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Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20; 2 Corinthians

Someone said, “Any preacher with any sense would call in sick on Trinity Sunday.” Well, it is possible that I don’t have any sense. Or, I like a challenge. Who knows? Hopefully, God….

By the year 320, a fierce theological passion seized the churches of Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor about the nature of God. This controversy continued for years, beyond the formation of the Nicene Creed, formed because the emperor was insisting on an official Christian doctrine. It was a long and complicated controversy that I cannot begin to explain, and hardly understand myself. The church of the East, the Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox Church has been much more satisfied with the mystical and spiritual and inspiring experience of the trinity. We Western Christians are very talkative, wanting to rely on a logical and intellectual explanation. The Trinity is a baffling thing because it has no logic. It makes no sense. It is incomprehensible. The church of the East sees the Trinity as a poem or a theological dance, something to be contemplated rather than understood. We are the Church of the West that tries to imagine three divine figures, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or else we ignore the doctrine altogether.

The Trinity is: God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or God: the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, or God: the Purpose, Presence, and Power. The three in one and one in three and I’m not talking about the Three Muskateers. I’m talking about God who is one in three, three kinds of relationships, three faces, three ways of being in the world—one God. The trinity is our traditional way of saying that God is beyond absolute understanding. God is an unfathomable mystery. God is not to be totally defined or confined in words or images.

So since about the fourth century, we have had the term Trinity. And within the Trinity is the story of God the creator, redeemer, sustainer. With God as Creator, we recall the God of Israel, creator of the universe, who gathered a people in holy covenant, who bound them together by name and sacrifice and the prophetic word. We have God of the Exodus, who liberated the Hebrews, parted the Red Sea, and led them through the wilderness into the promised land. We have God, the giver of the law, the Ten Commandments and the holiness codes. For hundreds of years, God shaped and molded these people of God’s covenant. For these people, the name of God is so holy, that they do not even utter God’s name.

In the Trinity we tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth, the son of God, the Word that became flesh, born to and into God’s people. Jesus was prophet, teacher, healer, bearer of the message of the Kingdom of God, redeemer. Jesus confronted the people of Israel with a love that was revolutionary and radical, a love that demanded new garments and new wineskins, discipleship, death and rebirth, a love and message so intolerable and threatening that he was executed as a common criminal. In the person Jesus, we realize that God is compassionate, merciful, loving, and on the other side of every boundary. God was incarnate in Jesus with the Samaritan woman, the little children, the prisoner. And Jesus was so immersed with God, that for us to follow Jesus is for us to live immersed with God, too. And in the end, out of the apparent failure of Jesus’ life, came a new, even stronger presence. On the third day, Jesus rose again, and so must we. An ordinary moment of time turned Christian, turned salvific, turned new. Resurrection struck failure to the core through Jesus.

In the trinity, we also tell the story of the Holy Spirit, the divine breath that moved over the waters of chaos in the very beginning of creation, who spoke through Moses and the prophets, who anointed Jesus to minister to all people. It was this spirit that was poured out upon the community of faith at Pentecost, giving birth to a new movement, a new community who came to call themselves Christian. The Spirit embodies the life force of the universe, the power of God, the animating energy present in all things and captured by none. Because of the Spirit, Jesus is not gone and God is not distant. It’s the Spirit that moves us to new heights of understanding, new types of witness, new dimensions of life. The Spirit of God is a wild thing, breathing where it will, moving as it pleases, settling on women, men, children. The Spirit is the living wisdom of God that lifts us above ourselves. It comes upon us with gentle force or terrible consciousness. The Spirit is God with us, in us, around us, breathing us to life.

The Trinity is about the relationship of God in the world. We have a passionate, affectionate, loving, delightful, redeeming, grace-filled, sustaining, creative God. The very essence and nature of God is relationship. God is not only present here with us right now. God is out there circulating around our neighborhood. God is at work in the world.

I often get emails from different people, (family members as well as my wide range of friends) about their concern that we have forced God out of our schools and our government because our laws do not allow prayer in schools or the posting of The Ten Commandments. Well, I’m here to tell you that God has never left the schools or the government or the world. We church people do not have a monopoly on God. Nor do the religious conservatives or the progressive evangelicals or the liberals. God is passionate about the world and all of humanity and all of creation, and we, the church, have the privilege of participating in God’s passion. It is God’s mission to restore and transform the world. It is the church’s mission to share in God’s mission. It is also God’s mission to restore and transform the church, continually, and that’s us, you and me, so that we are vital and dynamic and alive and relevant.

