Today is Trinity Sunday. The lectionary readings for are here.
I’m not preaching today but would like to offer this reflection.
Preaching on the Holy Trinity is one of the most difficult tasks any preacher has. If you hear a preacher tell you otherwise, I would suggest you run the other way. The Holy Trinity is a mystery beyond the limits of our human brains. How is it possible that one being comprises three persons who are the ultimate unity yet apparently perform different functions doing one will and having one purpose? Much ink has been spilled through history in attempts to answer this question and much blood has been shed by those who are more focused on getting the answer right than they are about living the Holy Mystery. The Holy Trinity isn’t an academic exercise but a relationship to guide and shape all of our relationships.
When we are focused on proving we have the right answer and weeding out those who we say don’t have the right answer, we are missing the whole point. Jesus didn’t ever say ‘blessed are those who have all the answers.’ All that Jesus taught centered on building and growing healthy relations as we look for the image of God in all people, working together to bring glory to God. I recently had an encounter in which the person I asked for help entered the conversation with the assumption I knew nothing so much so they couldn’t even receive the information I gave them and kept asking questions about what I had already explained wasn’t the problem. It was apparent that their only goal was to prove they held all the knowledge and to prove how others had messed up what needed fixing rather than working together to find the solution to the problem. Being right became the goal, not solving the problem before us. This way of being with each other is completely counter to what we are to learn from the relationship of the Holy Trinity.
So just what can we learn by seeing the Holy Trinity as a relationship rather than a riddle to solve? We can see what true unity, true communion is: being together for the singular purpose of loving well. For God, love isn’t described with qualifiers like better or best or well; I make the qualified statement of ‘loving well’ to acknowledge our human limits. For God love is. In our humanness, we are all made with the capacity for love and we are shaped and formed by our environment to love in various ways. Some of us are taught that love means controlling those around us because we know better than them. Some of us are taught that love means making ourselves smaller for the comfort of those around us so to not bruise anyone’s ego. Some of us are taught that love is tough and demanding. Some of us are taught that love means always being the perfect one, the helpful one, the compromising one. Some of us are taught that love means denying our own needs or talents or abilities. Some of us are taught that love means that others make us the center of their universe.
Jesus teaches us that love is mutual respect, working toward the greater good of all with our human egos in check, wanting for everyone what we want for ourselves. Jesus teaches us that love is seeing others as beloved children of God. Jesus teaches us that everyone person is infinitely valuable and is made to be a particular part of God’s kingdom with skills and abilities meant to be woven together with everyone’s skills and abilities. Jesus teaches us that we are whole together. Jesus teaches us that learning to love well begins and ends with our relationship with God our creator.
We cannot love well when we seek to prove ourselves better than others, when we seek to exclude others, or when we refuse to see the image of God in others. We cannot love well when we want power rather than unity or conformity rather than mutual respect and dignity. We cannot love well when we diminish ourselves or deny our own needs for the sake of someone else’s ego.
The Holy Trinity shows us the ultimate in communion and unity and yes, it’s good to be concerned with being able to describe the Trinity in a way that honors who God is. But let’s not lose sight of our true purpose of living shaped by the unity of God so that we continually grow in our capacity to love well.
Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And blessed be God’s Kingdom now and forever. Amen.
Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts 