"No Hierarchy Here"

If you took a poll of clergy throughout the church and asked them which Sunday they most dislike preaching you would probably get three answers – the Sunday after Christmas, the Sunday after Easter, and today, Trinity Sunday.

The Sundays after Christmas and Easter would be on the list not because the scripture texts are too difficult, but because the clergy are too tired.

Today is different. Trinity Sunday would be on the list because the Trinity is often perceived as a very difficult concept to explain, let alone to preach about.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We say those words, or some variation of them, almost every time we enter the church.

The idea of the Trinity, one God in three persons, is one of the core doctrines of our faith. But as central as the Trinity is to our understanding of God, many people will readily admit that they really can’t explain it.

That, of course, does not keep theologians from trying. One of my favorite writers, Kathleen Norris, notes that the concept of the Trinity “has generated some of the most abstruse, mind-boggling writing in all of Christian theology.”

Volumes of ponderous, dense prose have been written about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

But recently, thanks to my unponderous theologian husband, I read an article that opens the Trinity up to lightness and love, rather than burying it under a heavy doctrinal load.

Elizabeth Johnson takes as her model of the Trinity the beautiful icon painted by 15 th century Russian artist Andrei Rublev. That icon is on the cover of today’s service bulletin.

One of the things I love about this icon is that it is based on an Old Testament story, in which three strangers, who are really angels in disguise, appear unannounced at the home of Abraham and Sarah. Although the travelers are totally unknown and unexpected, they are met with gracious hospitality.

The icon shows the three angels, representing the Trinity, at Abraham and Sarah’s home, which is depicted as the dwelling place of God. The three figures sit around a table on which there is a cup, or chalice.

Notice that the figures are seated inclined toward one another in a circle that is not closed.

“The image suggests that the mystery of the triune God is not a closed society, but a communion in relationship,” Johnson writes.

“This divine communion is lovingly open to the world. As you contemplate you begin intuitively to grasp that you are invited into this divine circle – indeed, by gazing, you are already a part of it.”

This icon shows us that God in not a monarch living in isolation, “but rather a living communion in relation with the world. God is a God of immense hospitality who calls the world to join in the feast.”

Abraham and Sarah, of course, would be baffled by talk of the Trinity, as would most of our scriptural figures. The Trinity is never overtly named in either the Old or New Testaments.

The concept of the Trinity arose after Jesus’ death, when early Christians struggled to find a way to express their experiences of God. Those first followers of Jesus, who were also Jewish, were monotheists, believing strongly that there is one God, who created the heavens and the earth.

That belief in the transcendent, powerful God was not diminished, but those early Christians knew that they had also experienced God in the person of Jesus. And after Jesus’ death, they continued to experience God’s presence with them, not in the Jesus of human flesh and blood, but in Spirit moving within them individually and as a community.

One God, experienced in three different ways – that is the essence of the Trinity.

Today we still experience God in those three very different ways. Not too long ago I talked to a group about the Trinity, and people readily confessed that if they thought too much about it as doctrine it was simply confusing.

But each person in the group could talk about experiences of God, or ways of relating to God. Some said they related most to God as creator or parent. They said they didn’t need to go through Jesus to get the divine, but prayed directly to the creator God.

Some said they experienced God most strongly through the teachings and person of Jesus, and by trying to follow the example Jesus set.

Still others said they most often experienced God as spirit, a presence with them, sometimes nudging them in certain directions, sometimes offering solace and comfort.

All of these experiences of God are equally valid, all are ways that God is drawing us into that circle of divine love.

And that is another essential aspect of the Trinity, its radical equality. The God experienced as Holy Spirit is no less than the God experienced in the flesh and blood of Jesus, or the powerful, majestic creator God.

Elizabeth Johnson puts it this way – “the one God exists as a community of radically equal persons in mutual relationship. For God, to be is to be in relation – that is the primary divine characteristic of God.”

In other words, God the Father does not lord it over Jesus and the Holy Spirit. There is no patriarchy or hierarchy here. All are equal, in loving communion and relationship with each other.

That radical equality in the essence of God is an example to us of how we are to live. Jesus shows us this model in his teachings. Jesus never preaches about God’s kingdom as a place of patriarchy or hierarchy.

The God who Jesus preaches about, and lives out, is a God who is in solidarity with the hungry, the poor, the prisoners, the outcast, with prostitutes and lepers and tax collectors. Those are the people invited into the kingdom, into the circle of divine communion and love.

Today the Trinity continues to call us, as individuals and the church, into loving relationships in our community and the world.

“It does so positively,” Johnson writes, “by inspiring efforts to create a community of sisters and brothers interwoven with the whole web of earth’s life.

“It does so negatively, by prophetically challenging social and ecological injustices that distort such a community.”

So the Trinity is not some abstract, convoluted doctrine. The Trinity shows us how to relate to God and to one another.

The Trinity calls the Church – calls us – to make God’s love visible in the world, to work always for justice and peace and healing for all of God’s people and all of God’s creation.

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Readings

Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”

Romans 8:12-17

So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

John 3:1-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

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