Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
May 27, 2018
Trinity Sunday
My brother, sister, and I have been going through thousands
of family photos lately. My sister has
done the bulk of the work, sorting photos into piles, packing them up and sending
them off to various friends and relatives. I fear that we will soon be like the
people who grow vast quantities of zucchini and drop the vegetable off on
peoples’ porches, ring the bell and run.
We’ll just be dealing in photos, not zucchini. But those photos remind us of the larger
story to which we belong and all the people with whom we are connected. We remember grandparents and aunts and uncles
and the impact they had on our lives. We
remember our connection with relatives who came before us and died long before
we were born, but whose traits we continue to carry. We remember family gatherings where we played
with cousins we rarely saw, or neighborhood picnics that brought a diversity of
people together for a shared meal.
Stories are part of the way we make sense of who we are in this world,
and photos tell wonderful stories.
Scripture also tells such stories. In the liturgical year, we have traveled through
Advent as we prepared for the arrival of the Christ child. Epiphany is next
with the arrival of the Magi to meet the child Jesus and the season following
in which we hear about the early ministry of Jesus. Then we journey through Lent in preparation
for Easter, the glorious celebration of the resurrection which lasts 50 days
until Pentecost. Last Sunday, we
celebrated Pentecost and marked the descent of the Holy Spirit on the
disciples. So, now our story includes
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, or God the Creator, God
the Redeemer, and God the Sustainer and today we arrive at Trinity Sunday. On Trinity Sunday, we proclaim our belief in
one God in three persons as revealed in Scripture.
If Scripture would just explain how one God can be three
persons, then perhaps we could actually understand the Trinity. But nowhere in Scripture do we find an
explanation for the way one God can simultaneously be Father and Son and Holy Spirit,
or as Augustine put it, Lover, Beloved, and Love. What Scripture does give us are stories, and
this morning we hear two great ones. We
hear the story of Isaiah’s vision in the temple, complete with special effects
worthy of George Lucas. God’s presence is
huge, awesome, and perhaps somewhat frightening. At the end of the story, God asks “Whom shall
I send and who will go for us?” And
Isaiah replies “Here I am, send me.” Our
reading ends with those lovely words, but truth in preaching requires me to
tell you that what comes next is not pleasant.
What God is sending Isaiah to do is tell God’s people how far they have
strayed from being the people God made them to be and preach their impending
destruction.
We also hear the story of Nicodemus this morning. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night trying to
figure out who Jesus is. “Rabbi, we know
that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs
that you do apart from the presence of God.”
Jesus tells Nicodemus that in order to see the Kingdom of God, he must
be born from above by water and the Spirit.
In contrast to Isaiah’s language where God is huge and awesome, Jesus
uses the intimate language of childbirth to describe our relationship to
God. Nicodemus never does get a straight
answer to his question, but in this story we do get a reference to God, Jesus,
and the Spirit, along with perhaps the most well-known passage of Scripture: ““For
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes
in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
Our stories this morning are just a small sample of the
stories of Scripture that tell us about our God who, by God’s very nature, has
always been in relationship as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit even before
creation, and about the God who is both distant and near. God may be other worldly in Isaiah, but God
needs Isaiah to deliver God’s message to the people. God needed Isaiah just as God needs us to do
God’s work in the world. The reading
from Romans is not a story as Paul was not much of a story-teller. But Paul reminds us that the Spirit working
within us allows us to call God “Abba” and makes us children of God, to be in
relationship with God in that familial way.
And the story of Nicodemus, as confusing as that story might be, gives
us a picture of the intimate relationship God wants with us and God’s desire
that we be in relationship with God forever.
In the creation story in Genesis 1, we are told that humans are made in
the image of the God. On Trinity Sunday,
we are reminded that the God in whose image we are made has been in
relationship since before creation. By
our very nature, we are created to live in relationship with God and each other
in a way that makes us one as the three parts of the Trinity are one.
Into this story and this relationship, Violet Harvey will
be baptized this morning. The story of
God and God’s people becomes Violet’s story, and we, as Violet’s church, will
promise to help Violent make sense of that story. Violet will learn about the way God calls us
to be in relationship with God and the whole human family by the way we keep
the Baptismal Covenant we renew this morning.
When we continue in the breaking of bread and the prayers, when we
repent and return when we sin, when we proclaim the gospel in word and action,
work for justice and peace, and respect the dignity of every human being, we
live like people who know we made in the image of God who is relationship. The way we live our lives tells Violet and the
world the story of the God who makes us one as the God in whose image we are made
is one.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment