Sunday, 22 May 2016 Paul E. Hoffman
+The Holy Trinity, Series C Seattle, WA
Luther Memorial Lutheran Church
Holy, holy, holy; Lord God Almighty. Look at the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into now.
The Trinity is what we got when we started testifying that the God of Israel raised Jesus from the dead.
So wrote one of brighter, more adventurous young Lutheran pastors this past week. At first blush, I thought well that’s pretty thin. But the more I’ve been letting that sentence bounce around in my head, the more I like it.
Holy, holy, holy; Lord God Almighty. Look at the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into now.
And what a mess it must have been for that young church in Jerusalem, coming out of the past three years roaming around Galilee with Jesus. Not to mention that last couple of months. But, hey, just for fun, let’s go ahead and mention them. For the closest followers of Jesus, they had been a whirlwind. From the beginning, there was increasing political pressure from both the Roman government and their own families. Maybe Jesus’ words about pitting mother against daughter and father against son were beginning to make sense. More recently, their own people, especially the leaders – rabbis, Pharisees, Saducees, scribes, were on their case. And then Jesus himself let them down. Weird and weirder words and actions. Arrest. Death on a cross like a common criminal.
Holy, holy, holy; Lord God Almighty. Look at the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into now.
But that wasn’t the end of it. A startling resurrection, random appearances that were punctuated with both joy and utter, confusing sadness at their brevity. And then, one day, one day not so long ago, he disappeared from them saying something new was about to happen. An advocate would come. A Spirit. A power from on high.
And so, here we are. The Trinity is what we got when we started testifying that the God of Israel raised Jesus from the dead. You know that the word Trinity is not in the Bible, right? The IDEA of the Trinity might be there, but not the Trinity itself. At least not by name.
Holy, holy, holy; Lord God Almighty. Look at the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into now.
Not too long ago, I read an interesting article in SEATTLE MET called, Is Seattle the Birthplace of a New Religion? My first reaction was an eye-roll. Wouldn’t it be just like Seattle – godless, secular, pagan Seattle – to claim for itself to be the cradle of a new religion? You can’t claim to be the birthplace of a new faith until you embrace the one we’ve already got, I thought to myself. Smugly. And then I read the article. And you know what? There was some really good stuff there. Thoughtful stuff. Provocative stuff. Stuff that made me think about what it must have been like for that first little band of Jews who believed that Jesus was risen from the dead by the God of Israel to have to parlay their old faith into a completely new one. Listen to a few things that the author of Is Seattle the Birthplace of a New Religion had to say:
The new faith coming to life here in Seattle looks like a weaker
institutional Christianity but potentially a more beautiful one
In the new faith springing up in Seattle, denominational ties will
loosen, and the church’s institutional power and cultural influence will
wane—but “vibrant and diverse communities in the way of Jesus” will
arise from the void.
Seattle is a site for fresh life, the author explains. Losing its power
takes the church to a place it hasn’t been since before Constantine. I think
that’s really hopeful.
When I thought about it… When I gave it chance… When I stopped long enough to see how entrenched I was in my own old-school institutional assumptions and trappings, I could see how these are all the exact types of things that could be said about the move from monotheistic Judaism in the first century mutating into Trinitarian Christianity. What an amazing, scary, LIFE-GIVING transition that must have been.
And maybe, just maybe, that’s the sort of amazing, scary, life-giving sort of transition that God is leading us into right here, right now, in – of all places – Seattle! Think of it: Is Seattle the Birthplace of a New Religion? I think God must be smiling a bit about all of this because – after all – there’s nothing new under the sun to God AND – if you think about it – of course God would be giving birth to something new in, of all places, Seattle.
Holy, holy, holy; Lord God Almighty. Look at the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into now.
The Trinity is what we got when we started testifying that the God of Israel raised Jesus from the dead.
Is Seattle the Birthplace of a New Religion?
These are all wonderful things for the faithful to think about, and talk about, and live into in these new days. I suspect the Trinity itself will remain a mystery – some days like those ending in a beautiful sunset God the Creator will be more on our minds. On those days when forgiveness floods into our lives, we may be heavier on the Jesus side of the three-sided Godhead. And on days when we, the gathered people of God are at work in the world, trying to figure it all out – just what it means to be God’s people in a complicated and compelling world, I suspect we could be pushed to see that it’s God the Holy Spirit who is being our guide. But always when you get the One you get the Three. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. Is Seattle the birthplace of a new religion? Is today the day?
In the name of the Father and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.