Trinity Sunday 2013

          Spiritual forces include both an outward force that calls us into relationships outside ourselves and an inward force that calls us to protect the self. These spiritual forces need to kept in balance. Too much of the outward force and we become divided and fragmented. Too much of the inward force and we become self-centered and selfish. God the Holy Trinity is the spiritual force of balance, the force that both keeps us together and keeps us reaching out. As St. Augustine of Hippo in North Africa taught us 1600 years ago, the unifying love of the persons of the Holy Trinity is both the example and the power of our created unity in diversity.

          Most special days in the church year remember events in the life of Christ or his church. For 800 years Christians in Western Europe and in churches planted from Western Europe have kept the Sunday after Pentecost as Trinity Sunday, “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.” Today we celebrate God as revealed to us in the Bible and in the life of his church.

          God is revealed as one, as a unity expressed in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The unity of the three persons of God is formed by the love they share. Trinity Sunday reminds us we are one person in many relationships, our unity formed by God’s gift of love in Jesus.

          Maintaining the balance among the forces in our lives takes love, attention,  and spiritual effort. Too much of the outward force and we become divided and fragmented. Too much of the inward force and we become self-centered and selfish

          God’s unity in trinity in the relationship of mutual love is our example, our guide, and by God’s gift of love in the Holy Spirit of Jesus our strength and power. So the Trinity is important, important in our thinking and important in our lives.

 
          The church’s teaching about God is based on God’s self-revelation in the Bible, particularly in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  The church’s teaching about God is summarized in the creeds. The Episcopal Church expands the creeds in the Prayer Book Catechism (pp 845-862) and the Historical Documents, the Athanasian Creed and the Articles of Religion.

          The creeds start with the unity of God. “We believe in one God.” Jesus, when asked a trick question (St. Matthew 22:35-40, St. Mark 12:28-31, St. Luke 10:25-28) answered from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Shema Israel, Adonai elohenu, adonai echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.” He added from Leviticus 19:18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Observant Jews begin and end the day with the Shema; it is a good spiritual practice.

          God is not fragmented; God is a unity. We are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26).We are not essentially fragmented; we are created a unity.  We maintain our unity in love.  “God is love and those who dwell in love dwell in God, and God in them.” (I John 4:16)

          Just as the Father loves the Son and the Son the Father in the bond of the love of the Holy Spirit, by the same Holy Spirit God dwells in us, and we in him. The love of God in Trinity is our example of unity, and the love of God in Trinity  creates and sustains us as whole and balanced people.

          This truth held clearly in our minds can set us free from all that divides us, both within ourselves and between one another. The God who made us loves us. He poured out his love on us in the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. We are set free from the need to sin, from the need to hurt as we have been hurt. We can accept God’s forgiveness and in the power of that forgiveness forgive those who have sinned against us.

          Maintaining the balance among the forces in our lives takes love, attention,  and spiritual effort. Too much of the outward force and we become divided and fragmented. Too much of the inward force and we become self-centered and selfish

          Our various relationships and roles vie for our attention; each wants to be supreme. We need to pay continuing attention to the question, “What is most important in our lives?” How are we maintaining balance among the forces in our lives? How are we both internalizing and expressing God’s love for us in Jesus Christ? 

          God the Holy Trinity is the spiritual force of balance, the force that both keeps us together and keeps us reaching out. So let us now celebrate God’s unity in trinity in the words of the Nicene Creed.