On the Christian church’s liturgical calendar, this first Sunday after Pentecost is traditionally called “Trinity Sunday.”  It is the day on which we remember and celebrate that our one God is revealed to us in three ways: as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

The words of the trinity are familiar.  After the reading of scripture, we sing the doxology which ends, “praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.”  During the offering, we sing Praise to God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, “One God, triune, whom we adore.”  We baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Many of the hymns we sing mention the trinity in some way.  And when we leave the church and return to the world in which we are to serve God, we are often sent forth with a Trinitarian benediction.  In short, the trinity is an undergirding tenet of our Christian faith.

 

But you won’t find the word trinity in the Bible.  Instead, the doctrine came about in the early church, when the first Christians grappled with how to express the three ways they had come to know God.

 

One experience of God was as Creator, from the familiar story in Genesis.  The term “Father” was attributed to this Creator God, and this analogy from human experience compares the connection between God and humanity to the intimate relationship of parents and their children.

 

For the first Christians, another understanding of God came through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  God entered the world in the form of frail human flesh to participate in earthly human life.  In the words of the United Church of Christ’s Statement of Faith, Jesus came to earth to “share our common lot.”  Through the Incarnation, the faith community came to understand that God was not just out there, but lived as one of us, sharing life’s pains as well as its joys.  The designation “Son” was given to Jesus Christ, to underscore his close relationship to God, the “Father.”

 

And the third way the early Church understood God was as the Holy Spirit.  As promised by Jesus, the gift of the Spirit came on Pentecost, which we celebrated last Sunday, and the Holy Spirit is the presence of God working in our hearts and in our lives.

 

The early Christians realized that, to depict God, they had to somehow come up with a way of describing all three of these ways that God had been revealed to them.  Describing God as just the creator would limit them to thinking of God as ruling the world from a safe distance, far removed from human problems and dangers.  And describing God as just the Son would limit them to thinking of God solely in human terms.  And if they described God as just Spirit, God would be reduced to an abstract life force of some sort.

 

At the same time, they needed to be true to their monotheistic belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  And so the trinity was the way the early Christians could remain true to the unity of One God while conveying their three experiences of God – the one God who is at once over us and with us and in us.

 

There have been many attempts to try to relate this idea of three-in-one in terms we can understand.  For instance, the trinity is like a tricycle with three wheels, or a clover with three leaves.  The trinity is like H₂O, which can be in the form of ice, water, or steam. 

 

But I think the best way to try to understand the trinity is in relational terms.  For instance, the people in my family have three different experiences of me – to my parents, I’m a daughter; to my children, I’m a mother, to my husband, I’m a wife.  I am the same person, but my family members experience me in different ways, and each of these relationships reveals a slightly different aspect of my personality. 

 

So, all of that having been said, why do we celebrate Trinity Sunday?  Why do we devote this day to a doctrine – and a difficult one at that – when all the other major days on the church calendar celebrate events?

 

Today we begin the longest season of the Christian year.  We started the church year last December on the first Sunday of Advent, four weeks before Christmas, when we waited in joyful expectation for the birth of the messiah.  We sang with the angel choirs at Christ’s birth on Christmas; we followed the Magi to his manger on Epiphany, and we witnessed his baptism in the Jordan.  We journeyed with Jesus throughout the season of Lent; mourned together on Good Friday at his crucifixion, and rejoiced with the disciples at the resurrection.  Last week at Pentecost, we experienced the presence of the Spirit of God alive and moving in our midst. 

 

Now, we enter the longest season of the church year – the season of growth, represented by the green of my stole.  And during this season, we are to grow in our faith and continue to discern what it means to follow Christ.  We are to struggle with understanding how we are to live as a Christian community.  This season is an opportunity for us to wrestle with, and to celebrate, the meaning of God in our lives and in the life of this family of faith.

 

Paul gives us a glimpse of how we are to do it in this morning’s epistle lesson.  In his Trinitarian blessing, he acknowledges that the life of faith can only be accomplished with the help and grace of the One whom we seek to worship and follow. The presence of God will enable us to greet one another with acceptance and love and to live in peace together.

 

And in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus gives his disciples an unequivocal command: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”  When Jesus commissioned them, the disciples were struggling with their faith and their doubts.  They were not unlike you and me – people on a faith journey, seeking truth amidst doubt and uncertainty.  And yet, Jesus told them to go out into the world to make disciples. 

 

And here’s another important reason for Trinity Sunday.  In human relationships, three’s a crowd.  But in divine relationships, it’s a different story, and the trinity is the model for relationships in the Christian church.  The Trinitarian God is telling us that to be a true Christian community, we must open up our comfortable, established relationships to allow in a third.  When we look at ourselves gathered here – whether it is me in relationship to you, or you in relationship with each other – there is always someone missing.  That person can be the one who has not yet entered our doors for the first time.  That person can be the one to whom God calls us to reach out.  That person is the one we may not yet know but who transforms our congregation from the human dynamic of “two’s company” to the divine reflection of the trinity – “three’s company.”

 

The divine community we see in the trinity is the model of all genuine Christian communities, and we will never truly be Christ’s church unless we are open to the third person, the other, the one we may not yet even know.

 

A year ago, we gathered as a church community at our annual program meeting and, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we took these words as our vision statement: “We are a Christ-centered family of God. Reaching out to all in holy love and service, Welcoming all who seek God's love and grace, Journeying together in faith, mission, and spiritual growth, and Building up the body of Christ, the church local and universal.

 

Let us work together to ensure that this vision of our church – reaching out to and welcoming all – is a reality, and that our family of faith truly reflects the divine community.  Let us ensure that we always have room – in our pews and also in our hearts – for the one who is not yet among us.  Then and only then can we truly be the kind of community that Christ is calling us to be.  Amen.

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