God’s mission is to restore and transform us. I often wonder what God’s mission is for me at this time in my life. This is the question we all need to ask ourselves. What is God calling me to do as your pastor? What is God calling me to be as a member of the Hillsboro community, as a parent, as a friend, as a member of what ever board or coalition I’m serving on?

First and foremost, I believe that God wants me to be myself—as wholly and fully as possible. That means being awake, aware and alive! And darn it, I’m not perfect and I can’t do everything. Thank you, Jesus, that I’m not perfect and I can’t do everything. Because if I were, you would have nothing to laugh about and you would have nothing to do either.

My call into the ordained ministry was strong and clear. God knew I needed that because, even though I do not give up easily and I will finish what I started, I am a big time doubter and skeptic. I am absolutely amazed that I am your pastor at times and tell God that regular. I say, God, what were you thinking of anyway? Me, a pastor? You’ve got to be joking. I’m not serious enough. I’m not reverent enough. I’m not smart enough. I’m not…. Oh, I have a whole list of “I’m not enoughs.” It’s been my mantra through life. And you know what, I believe God is calling me to wake up to myself and realize, with God, I am enough. I am enough—not by myself—but with all of you, with all my friends, my family, my community, and God. No one is enough by themselves. God is not even enough by God’s self. God needs us, inhabits us, calls us, nudges us to be awake, aware and alive. If we can be that in the world and with each other—Oh my gosh, would the Spirit be present and powerful everywhere we go. Because the Spirit is present and powerful everywhere we go. It’s about being awake, aware, and alive to the Spirit.

Recently, I’ve talked about being spiritual and not religious. I’ve talked about sharing our secret, which is not a secret at all, with the world. In other words, talk about what God is doing in your life. Well, I’m going to expand on this just a little, getting back to the church not having a monopoly on God. Because religious people don’t have a monopoly on God either. All over the place, we can see that God is at work through all kinds of people. There are many stories in the Bible about God working God’s purpose through pagan people, the gentiles, the unclean, people that we do not expect God to work through. God even worked through the King of a foreign nation, to bring the exiled home. If we are awake, aware, and alive in the world—we will see that and experience that and be able to share in that. It is not an us and them world in God’s eyes. We all have friends and family who do not go to church—but that doesn’t mean that God is not active in their lives. We need to remember that. And you know what, it can open the door to a conversation, just a conversation, a connection, a relationship. Not because we want them to come to our church, although that would be nice. But because God truly does call us to be alive, aware, and awake to each other. We may have the words that they are searching for. They may have the experience we are yearning for.

We live in a place where there is more opportunity that most anywhere else, in our country, to talk with people who are wondering about deep things, spiritual things, but are afraid to talk about them. We United Methodists are not scary people to talk to about these things. We don’t want to convert people, or fix them, or drag them to church. We are people who believe in grace. God’s grace that is already at work in every one and all of creation, all the time. We call it prevenient grace. Before we do anything at all, God loves us. There’s absolutely nothing we can do about that. So, knowing that, and believing that, we don’t need to go out and save souls. That’s God’s work. That’s God’s mission. We just need to be open to talking, sharing our story in such a way that invites them to share their story. Heck, it probably means we need to listen without interrupting, before we talk. When the last time you remember doing that—just listening?

So, then, how does this relate to the Trinity? Well, the Trinity is about how God relates to us, the church, and in the whole world. God is in the world despite the church. God, is the father, son, and Holy Spirit as purpose, presence and power. Imagine the church feeling that purpose, presence and power as well. Imagine you and me feeling that purpose, presence and power. Not to go out and convert the masses, to save souls, but to restore and re-vitalize ourselves by connecting with God who is already out there. Maybe I sound a little heretical. I hope so. Because we, the church have lorded over the world long enough. We need to be humble. We need to connect. We need to be open to learning. We need to know that our salvation is not confined within these walls. Our salvation is out there as we connect with what God is already doing. Thanks be to God, our creator, redeemer and sustain.

Amen.