God in Three Persons
Isaiah
6:1-8
Revelation
4:1-11 John
16:5-15
Growing
up in St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Kansas City, I sang in the girls’
choir, even though in those years before gender equality, we were
limited to singing for the 9:00 a.m. Sunday School worship. At
the eleven o’clock main service, it was only the boys’ choir privileged
to join the adult choir. Nevertheless, we girls sang with
gusto.
I especially loved rousing hymns like “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus”
and “Lead On, O King Eternal” and sang out with youthful
fervor. But my favorite was the uplifting hymn which kicked
off the season of Trinity, now called the season of Pentecost—the
processional hymn we just sang.
Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee:
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty,
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.
[ 1982 Hymnal, #362]
Although I don’t pretend that my younger self understood
the full implications of the Trinity, I do remember feeling inspired by
the awesome majesty of a God who could be manifested in three persons.
The familiar words of that beloved hymn herald the watershed point in
the Christian calendar, Trinity Sunday. Since the beginning of
Advent, our Sunday lectionary has been concerned with the life and
ministry of Jesus. From this point on in the church year, the
Sunday readings will focus on Christian growth and discipleship.
This day also marks the only major Christian festival celebrating a
doctrine of the church, rather than an event in sacred history.
Today we are invited to pause and reflect on the Trinity.
The doctrine of the Trinity, never explicitly mentioned in the Bible,
was hotly debated by early scholars and theologians and not settled
upon until the fourth century. The ultimate agreement was that
“Jesus was divine, the Spirit was a coequal part of the Trinity, [and]
Creator-Redeemer-Sanctifier were specific aspects of the saving work of
God.” [Chittester, Joan. In Search of Belief, p. 163].
Inherent in the words of the Nicene Creed, adopted at that time, is the
essence of our faith, the belief in a Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
Few of us have difficulty in identifying God, the Creator, as the
source of all that is awe-inspiring, mysterious, and full of
wonder. We have only to gaze at the millions of stars flung out
across the canopy of a night sky, ponder the amazing and breathtakingly
beautiful varieties of plants and animals, or study the intricacies of
a minuscule world revealed through the lens of a microscope.
As for Jesus? Regardless of ongoing debates among Biblical
scholars concerning precise details, there is little doubt in our minds
that a teacher and healer named Jesus, by his life, example, and death,
had the power to change lives in such a way that eye-witnesses were
compelled to risk everything to spread the Master’s legacy. A
legacy which, down through the centuries, has continued to affect and
redeem human beings, even us.
And what of the third person of the Trinity? In today’s reading
from the Gospel of John, Jesus introduces the disciples to the concept
of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate who will guide them in truth.
Listen to an alternative version of the same passage, found in The Message:
Jesus says, “I still have many things to tell
you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes,
the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you
into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself,
but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of
all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take
from me and deliver it to you.” [John 16:12-15]
As we heard last Sunday, that is precisely what happened on
the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit stirred the disciples,
empowered them with the gift of communication, and impelled them across
the known world to tell the truth of the risen Christ. Without
this witness, there would be no church as we know it. Through the
power of the Holy Spirit, God used the disciples to spread the
kingdom. Just as he uses us today.
In our Old Testament lesson, we have the example of Isaiah, who heard
“the voice of the Lord saying, `Whom shall I send, and who will go for
us?’” Isaiah’s response is both memorable and challenging: “‘Here am I;
send me!’” [Isaiah 6:8-9]
Born from that same Holy Spirit who changed the disciples forever, a
call similar to Isaiah’s still comes to us. How do we respond to
the whispers we hear in the silence of our hearts, to the imperceptible
nudgings we are helpless to explain even as we acknowledge their power
and mystery?
It is this Spirit of Truth, by whatever name—Advocate, Comforter,
Counselor, Sanctifier, or Friend—that spurred the disciples. And
it is this same Spirit that, in the words of a well-known prayer,
“kindles in us the fire” of God’s love.
In her book In Search of Belief: an exploration of the Apostle’s Creed,
Joan Chittester writes about the role the Holy Spirit plays in our
lives. She says, “The Spirit of God moves us to new heights of
understanding, to new types of witness, to new dimensions of life
needed in the here and now.” [p. 166]
As I reflected on her words, I recalled a time, when I became aware
that an unnamed force I couldn’t deny was moving me to those same “new
heights of understanding,” “new types of witness,” and “new dimensions
of life.” I share this experience in the hope of triggering in
you the recollection of your own encounters with the mystery of the
Spirit.
Larry and I had been faithfully attending St. Mary’s Church in Edmond,
OK, for many years. We liked the priest; we enjoyed the
people. In short, we were contented worshipers. Gradually,
though, it became easier to sleep in and skip church. We weren’t
really needed there. Anyway, we could avoid the hassle of
rousting our teenagers out of bed for services. We could linger
over coffee and the Sunday paper. No longer was church attendance
assumed in our family; quite the contrary, we debated whether to go or
not to go—and more often than not, church lost.
One day, as I was idly leafing through the church newsletter, I learned
that a handful of souls from St. Mary’s were striking out to form a new
mission congregation called St. Francis in the Fields. Their
first service was to be the following Sunday. Interesting, I
thought, and set the newsletter on the kitchen counter with the rest of
the mail for Larry to read when he came home from work.
Several days passed during which I had the restless feeling that there
was something I was supposed to be doing, but I couldn’t identify what.
Saturday evening Larry looked at me and, out of the blue, said quietly,
“I think we should go to the service tomorrow at St. Francis.”
I was stunned. “Whatever made you say that?” I asked.
“I can’t explain it,” he said. “I just have this strong feeling we need to be there.”
The light bulb went on for me. That was exactly what I was
supposed to be doing. The synchronicity of our independent
arrival at the same conclusion was powerful. That Sunday morning
we celebrated with the charter members of St. Francis in the Fields and
were enfolded in a life-changing sense of community.
New heights of understanding? Oh yes. We were needed.
In fact, the gifts of everyone in that fledgling congregation were
needed. And a spirit of Christian love grew and bloomed in that
place.
New types of witness? For the first time, I found I could
comfortably speak of Jesus, my Lord, to others. I could listen, I
could comfort, I could pray with and for another.
New dimensions of life in the here and now? I had always been a
Christian, but something shifted in my understanding at that point in
my life when I surrendered and listened, really listened, to the still,
small voice in my heart that said “Go!.”
That is my story. But you have yours. Stories of awakening
to acknowledge and then employ your special, God-given talents.
Stories of new awareness when, led by the Holy Spirit, you returned to
regular worship, acted on the instinct to pick up the phone and call a
friend, or set self aside to minister to another.
Stories of times when you were able to leave behind the burden of your
prejudices or when your actions, indeed, lifted you to new dimensions
of life.
The awesomeness of our God, the blessed love and example of Jesus, and
the mystery of the Holy Spirit defy our poor powers of explanation.
The miracle is that we know the God whose voice calls to us: “Whom
shall I send, and who will go for us?” The further miracle is
that from deep within the best part of ourselves we can answer,
“Yes! Here am I; send me.”
And so it is that on this Sunday we lift our voices in acknowledgment of the power and gift of the Trinity:
Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and mighty,
God in three Persons, Blessed Trinity.
AMEN.
Laura Shoffner
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