In the name of the Holy Trinity ☩ Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
In May, we went on a family vacation to Washington, DC and while we were there, we did all of the stuff that you do: National Cathedral, Zoo, the Smithsonians, the White House, and the Capitol. We booked the Capitol tour through Senator Thom Tillis’ office, and so in addition to the tour, we also received gallery passes for the Senate. Now, I’m not saying that I figured out how to fix Washington, but I did identify a first step.
Maybe you all know this and I was just ignorant of how it works, or doesn’t work as the case may be. We sat in the gallery and not much was happening – just a few aides sitting around scrolling on their phones. After a few minutes, a Senator walked in and gave a rousing speech on a topic that had been in the news that week. I was shocked that as he gave this speech, not a single other senator was on the floor. In the whole chamber, excluding those of us up in the gallery, there were maybe 10 people. Well, the Senator finished his speech and then walked out. A few minutes later, another Senator, from the other political party, came in and gave a similarly rousing speech and then proceeded to leave.
I realize that I might not be a politician, but I know that consensus is not built and problems are not solved through soliloquies and grandstanding. Being “on the record” doesn’t matter nearly as much as being in dialogue. Some of you might think you have figured out where I stand politically, and maybe you have, I don’t know. But I’ll tell you that I was persuaded by both of the Senators’ arguments. When we were debriefing the experience with the girls we said, “The world is complicated and there are no one-sided solutions.” I wanted to go find both Senators and say, “Hey, you two are reasonable. I’ll buy you dinner if you’ll sit down and hammer out a deal.” Again, I’m not saying I know how to fix Washington, but I’m pretty sure it starts with being in the same room with one another, with truly listening to the perspective of those with different ideas, with searching for common ground, with being willing to recognize the validity of another’s position, and with dialogue.
What was interesting about these two speeches that we heard was that, essentially, they were debating the meaning of the word “waiver.” One Senator was arguing that the word “waiver” had one set of legal implications and the other Senator had a different set of conclusions. While words are certainly important, these Senators were wrangling over words, trying to justify why their position is the one that should be legally supported. They were trying to win an argument, which, given the contentious nature of politics, is expected. But, at least to me, it didn’t seem like they were trying to solve an issue as much as win a debate. I keep going back to the wisdom of the Prayer of St. Francis because it’s such a rich prayer: “Grant that we may not so much seek to be understood as to understand.” If you want to write your representative about something, maybe ask them to pray that prayer when they get to the Capitol each morning.
The thing that was missing in this whole episode was relationship. Now, yes, I realize that those Senators might be great friends and play golf every Friday. I don’t know. But I know that progress doesn’t come when we can’t make time to listen to one another. Growth doesn’t come through digging in, but rather opening up. Maybe you watch more CSPAN than I do or knew that senators give speeches to empty rooms, but I didn’t.
The reason why I’m opening a sermon on Trinity Sunday with this story is that, too often, when it comes to God and the Holy Trinity, the Church makes the same mistakes as these two Senators. One error is wrangling over words, trying to explain the essence and nature of God; trying to explain how God is both One and also Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time. Sure, philosophy and metaphysics might be of interest to some, but I’ve not yet met that person who lies awake at night because they worry about having a sufficiently developed understanding of the Trinity.
Through the centuries, all sorts of good meaning people have tried to explain the nature of God, they’ve come up with analogies to help people understand how God is both one and three. And that has its place – I enjoy theological reflection and very much believe that the intellectual pursuit of God is a spiritual discipline that feeds the soul. But, too often, like these Senators, we are divided by the arbitrary words that we have chosen to ground our arguments.
The Body of Christ has been fractured over things like the proper haircut for monks, and I’m not making that up, the date of Easter, the types of vestments that clergy wear, the understanding of the Eucharist, and who the Sacraments of ordination and marriage are open to. Some of those issues are really important, and personal, and I’m not dismissing the relevance of those questions. And to be clear about this, one of the most obvious implications of the Trinity is that there is diversity in God and diversity, therefore is a gift to celebrate, not an obstacle to overcome. But when the Church starts quoting Bill Clinton by saying “Well, it depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is” then we’ve lost the thread.
That thread is the Gospel – the good and gracious news that through the abundant and overflowing love between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, we are enveloped in grace, mercy, and peace, not because we’ve done anything to deserve or earn our belonging and acceptance, but because each of us has an inherent dignity and worthiness that the world cannot give or take away. The thread is that you are known, chosen, accepted, forgiven, cherished, and loved just as you are and not based on your past performance. And that’s not only true about you, but everyone else as well.
