Don't Overthink It: Trinity Means Community, sermon for May 31, 2015 Trinity Sunday

My sermon for Trinity Sunday in which I suggest that the "doctrine" of the Trinity is not as important as what it implies: the relational aspect of God; meaning that God exists as relationship with us (the humans God created!) and the rest of creation.

What does the Trinity mean to you? Or if you are not a fan of the trinity, how do you envision God, and how do you envision our role within creation? These are wonderful and fun questions to ask.

“Don’t Overthink It: The Trinity is Community”

Sermon, Year B, Trinity Sunday, May 31, 2015

Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI

©2015 Rev. David J. Huber

Focus Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-8, John 3:1-17

Today is Trinity Sunday. The day that we celebrate the Trinity. It might be the only Sunday that we celebrate a doctrine and not a specific event or person. So today we celebrate the Trinity, which traditionally we call the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But we could just as easily say MOther, Son, and Holy Spirit. Or as we say in baptisms, and did in the Prayer of Confession today, we say Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God Mother of us all. As far as I know that was first used at Riverside Church in NYC, a UCC church.  

So a day to celebrate the Trinity. And I will say this: of all the ideas, thoughts, concepts, ideas of the church, the concept of a Trinity is a real doozy. It’s confusing, bizarre, and it gets argued over and has for centuries and centuries from the very early days of the Church. What does it actually mean? Or, How does the Trinity exist?

It has been the source of a lot of conflict, even today. Most Christians would say they are trinitarians, especially at the denominational/official level, but there are those in the churches who are not. Who say that God could be more than three, or less, or something else. The Unitarians reject a trinitarian idea. And everyone is on firm ground.

There is nowhere in scripture where it says that God exists as a trinity. So those who say that we should not be trinitarian because the Bible doesn’t say it are correct. But, one can read scripture, the whole narrative of the Bible and come to the idea very easily that God seems to be working in this three-in-one way. That there is a godhead and that there are three parts of it. So the trinitarian folks also have a firm ground to stand on.

So take that however you like, and know that wherever you are on the issue, there is someone in history who thinks you are wonderful for thinking the way you do. And there will be someone else who would love to call you a heretic. Wherever you are, I think you’re okay. I don’t think that this is much to worry about or put a lot of importance on. I’m not sure it is quite as important as some often try to make it out to be.

But there does appear to be that God works in several ways. God the Father, the parent, the creator, the organizer; God the Son, meaning Jesus, which is the incarnation of God as a human being on Christmas who taught and did miracles, was crucified and then raised from the dead and ascended to heaven; and God the Holy Spirit, the power of God that is breathed into us, that flows through us, that is part of us and binds us together. We talked about that last Sunday, which was Pentecost: celebration of the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples a few weeks after Jesus rose from the dead.

But as with most things when we are talking about God, our language is so limited we can never get the whole picture of God. So whatever language we use, we will fall short of the mark.

So my advice to all of you is, Don’t overthink it. Don’t worry about it too much. Some people think that the faith’s most important hinge is whether one is a Trinitarian; I don’t think so. I’m not sure it really matters ultimately, what we think of it. I think the hinge of our faith is whether we are following what Jesus told us to do. That far outweighs whatever else we might believe about the faith. Whether or not we’re following what Jesus told us to.

To then let God be God. The Trinity is convenient language, but maybe God is more. Probably God is more. Our language can’t define God. Let God be God. If God decides to come to us in a fourth form or an 8000th form, we adjust. We change our theology. I don’t think the details are worth getting caught up in because God is so much more than we can ever put in words. So let us not get stuck about the kind of box we want to put God in. We can look around and see where God is working, where God is in the world, and what God is doing.

What really matters, what I get out of the idea of a Trinity, is that God exists in a form of relationship. God is relational. God is not a solo player, but is relational. And through Jesus, through the person of Jesus, we have seen God. And through the Holy Spirit, we feel God and we have some of God’s power. We are also called together into this community by the Spirit.

Like that song we sang, We see the Lord! Through Jesus, we have seen the Lord. God manifests in many ways, including coming to us in the person Jesus. “We have seen the Lord!”

There is another way that people can see the Lord, and that is that as followers of Jesus, we are in a sense, Jesus. So if we are doing godly things, if we are following Jesus’ ways, those moments when we are faithful to being followers, people see the Lord through us.

We are the face of God for people. We don’t do it all the time. I know I don’t. Life is messy, complicated, we make mistakes and mess things up. But thank God, God works mostly through the messy stuff. If God waited until we were perfect, God would never get anything done. God needs us, we who are imperfect, to work through us. God meets us where we are so that we can be Jesus for others.

