach from the roof...they didn’t have to sacrifice the worship of God for the entertainment of people. No these early Christians had something that sinful human beings wanted...the church possessed the food and drink that was the ultimate hunger and thirst of every human being in God’s created world: the life of the triune God.

The early church grew not because they had the best options for the children or the most interesting small groups for the adults. No the early church grew because they had a sense of believing, behaving, and belonging that drew the world to itself.

I have always been amazed by Acts 2.42-47 which reads: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

Devotion to the life of God through worship led to a holy awe coming upon everyone...but what stands out as much as anything in this passage of Scripture is that “they had the goodwill of all the people.” The togetherness and other-centeredness of this first Christian community resulted in much fruitfulness for the kingdom of God. Living signs of the new creation were all over the place. This is the natural result of living in triune community. Fruitfulness is inevitable.

Brothers and sisters, times have changed but God has not. The call of God on our lives this day is to abandon all the programs and shows we put on that calls folks to anything other than the triune life of God!

The mission of the baptized is to reveal this life to God’s world by living this life together.

As we die with Christ in baptism, we rise with Him to the place where he ascended and joined our humanity: the right hand of the Father...In the Spirit, we are with the Son at the Father’s right hand. We experience the vibrancy of this interconnected life of self-giving and other receiving love. And when the world looks at us they experience a sense of believing, behaving, and belonging like they’ve never known before...it is the drink that will quench their ultimate thirst and the food that will satisfy their deepest hunger.

Brothers and sisters, we are connected with the life that brought forth the universe...we are connected with the life whose love has set us free. May we go into the world and live in such a way that God’s children are welcomed into God’s saving embrace.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen.