Trinity Sunday Sermon

In the name of God our father, Jesus our brother and the Holy
Spirit our guide and companion.

“Christians are, in their practical life, almost mere ‘monotheists.’
We must be willing to admit that, should the doctrine of the
Trinity have to be dropped as false, the major part of religious
literature could well remain virtually unchanged.” So wrote Karl
Rahner, German Jesuit and major influence of the Roman Catholic Second Vatican Council, in his 1999 classic study The Trinity.

This is still true twenty plus years later. My friend, Julie, after reading in the parish newsletter of my preaching today, was moved to say that it was good that I was going to clear up the
three persons in one God. I must sadly disappoint her and possibly some of you. The mystery of three persons in one God is exactly that, a mystery. That does not mean that there is nothing to be learned from that mystery, however.

Five or six years ago I set out on a mission to understand the Trinity. As I stand before you I am a little more enlightened but far from understanding all that is the Trinity. I have learned a number of things that I think are helpful in living peacefully in the crazy times we are experiencing. I hope to impart some of the that discovery with you. Let me set out by saying that my best guides
through my investigation were Fr. Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell and Cynthia Bourgeault. Rohr and Morrell are infinity more understandable than Bourgeault but she is way out front in the complexities of the Trinity. I first heard Fr. Rohr and Rev. Bourgeault speak about the Trinity in a taped seminar they presented in New Mexico. My spiritual director at the time loaned me the tapes to listen to on vacation. Those tapes are out of print but I highly recommend the books written by Rohr with Morrell and by Bourgeault on the Trinity.

The Trinity is well founded in scripture. Abraham and Sarah are visited by God in the personages of three angels. Jesus makes reference to his Father in heaven and that he is the Human One, the Son of God. Jesus also makes many references to the Holy Spirit who will be with us to the end of the world. Paul in his letter to the Romans that we heard read this morning makes reference to Father, Abba, and Spirit in describing the Son’s Jesus’, lessons to those who would follow him.

Let me read to you that same passage from Common English
Bible:

“So then, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it
isn’t an obligation to ourselves to live our lives on the basis
of selfishness. If you live on the basis of selfishness you are
going to die. But if you put to death the actions of the body
with the Spirit, you will live. All who are led by God’s Spirit
are God’s sons and daughters. You didn’t receive a spirt of
slavery to lead you back again into fear, but you received a
Spirit that shows you are adopted as his children. With this

Spirit, we cry ‘Abba, Father.’ The same Spirit agrees with
our spirit that we are God’s children. But if we are children,
we are also heirs. We are God’s heirs and fellow heirs with
Christ, if we really suffer with him so that we can also be
glorified with him”

Sounds a lot different without all that fleshy business doesn’t it? “Obligation to ourselves” and “selfishness” strike home a lot harder than “debtors to the flesh”. And note that the Spirit leads us to cry Abba to the Father and we become joint heirs with Christ. I think Paul and Jesus clearly expect us to understand that there are three persons in God.

Now how that works is not within the skills of this simple Christian standing before you. That it works is something I would like to address. We say authoritatively that God is love. Think about that for a second. Love is a relationship word. Heather and Molly in their last couple of sermons have talked about the relational directives Jesus imparted to his followers in John’s
Gospel regarding his final instruction to them. Even if I say I love my pet rock which does not appear to be able to love me back, I need the two of us, me and my pet rock, to have a love relationship. So if God is one person, how can God be Love? God, as love, should be two persons and if two why not three.

Russian monk and Iconographer Andrei Rublev created an icon of the Trinity in the fifteenth century. This is that icon. The original is still on display in the Tretyalov gallery in Moscow. In the icon you see three people sitting at a rectangular table. The faces appear to be essentially the same and they all face
generally toward the center of the table and each other. Each has a different color robe or sash. The figure on the left with the gold sash is said to be the Father. Rohr and Morrell explain that gold is the color of “perfection, fullness, wholeness, and the ultimate Source.” The figure in the center with the blue sash is said to be the Son. Rohr and Morrell say that Rublev used blue
as “both sea and sky mirroring one another — and therefore God in Christ taking on the world, taking on humanity.” The figure to 4 the right with the green sash is said to be the Spirit. Rublev, as cited by Rohr and Morrell, used green for the Spirit because it has “a quality of divine aliveness that makes everything blossom and bloom in endless shades of green.” The fourth side of the table is vacant and is closest to the viewer. The wine goblet that
appears the figure representing the Son is blessing, is closest to
the empty side of the table. The right hand of the figure representing the Spirit appears to be pointing to the vacant side of the table. There is a rectangle in the vacant seat at the table.

Let’s depart from Rublev for a second. Kenosis is a Greek word that is interpreted as self-emptying. We find this word in Paul’s letter to the Philippians Chapter 2 verses 5-11 where Paul says that Christ in the form of God emptied himself to become human. Fr. Rohr carries this idea further in one of his daily reflection.

“Kenosis, or self-emptying, is revealed in the Trinity. The  Cappadocian Fathers of the fourth century saw that God the Father, who is Love, completely empties God’s self into the Son; the Son empties into the Spirit; and the Spirit empties
into the Father. Incarnation flows from this kenosis that is inherent to God’s nature.”

Self-emptying is a tough word for those of us who live in the twenty first century. We are our own independent person. We don’t empty to anyone. But I think we do. I do in my relationship with my wife Charlie. I let her know all that is in me. My hopes, my fears, my sadness, my triumphs, my defeats . . . all that I am I give to her. I do the same to lesser degree to my closest and
dearest friends. So while we may not empty ourselves to many we do understand the concept.

With that in mind, consider Fr. Rohr’s words and Rublev’s image. God called Father empties his love into Jesus the son who empties his love into the Spirit who empties all that love into the Father. And on it goes. God, who is love, pours out love into a flow that circles all three persons of the Trinity. That is the picture I hope you see and hear in Rublev’s icon and this little fountain I
have here with me. One vessel empties into the next and all three are full and flowing.



Now comes the cool part of the Rublev icon. Do you see this little box? For those of you who cannot see it there is a little rectangle here in the front of the icon where a fourth seat might be. Art Historians have identified what they think is glue in that rectangle. They believe that a mirror was attached to that
rectangle so that when a person viewed the icon they would be there at the table with the Trinity and I would suggest in the flow of that love I was just describing to you. And you know what?
That spot was not reserved for any one person. It is there for all of us. It does not matter what color your skin is. It does not matter what religion you are. It does not matter how much money you make or where you live. There is a place at the table for you. And if you can see that all of creation has a place at that table, in that flow of love, you can figure out that all of us, even me and my pet rock are brothers and sisters in the sight of the Trinity.

The Trinity wants to dine with us. They invite us to join in the flow of God’s love at their table. As you will hear again later in this service, all are invited, no exceptions. Now just in case you think this is a sermon only for Trinity Sunday morning, in our church, right now let me tell you a story.

Dennis, Charlie and I have a friend on the streets of Greenfield who I will call Country for this tale. Country has been in the woods in a tent for the nine years I have known him and a whole bunch more. Like decades more. Country likes to drink a lot. He cares about folks who find themselves in the same position he is in so he takes them in for as long as they both can stand it and then they part company always to be friends of some sort. We care about Country and sometimes get him gloves or a jacket in the winter and socks all year round. The thing he values most is our acceptance of who he is no matter how he is. He knows how the rest of the world sees him and he is incredibly grateful for the openness with which we greet and accept him. It is that
flow from the circle over here that heads out into the world through Dennis, Charlie and I. A couple of months ago, out of the blue, Country stared over at us at Second Helpings and hollered out “I love you guys. You are like saints to us.” That stopped me dead. In all the years that I have known Country he
has alway shown respect but never any show of relationship.


That, my friends and fellow believers, is the flow of the Trinity coming back to the table.

As you head through your week give some thought to how you can channel the flow of the Trinity into our crazy mixed up world and I pray that you get to see it come rushing back to the circle.

Amen

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