Trinity sermon

Today, my friends, we celebrate Trinity Sunday: a day to celebrate the Three Persons in One Deity. To celebrate the mystery of a triune God with our inadequate words.

God The Father: who created everything, light and dark, the heavens and the earth, land and sea, birds and fish and animals and plants and rocks, what we see and what we don’t, what we know and what we cannot comprehend, and our very selves.

God The Son: the redeemer, whose life and teaches and ministry reminded us of the mission to love one another, whose death and resurrection is (not was) an ongoing reminder that we have been promised the gift of forgiveness, of salvation, of eternal life, of redemption.

God The Holy Spirit: who lives and moves among us, inspiring us to think, say, and do what is right, who is our promised advocate, the breath of God, the wind over the waters, the supporter of our communion and peace, the being which sustains us.

Today, we celebrate the One True God: Father, Son, Spirit; Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. *sigh

So. In light of that majesty, that glory, that utter delight, I am NOT going to use all sorts of analogies and metaphors to attempt to explain the Trinity – we’ve done those in the past. They sorta-kinda-maybe-almost work. The egg thing… the apple thing… the shamrock. You’re nodding. You know what I mean. They just don’t do justice to what it means to be a people who believe in the Triune God.

And we DO believe, don’t we? Of course we do. BUT – when we’re honest, we know that sometimes our faith is stronger, and sometimes it’s a bit weaker. We know that sometimes we worship with all our hearts, our souls, our minds, our strength… and sometimes we have doubts or distractions. Sometimes we question our faith, our belief.

But here’s the good news about that doubt: it’s okay. It’s okay to have doubts.  Doubts don’t mean that you’ve lost your faith: rather, doubts mean that you’re struggling to apply your faith to the circumstances of your life at this very moment. Doubts, questions – those mean you are human. Congratulations! I personally am fond of this humanity thing, it seems to be working for me.

Part of that humanity, however, means that it’s in our nature to question things, to try to understand things better, to not just accept what we’re told. It’s what we teach our children – to think for themselves. It’s what we look for in our friends – it leads to good conversation. We want to surround ourselves with sentient beings! And so we also want to BE one of those sentient beings.

And so we question. And sometimes, those questions can make us doubt, just like some of the apostles did in today’s gospel reading. They doubted; Jesus was right in front of them, but they still didn’t fully understand. We doubt, especially if there’s something we really don’t understand. Like the Trinity: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons; nor dividing the Essence. … And in this Trinity none is before, or after another; none is greater, or less than another. But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal. So that in all things, as aforesaid; the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped. (Creed of St. Athanasius)

Clear? Well, friends, if you completely understand the Trinity, then you’re doing better than me. Or any human theologian in any time, truthfully. Because the mystery of the Trinity goes on.

But – despite it’s mystery, because of it’s mystery – we believe. We may have doubts, but we believe more. We may have questions, but our belief sees us through those questions into that reality – that risky, comforting, joy- and hope-filled reality – called faith.

It is this faith that we declare ever time we gather in worship. It is this faith that sustains us in this life. It is this faith that we first celebrate at the time of our baptism: for some of us, that was quite some time ago, before we even remember. For others, it’s been an adult decision and definitive step in the faith journey. For some, it’s still a possibility for the future.

But our baptism makes us disciples. And disciples are followers: they don’t have all the answers, but they ask the questions. Disciples don’t think they’ve arrived, they know they continually are on a journey. Disciples don’t think of their baptism as a one-time event, but as an every-day commitment. Disciples don’t worry about having doubts, they instead focus on trust and faith to get them through.

And there it is: being the type of disciple that Jesus wants us to be – and make – means being a person of faith. And recognizing that faith is a living thing: it grows, it matures, it moves, it melds, it dances with us every step we take.

If we let it, our faith will carry us through the darkness of our doubts. If we let it, our faith will brighten even the times of extreme joy. If we let it, our faith will keep us guarded and guided throughout this life and into the next.

And when we let it: when we celebrate our faith, when we worship, when we move beyond and through our doubts, when we teach and obey everything that Jesus has commanded us to do, we realize that we have never been alone on our journey, that our ministry has never been a solo mission. We realize that we are doing our bit to build up God’s kingdom, to live out God’s will: and so is our everyone else who is living in faith. We are doing this together because we are the family of the faithful – the family of the baptized – the family of God. We have one another, to lean on when we need support, to be leaned on when someone else needs support. We are the community of faith, journeying together to believe the promise Jesus gave us: “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So. God is with us: the triune God. The God who created and continues to create. The God who taught of sacrifice and love and promises redemption. The God who inspires and supports and sustains. The God who knows our doubts and our questions. The God who doesn’t mind that we will never fully understand or articulate the mystery of the Trinity. The God who hears our confessions, who reminds us of our baptismal vows, who knows in our hearts that above all, we believe.