In the name of the One God who creates, redeems, and sustains us- Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today is Trinity Sunday,
and in pulpits around the country this morning, many preachers will ignore this
fact because they assume that the Trinity is too obtuse to understand or preach
on, or they’ll assume that their congregants have no interest in the Trinity. I
won’t be making those assumptions today. Yes, the Trinity is rather difficult
to wrap our head around, but as Christians, we claim that God is somehow the
great Three-in-One; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Not preaching the Trinity on
Trinity Sunday is problematic.
On Christmas, you expect
a sermon on the Incarnation of God in Jesus. On Easter, you anticipate hearing
a sermon about the Resurrection of Jesus. On Pentecost, you will hear sermons
about the Holy Spirit. And I’m not convinced that the doctrines of the
Incarnation or Salvation are any easier to understand than that of the Trinity,
we’ve just fooled ourselves into thinking that we understand them. As
theologian Rudolf Otto reminds us, God is “wholly (w-h-o-l-l-y) other.” Or as
our forum speaker said in February, “God is really, really big; and we are
very, very small.” We’re not supposed to understand the Trinity.
And let us remember that
doctrines are expressions of faith, not the basis for faith. Doctrines are not
intended to be litmus tests to gauge how sincere or deep our faith is. The
Trinity is not a reason to believe in God, but rather it is an expression of
our belief in God. And we would do well not to get distracted by the details of
the Trinity. Though it may be interesting to read and debate about modalism,
subordinationism, Arianism, or tritheism, such discussions are mere
distractions from the big picture to which the Trinity calls us. The aspect of
the Trinity on which I’d like to focus this morning is relationship.
Say what you want about
how it is that we have a trinity of persons in a unity of being, but at the
most basic level, the Trinity demonstrates that God is a god of relationship.
Being in union with others is absolutely central to the very nature and being
of God. And this morning I want to suggest that this emphasis on relationship
is the bedrock on which our hope rests.
We’re not really good at
relationships though. Our national divorce rate hovers near 50%, and there’s no
telling how high the infidelity rate might be. We are litigious society in
which we constantly sue each other because our coffee is too hot, or we don’t
like the decision you made. There are roughly an estimated 34,000 Christian
denominations in the world, most of them coming around as the result of
disagreements. We solve our problems through guns and attorneys, signs that
we’re really not good at being in relationship. In his classic work I and Thou, Martin Buber wrote about
this issue.
He notes that in our
world, we default to “I-It” relationships; treating others as an “it” instead
of a “thou” or “you.” In “I-It” relationships, we have experiences, collect
data, and develop theories. But there is no connection, as we treat each others
in a very utilitarian way. What will you do for me? What can I get out of our
relationship? How can you be a tool to advance my cause? We can see this
happening everywhere we look, from our families, all the way up to our
Congress. The saying is that we are supposed to use things and love people, but
instead we love things and use people. You can even see it in our language, the
way that we frame so many of our issues as “us vs them.” What I always wonder
is, who are “they.” So one party blames all of our woes on the other.
Even in our debates around government, you hear people
talk about being afraid of “big government.” But what we seem to have forgotten
is that the government doesn’t exist, but people do. You want to talk about
slashing the cost of government overhead or food stamps programs, and you’re
not talking about lines in a budget, you’re talking about the jobs of countless
Americans and the meals that will go missing from their tables. It’s a problem
of “I-It” relationships. And so we use language that allows us to hide their
humanity and forget that they are “yous” and not “its.” We have gotten so far
off track, that our Supreme Court has gotten so confused that they have
declared that corporations are people. We have taken “its” and made them
“yous.”
What Buber suggests stands in opposition to these
deficient relationships are those interactions which he calls “I-Thou.” This is
about encounter, about meeting the whole essence of the other, about being
transformed by relationship. The basis for these relationships is in the
relationship of God to us. And though they are rarer, these sorts of
relationships do still happen, but they take work. They take having more
vulnerability and less judgment. Instead of quickly putting people into boxes
such as “stupid,” “homeless,” “illegal,” “gay”, “straight,” “single,”
“married,” “Muslim,” “lazy,” that we instead get to know their name and story.
This takes time, something which our face-paced culture places a premium on.
But as Buber suggest, it is only through this deep knowing that we can be
transformed. And this is something that that Trinity shows us- that being in a
relationship of “I-Thou” is foundational to being a person of faith.
These are the sorts of relationship which we were
created to have. St. Augustine, in writing on the Trinity, reminds us that we
are created in the image of God. And in being created by God, an imprint of God
is left on us. He says that “we can find traces of the Trinity all around.” If
relationship is central to the Triune God, then it only stands to reason that
we, who bear this divine imprint, are also created to be in relationships. And
consider the image of Hell which Dante describes in The Divine Comedy; it is a place of isolation from God. Dante’s
vision of the worst punishment possible isn’t so much in the flames and
tortures of hell, but is in the isolation from relationships that truly matter.
Or think about our prison system, solitary confinement is often considered to
be a place of extra punishment; because somehow, we innately know that
relationship is essential to who we are.
We need each other. Being in relationship also holds
us accountable and reminds us of who we are when we are dizzied by the changes
and chances of this life.
One of the reasons why we have a reading about Wisdom
from Proverbs on Trinity Sunday is that some theologians have suggested that
this personified Wisdom is, perhaps, a metaphor for Jesus. And other scholars
note that Wisdom is a feminine word, sophia
in Greek. And so, much has been said about the idea that God has innately
feminine qualities in the Trinity. As I said earlier, that’s a detail to get
lost in. But the bigger picture is that at we’re not complete until our
relationships involve everyone. We need everyone to be at the table for the
meal to work. We need the rich and the poor, the young and the old. We need
those in jail and those in nursing homes. We need everyone in order to be
complete. Relationship isn’t just about those like us; it is about gathering
all who are made in the image of God.
And in having these “I-Thou” relationships, we must
open ourselves to truly authentic relationships, of the sort that St. Paul
refers to in today’s reading. He wrote that “we also boast in our sufferings,
knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope.” Let’s focus on the first part of that sentence-
boasting in our sufferings. I also have in mind other places where St. Paul
writes about boasting in weakness. And if we’re bad at relationships, we’re
even worse at boasting in our sufferings or weaknesses.
We sure do love boasting in what we’re good at though. And there’s
nothing wrong with having pride in your work and accomplishments, so long as we
keep in mind the Reformation phrase soli
deo gloria, “glory to God alone.” And we like having excuses for why we’re
not perfect. I sometimes play tennis with a guy who, you’d think, could be the
top tennis player in the world if things would just go his way. I’ve never seen
him miss a shot without saying something like “that must of have hit a pebble
when it bounced,” or “the lights were in my eyes.”
But how often do we boast in our shortcomings? None of
us are the complete package; none of us are perfect. But we don’t like to admit
that, and we cover our deficiencies instead of owning and boasting in them. And
as St. Paul suggests, if we could own our sufferings and weaknesses, then we
would gain endurance, and character, and hope. And that hope, comes through the
idea of relationship which we find in the Trinity. If we can see our sufferings
and weaknesses not as things that disadvantage us, but as opportunities to grow
closer to and rely on others, we will also see the hope of what it means to
love the way that God does.
I wonder what sort of church and society we’d be if
everyone was given the chance to use their gifts? But too often we’re looking
for messiah figures that seem too good to be true, and disappoint us when that
turns out to be true. So people that aren’t good at management are put into
management positions because they have the people skills to climb the corporate
ladder. Or we elect people to Congress that are great at giving speeches, but
are terrible at compromise. But what if we acknowledge our sufferings and
weaknesses and then had the faith to trust in others to help us along?
If we continue to insist that we don’t need help from
others, that we can handle it all on our own, we will fall out of relationships
with others. What we see in the Trinity is that there is some wisdom in that
idiom- “it takes a village.” We are stronger when we are together, when we can
be open and honest about what we lack and need, and trusting enough to allow
others to make us whole.
And there are instances where we still remember this
foundational lesson from the Trinity. This connection between suffering and
hope actually is what tomorrow’s secular holiday is all about. Memorial Day is
a day in which we recount the stories of brave men and women who have heeded
the call to liberate people from dictators and protect the American idea of
freedom. And as we go to events which remember them and fly our flags, we are
given a sense of hope.
I wish it could be different, that somehow this
connection was more evident in our daily lives between owning our sufferings
and weaknesses could remind us that deeply need to be in relationship with
others, and that those relationships give us a peace which passes all
understanding and a hope upon which to build our lives. But like most things
that are truly important to us, it is easy to take it for granted. But for the
people of Oklahoma, they are recalling this truth today- that homes and cars
don’t matter nearly as much as relationships. And their hope isn’t found in
knowing that their insurance policy will pay new stuff, but hope comes through
the prayers of the nation, the courageous acts of the first responders, and the
hoards of volunteers from around the country who will come to their town to
help them rebuild. When we have funerals at this parish, there, of course, is
suffering. But there is also great hope that comes through relationships-
through cards sent, dinners made, and prayers. Whenever we experience a
national tragedy, whether it be 9/11, bombs in Boston, or hurricanes in New
Orleans or New York, we are reminded of this great truth expressed in the
Trinity- our greatest hope comes through relationship with others and with God.
In being in “I-Thou” relationship with others, when we
carry each others’ burdens, acknowledging our own suffering and weakness, we are
doing the work of the Trinity. We are coming together as the image of God would
have us do. We are being true to our created nature. And so it should come as
no surprise that we find great comfort and hope when we are able to live in a
way that accords with the divine plan of Creation.
The Trinity is a mystery, not to solve, but to thrive
in. When we look at the big picture of the Trinity, we recall that God is
relationship. Being made in the image of God, we are created to be in
relationship. We only punish ourselves and those around us when we focus on
“I-It” relationships which objectify others and further pushes us all towards
islands of isolation. Instead, if we have more “I-Thou” relationships in which
we can acknowledge our failings, weaknesses, and sufferings, we can be made
whole through genuine relationships with God and others. We remember this well
in our times of great need and tragedy. But for us to more fully live into the
Kingdom of God, to be a more robust Church, to have more meaningful
relationships in our personal lives, we need only to remember this lesson from
the Trinity- that our greatest hope comes through having the deepest
relationships. Amen.
