St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, June 3, 2007

The Trinity – God’s Amazing Balancing Act – Rev. David Mundy

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 Romans 5:1-5 Matthew 28:16-20

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There is a very good nursery school which operates within the St. Paul’s church building. From Monday to Thursday mostly happy children play in the company of their peers and have a great time. They sing songs and march around loudly, usually just above my head as I try to work in my study!

Some days I arrive at the same time as a child accompanied by a parent, usually although not always a mother. I watch with a degree of fascination since that era for our children is long gone. Now parents strap their precious little ones in and out of car seats that look so secure that they could be launched into space. They could teach NASA about deadlines the way they march resolutely toward the building with a little one who doesn’t feel the same sense of urgency as the mom or dad who needs to get to work. I’m impressed by the parents’ general level of patience, but I can tell that they are frazzled at times.

It is no easy thing to be in the multiple roles of mother, working woman, wife, and whatever other titles we would like to throw in. At the risk of being sexist, it seems to be a greater challenge for women than men because the expectations are so high today that they are the perfect parents and bring in an income and be an interesting partner.

Sometimes parents speak about the juggling act of trying to attend to the various facets of their lives. It is a good image because we know that jugglers must keep the balls in the air in a synchronized, rhythmic way – usually three of them.

Sometimes that rhythm gets out of kilter. Although we often look at young parents and ask “you’re amazing – how do you do it all?,”exasperated parents have been known to exclaim “I’m only one person!” because they feel they are the centre of a tug of war between various priorities. This is true, and yet the same challenges which make this a difficult balancing act can make life deeply satisfying. Each of us can only be one person, yet at our best we flourish in the variety of relationships we develop as humans.

This morning we are invited to consider the complex and mystical and downright amazing relational balancing act that the Christian faith describes as the Trinity. God in three persons, blessed Trinity. In the past many United Churches addressed the Trinity every Sunday with the hymn we sang to begin our worship – Holy, Holy, Holy. I don’t recall hearing much else about this central doctrine of the Christian church and I’m not so sure that the singing of the hymn was much more than rote after a while, but it was there.

There is not one single reference to the Trinity in the New Testament, a surprising fact considering how important this tenet of faith is supposed to be. There are intimations of the trinitarian God, though, and we heard them in our readings this morning.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans he reminds this congregation that they have been reconciled with God in Christ who came as the mediator of God’s grace. Then he speaks of the Holy Spirit who pours out God’s love and hope into our hearts. Paul gives us a picture of the balancing act of the trinity, an interdependent relationship of grace and hope and love.

In the gospel of Matthew we are told that Jesus appeared to his disciples well after the events of resurrection day, and they are instructed to baptize in the name of the triune God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This trinitarian formula is still used in the majority by the majority of the world’s Christian communions when baptism takes place. It should be clear that within decades of the formation of the early church Christians had adopted some notion of the triune God and it has stood the test of time. This year we have already baptized a dozen people of various ages within the life of this congregation, and all of them have been baptised in the name of God-in-three Persons. Again, our desire is that this is more than “going through the motions” and a reminder of a much deeper relationship as God is mediated to us in Christ and through the Holy Spirit.

If someone asked you as a Christian about what the tri-unity of God means, how would you explain this balancing act? It is not so simple to take an extremely challenging concept and make it accessible and understandable, although many have tried. As I have mentioned to you before, the legend is that St. Patrick helped to convert the Irish to Christianity by inventively, or perhaps desperately using a three-leaf clover to demonstrate how one stem can have three lobes.

For those of us who are more scientifically inclined, the metaphor of water in its various states may be more helpful. Water can be a solid or a liquid or a gas and move back and forth between those states. God is not a high school experiment, but

Others have been a little more inventive about the interrelationship of God-in-three-persons. A Roman Catholic priest used the metaphor of the tango, a dance which was developed in the bars and brothels of 19th- century Buenos Aires. The Father was likened to the leader of the dance, the Son to the follower and the Spirit to the music that melodically unites all three in their movement and keeps them in step. I wonder how well that went over with his parishioners. It gives a whole different twist to the image of the Lord of the Dance!

All of these descriptions and metaphors are intriguing, but they can only begin to get us close to the mystery we are attempting to understand. Ultimately, we can ask how practical this consideration of the trinity is, anyway. It isn’t just a question of how we would describe the trinity to others. Why would we bother doing so in the first place? What practical purpose would trinitarian talk have, other than to deliberately separate and divide us from believers of other religions? I can’t imagine any of us lying awake at night worrying about the nature of the trinity. Well, actually I have because I have to preach on the subject, but I’m sure that very few of you have lost sleep over it!

What we need is not so much an ancient doctrine which we pull from the shelf once a year and blow off the dust. Our desire is for something vital, Someone vital, who will show us the way for dynamic, hope-filled living. I am convinced while God may not be particularly concerned about how we describe the trinity, our appreciation of God--in-three persons can allow us to live more abundantly each and every day.

You have probably noticed that I am able to bring the subject of care for the Earth into virtually any discussion, but this is Environmental Sunday as well as Trinity Sunday, so perhaps we could ask how the truine God shapes our understanding of earth-care.

We are in awe of the Creator who brought all things into being, and in this time when we hear so much “gloom and doom” about the state of the planet it is important to say that God is still active in the world and creation is ongoing. God’s desire is not for the destruction of Earth but for its redemption and restoration. On all these beautiful mornings we can say “thank you” and work toward maintaining this gift for future generations.

We can remember that this redemption has come to us in the person of Christ and the improbable and marvellous story of the incarnation. Do you know that incarnation means “in the flesh?” Our faith says that God joined us for a fleeting moment of breathing, touching, experiencing pain and joy and love. I don’t want to depress you with the ominous notion of “here today and gone tomorrow” but, let’s be honest, we are aware that the days and years go quickly. One way to go would be to live as selfishly as we possibly can, grasping whatever is possible. Or we can allow Christ to show us self-giving love. Christ has taught us not only by his words but through the cross and resurrection that this life is not about selfishness but endlessly generous love. We trust that our world will be a better place through this generosity. One of the prayers for a funeral service contains the line “since we have been a hair’s breath from death since birth, teach us how breathlessly close we are to life in all its fullness.”

And it is through the Holy Spirit that Christ’s love is still manifest amongst us and it is through the Spirit that we are gathered together for something greater than our petty interests. A wonderful thing is happening in the face of the environmental challenges of our day. Evangelical churches and mainline denominations and Orthodox communions and the church of Rome are talking with one another rather than past one another. Not only that, we are in conversation with other faiths, finding the common ground of care for God’s creation. There appears to be an energy which is greater than the sum of its parts which may create the impetus for correcting our foolish ways. Time will tell whether this is evidence of the Spirit at work.

The trinity can be practical if we are open to the possibilities. Earlier in the service we repeated one of the historic creeds of the church which we know as the Apostle’s Creed. It speaks of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s good to know that the Christian community continues to speak of the trinity.

Last year the United Church adopted a new statement of faith which invites us to stretch our way of considering the inter-relationship of God. Near the beginning we find:

With the Church through the ages,

we speak of God as one and triune:

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We also speak of God as

Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer

God, Christ, and Spirit

Mother, Friend, and Comforter

Source of Life, Living Word, and Bond of Love,

and in other ways that speak faithfully of

the One on whom our hearts rely,

the fully shared life at the heart of the universe.

Along with the traditional words which we heard in Matthew there are other ways of describing God, including Source of Life, Living Word, Bond of Love.

We can thank God this morning for all of these descriptions and we can thank God for the amazing balancing act which we call the trinity.