So because of our witness, the way we act, the way we treat others, they can say “We see the Lord.” Because they see the Lord working through you. If we are faithful disciples -- if we do our Jesus-following well -- people can see the Lord at work in us.

When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was sick, you visited me and prayed for me. When I was lonely, you called me. When I was down, you comforted me. When I felt like I didn’t belong anywhere, you invited me to church, into your fellowship to know other people and to be loved.

God is relational.

We see that in the trinitarian language, the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A relationship, God working as three. And in the relation that Jesus showed us. God coming to us as Jesus to call us into the beloved community. He called his disciples into his circle and called them friends. And he calls us to be in relation with him, and be in relationship with God and with one another. To form a community around God’s love.

So we see that God is a relationship within the godhead. Think of it as, I don’t know, a bubble that contains the persons of God. And if you don’t get it, that’s fine. I really don’t get it, either. The whole Trinity thing is a little more abstract than my brain can really wrap itself around. So let’s all be confused together about it. But, know that there is a relationship in there.

If you were looking at the artwork before worship that was playing on the TV, artists of many centuries trying to depict the trinity in many ways. It’s a difficult concept and complicated, and many ways to look at it. I think that they are all accurate in their own way in pointing to a truth, but they are all also equally short of the mark. Our language, whether it is the language of painting or the language of words, it is insufficient to encompass the totality of God.

God is bigger than our language can ever be. Another reason to not overthink this idea. To not try to get God into too specific of a box. Don’t try to overthink the Trinity. It’s just going to hurt your brain. Make it tired, anxious. I don’t know if one can sprain one’s brain, but that might happen. Don’t overthink it. Don’t think of the specifics, just think of the importance of God in relationship within this godhead and God wanting to be in relationship with us and in relation with creation. Not the God of the Deists, that set everything in motion and then steps back to just watch it happen never interfering or being involved in our lives. No, a God of closeness! Even as our God is also this majestic, huge God, whose train the fills the temple, who can’t be encompassed in any language, transcendent beyond comprehension, this God is also intimately involved in our lives. Knows who we are, knows our names, and calls us together. Reaches out to us wanting to be in relationship with one another. To be in relationship with us.

As we are the face of God for others, we are, in a sense, the fourth part of the trinity. Wrap your mind around that one! We are the fourth part of the Trinity. Like some of the famous celebrities and musicians of the 60s and 70s who would claim, “I’m the fifth Beatle! I’m so connected to the Beatles that they think of me as the fifth Beatle.” As a way to ride along on their coattails. “I’m the fifth person in this quartet!”

We are the fourth person of the Trinity.

Or another example, a book series I like, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Very funny science fiction series of books, originally a trilogy: three books. Then later on, the author, Douglas Adams, wrote a fourth book. Being a humorist, the cover on the fourth book had “Finally, the fourth book of the trilogy!” Then he wrote a fifth book which had, “Finally, the fifth book of the trilogy!”

The Hitchhiker’s trilogy of five books (actually six books, but the last one written by someone else) is also an interesting example of the Trinity - the mystery of the Trinity - in that it has also been a radio play, a movie, a stage show, a comic book series, and a TV series, and they are all different. Same basic story, but each one different. One story, many manifestations. Like God. One being, but so many faces, so many manifestations, so much bigger than any one narrative could ever encapsulate.

Don’t overthink it!

Just remember the power of relation. That we have the power of the Spirit. We have the call to be in communion through Jesus. We have the love of the Father -- or we could say Mother, there is plenty of feminine imagery for God in the Bible. We have that image of being born from God, that we are God’s creation. We are from God.

Jesus said in the Gospel passage we read, “You must be born from above.” You must be born from above. Part of that, to be “born from above”, is to have the realization or epiphany to come to the understanding that we are all connected, and we are connected to God. To see that we are connected is part of being born from above because that is then seeing the world as God sees it. To be born from above is to see the world as God sees it. To be born from above is to follow the path that Jesus asks us to follow. To conform ourselves to Jesus’ path. To conform ourselves to this vision of what God wants for the world, is part of being born from above. Especially to follow along this vision that is at the end of that Gospel lesson, in Jesus’ words about relationship. About God wanting to be in relationship. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” You could also say, “For she gave her only son.” I don’t think there is any harm in that. God is not gendered, not really. Father, mother, whatever. “For God so loved the world.” And “God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Hear what that says about relationships. This is not God casting anyone away, but trying to draw everyone, all of creation, into God in this relational way. God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

That is the Good News for today.

Amen.