Genesis 1:1-2:4a Psalm 8
2 Cor. 13: 11-13 Matthew 28: 16-20
Grace & peace to you from God our Father, from Jesus our Savior and brother, and from the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Comforter. Amen.
Ok, this is a time for truth telling! How many of you are hooked on the TV series “Dancing With the Stars”? I’m not sure what season this wildly popular show is in, but I think I became very aware of its existence when the daughter of a certain presidential candidate was a contestant. People began to equate her presence on the show with some plot to take over American politics. So I had to watch. And I must tell you, I was rather fascinated with the dancing. But it seems that the dancing itself is not the only thing that draws people into watching this show. There’s all of this extra DRAMA. And that drama is about relationship. Who’s involved with who and who’s mad at who and who’s out to get who. It is the relationship that makes the dance that much more attractive.
Today is Holy Trinity Sunday, that Sunday when we celebrate the Holy Trinity, which is God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Only one God, not three, but three in one. Confused yet? The creed we will say this morning is the Athanasian creed, which is often used on this Sunday because of its attempt to explain the Trinity. Scholars, theologians, authors, and pastors have spilled a lot of ink over the Trinity. Just as we learned in the children’s time this morning, there have been attempts to simplify the concept by explaining what the Trinity is like…it is like a tree, with root, branch, and leaf. It is like an apple, with peel, seed, and fruit. It is like water that is ice, water, and steam. And while those analogies might be helpful, they still somehow fall short. And I think the reason they fall short is that there is not any sort of relational aspect between them. There is no passion. There is no connection. There is no dance.
Our first reading this morning is one of the stories of Creation from Genesis. (To read the second creation story you must continue reading in chapter two.) We read it as something of a refrain, we read it in relationship to one another. The words themselves were in relationship to the act of creation. And it was so. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and morning. The telling of this story offers us more than an account of the beginning of the world as we know it, though. It offers us a glimpse into the relationship between God and Creation. And it offers us a glimpse into the relationship of humankind, God, and Creation.
What God made, God intended for the good of all. God’s pronouncement was not that things were good just for God, or that they were good in and of themselves. God saw that all of Creation was good. The day and night, the sky, the earth, the sea, the sun and moon, all living creatures and all creeping things, humankind. And ultimately, at the end of all of this good creating, God rested, and hallowed a day for Creation to rest as well.
I might note, and I have noted that resting is not something we do well anymore. Sabbath keeping has become a quaint old custom that some of us remember. But that is another sermon for another time.
What we hear in Genesis is the story of a remarkable dance…a dance of creation, where differences are celebrated. The differences between night and day, between earth and sea, between sun and moon. It is a dance of a Creator and the creation. And we, those of us created in God’s image, are invited to be the stewards and caretakers of this amazing creation.
Come join the dance of Trinity before all worlds begun – the interweaving of the Three, the Father, Spirit, Son. The universe of space and time did not arise by chance, but as the Three, in love and hope, made room within their dance.
Jesus is certainly the most concrete face we can put on the Trinity. Yet, the significance of Jesus is also rooted in relationship. His relationship with God the Father, who sends him out and his relationship with the Holy Spirit who rests upon him like a dove following his baptism and who sustains him throughout his ministry. Distinct yet the same.
In the Gospel reading from Matthew today we read something of his relationship with the remaining eleven disciples following his resurrection. The text says that when the disciples saw the risen Christ, they worshiped him; but some doubted. How often have we been among the doubters? It would be almost impossible NOT to have occasionally doubted, when faced with the brokenness of the world, with unexplainable tragedies and unimaginable disasters, with untreatable diagnoses and unbelievable stories. I don’t think that worshiping Christ means that we cannot doubt. Or that doubting means we cannot worship. I think we worship in spite of our doubts and perhaps we also doubt in spite of our worship. But Jesus doesn’t spend a lot of time sifting through those doubts or dwelling on the worship. Instead, Jesus sends the disciples out to do the work he has given them to do, to make disciples of all nations, to baptize them in the name of the Holy Trinity, and to teach them all that he has taught. And then Jesus tells them the most important thing…he says to them “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” This promise is for all of them, not just those who didn’t doubt. And it is for all of us. That in the midst of our doubts and in the midst of our worship and in all of the in between places, Jesus is with us, forever.
Come see the face of Trinity, newborn in Bethlehem; then bloodied by a crown of thorns outside Jerusalem. The dance of Trinity is meant for human flesh and bone; when fear confines the dance in death, God rolls away the stone.
Last week we celebrated the presence of the Holy Spirit among us. That Spirit, comes to us as Advocate and Comforter and Empowering presence of the Triune God. That Spirit gives us boldness in our meekness and courage in our fear. That spirit enabled all of those gathered on that first Pentecost to hear one another speaking. And that is also what relationship is about. To be able to truly hear one another and even if we don’t agree, to allow the other voice to exist. So often we do not take the time to truly listen to one another. We don’t know each other’s stories and we don’t hear what the other person is truly saying. But it is the power and presence and the dance of the Holy Spirit that enables the message of grace and mercy present in the Holy Trinity to continue to live and spread and grow throughout the world.
Come speak aloud of Trinity, as wind and tongues of flame set people free at Pentecost to tell the Savior’s name, We know the yoke of sin and death, our necks have worn it smooth; go tell the world of weight and woe that we are free to move!
What we celebrate as we gather in this day is relationship. It is the relationship between God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. It is our relationship with the Triune God. And it is our relationship with one another. And our relationship with one another is designed to mirror the perfect relationship found within the Trinity. Of course, because of humanity’s brokenness, it mirrors something else entirely. But the good news, the gospel news, for this day and all days, is that it does not depend on us…this relationship making…God created us for perfect relationship to the rest of Creation. Jesus died for us so that we could be free to live within perfect grace, not striving for salvation through works, but offering our good works in response to our salvation. And the Holy Spirit burns in our hearts and bellies and empowers us to serve God, God’s Creation, and one another. Our task then, is to be open to the relationship, to seek to live within that perfect dance of Trinity.
Within the dance of Trinity, before all worlds begun, we sing thepraises of the Three, the Father, Spirit, Son. Let voices rise and interweave, by love and hope set free, to shape in song this joy, this life: the dance of Trinity.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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