And so when we divide ourselves over which Bible translations are authorized or which set of words we use to describe the indescribable mystery of God, we absolutely drop that thread and give ourselves over pursuing rightness instead of righteousness. The first error of Trinity Sunday is arguing about words and being divided by definitions. That’s why there are no explanations today. Those Senators aren’t going to find a political solution in the dictionary, and nor will we find the relief that we’re looking for in one.
The other mistake is also one that we witnessed in the Senate: talking about instead of talking with. In the Creation poem in Genesis, this is exactly how the serpent lures us away from God; the serpent has us wrangling over words – “Did God really say that?” The issue then, and ever since, was a lack of dialogue. They started talking about God instead of with God.
I love being an Episcopalian – I love our liturgy, our tradition, our inclusiveness, our intellectually curious and open approach to faith, our Eucharistic grounding, our focus on Jesus, our commitment to striving for justice and peace among all people, and our emphasis on common prayer. There’s so much to appreciate about and be fed by in our tradition. That being said, if there’s an error that we make, we easily fall on the side of talking about God more than we do talking with God.
Our hymns and prayers are so rich, and I love that, I really do, but there’s a reason why the fast-growing churches around the world are what is known as “charismatic.” Now, charismatic isn’t a denomination – sure, there are Pentecostals and the Assemblies of God, but you can find charismatic non-denominational churches, charismatic Catholics, Presbyterians, and even Anglicans. In the Church of England, some of the largest and most active congregations are charismatic, most notably Holy Trinity Brompton in London.
What these churches focus on is the lived experience of our faith, having a robust and conversational relationship with God, and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit within us and among us. This isn’t to say that charismatic Christians don’t have robust theology and that the mainline doesn’t have experience, it’s more a question of how much energy and allegiance we give to each, with a healthy balance being ideal. And, please, don’t worry, I’m not introducing a plan to take St. Luke’s in a totally different direction. No one would describe us as charismatic, and I’m not looking to change that. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have something really important to learn from our Charismatic siblings.
The poet John Donne wrote, “Give me such a different sense of you, let me be open to all truths, to have the power to love and to know you, unnumbered three.” Trinity Sunday, as I’ve already said, is not a day for explanations, definitions, or doctrines, instead, it’s a day for doxology – a day for praise and celebration. At the Eucharist, the words that I’ll insert for Trinity Sunday include the line “we celebrate the one and equal glory of thee.”
Psalm 8 is often used on Trinity Sunday, and it talks about how God created all things and is to be praised by all of Creation – sun and moon, sheep and oxen, birds of the air and fish of the sea, and humanity. It’s the same idea as we sing in the Song of Praise, “Glory to you, you are worthy of praise; glory to you; we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.” As we often say at that point in the liturgy that we call the Doxology – “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
I realize that I’ve said that today isn’t a day for definitions, but we do need to be clear about what it means to praise God. Praising God isn’t about just heaping holy sounding words upon God, or complimenting God on being such a nice deity, or bowing down and performing empty obeisance.
Praise is certainly about gratitude. Praise includes a sense of humility in acknowledging that God is God and we are not. Praise reminds us that we need God, not the other way around. Praise is a way of keeping God at the center of our lives instead of the idols of money, reputation, or success, what that means to us. But praise does at least two other things that are really important.
The first is that praise puts us in a deeper relationship with God – it has us talking to God instead of about God, and this is what Charismatics do so well. Imagine how your day might be different if you started the day by praising God for another day, for a new set of opportunities, for mercies that never fail. Or, what if, you prayed A General Thanksgiving, which is found on page 836, each evening – and not just reciting that prayer, but adding details about your day for which you are thankful and would praise God for. It’s a great prayer because it helps us to praise God not only for the good things, but also the challenging parts of life. Or, what if you, you sang the Doxology before you sat down to dinner each night? Charismatic spirituality embraces God in all of our lives, and we can share in that grace through praise.
And the other thing that praise does is that when we praise something, we tend to value it and grow in that direction. This is why it matters who our society considers to be heroes. We become what we worship; our morals are shaped by what we praise. What the Holy Trinity shows us is a holy example of community without competition, unity without uniformity, difference without division, diversity without exclusion, mystery without reductionism. In praising God, God graciously takes our emotions and words, and shapes us into more finely tuned instruments of peace.
Now, I’m not suggesting that Charismatics are any better in following God than we are, nor are they any worse. Praising God won’t necessarily make us any less judgmental, selfish, or fearful. What praise does though it that it joins our voices with all of Creation in the ceaseless and beautiful song of love in a way that includes transformation and invitation. And, in that sense, I do very much hope and pray to be a charismatic church.
The final verse in the Psalter is a good way to both close this sermon and invite us into praising God not only in this moment, but with the whole of our lives: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Hallelujah!”
