Trinity / Pride (B) + 5.27.18

Rublev's Trinity

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Isaiah 6:1–8; Ps. 29; Romans 8:12–17; John 3:1–17)

When do you most feel the deep mystery of this life? Is it when you hear your loved one breathe at night? Is it when you see the flashes and thunder and lightning of a tremendous storm? Is it when someone tells you a truth that you always knew but could never put into words?

We human beings have bodies and mostly it's good to be connected to them. I'm more connected with my mind with my body, so to remedy that recently I have done little bit of yoga every day. I've always done some yoga but now I'm doing a little more yoga and more regularly. And it has helped me to connect with my body.
But when we read scriptures like this gospel, we focus very much on the spirit, and feel that the spirit has to be disconnected from the body.

And then the reading from Romans tells us not be too connected to the weaknesses of the body. Do we need to feel ashamed of our separate from our bodies?

No. In fact, God loves us in our bodies. God just tells us that we should not feel limited by our bodies. Our bodies feel all the things we cannot do. But by the power of God, we have a stronger partner who can do anything.

We can think of the Holy Trinity in so many ways – as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; the loving creator, the beloved and love that flows between everything. Or we can think of the Trinity as very different characters like those that appeared in the book The Shack (William P. Young, 2007), with the African-American Mother God, The Holy Spirit in the form of a gardener with an Asian appearance, and Jesus the humble carpenter, the ordinary dude. We can make diagrams of how is God one and three at the same time. We can throw some Latin in.
But, beyond diagrams, the most important aspect of our triune God is that God is a community in Godself, and in this spirit of community, God always wants to be in our lives with us. As partners in this journey that is life. God dances with us in body and spirit and dynamically enters our lives.

In the reading from Isaiah, an angel touches Isaiah with a burning coal - and don't worry - we don't do that during the confession in this church! But here for him it is a mystical image to understand the forgiveness of sins and the way that God enables him to share God’s message as a prophet. Even though he is an ordinary man who has sinned, he is redeemed by this mystical touch. By God’s coming close to him to forgive. So he is able to serve.
Through Jesus, the manifestation on earth of the Son, we are children of God. And not just any children. But heirs.
As you may know, in the ancient world, not all of the children received an inheritance. Only one or two of the sons were heirs, and forget about the daughters (at least normally).[1] So when we heard today that we have an inheritance in God, we hear that we are not some partial children but we are each as the first or second child of God. We are each a son or daughter who deserves everything that God has to share with us.
If this does not fill you with wonder, your idea of God is too small. Because, for me, thinking of myself as a daughter of God with all the rights of the firstborn - this is a wonder. It is almost incomprehensible for me.

We had a glimpse of a way of seeing this last week in the Royal Wedding. Meghan Markle, the spouse of Prince Harry, is a bi-racial person. She has a father with Euro-American roots and a mother of African American heritage. Since she tends to look very European in appearance, she could easily have had the traditional wedding with little representation of her African-American background. But she's proud of all that she is. Her entire background is a rich inheritance and it is part of what she brings to his new role of princess. So she asked our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry to preach. And the service included African-American music and we saw an Afro-British cellist playing. We saw her mother wearing elegant dreadlocks with her formal dress. Everything was very classy. But it was clear that she is proud of her heritage, and we all felt that. She knows that it is not in spite of her background that she is now a duchess. But in fact she brings all of herself to share with the world a new way of being the Royal Family of England and being in leadership.

We must also have confidence and pride in who we are. We are not all bi racial royals, but everyone can look inside and find what it is that he or she needs to hold with pride. And everyone has something that makes them feel not fully equal to the service of God like Isaiah. But we should not believe this inner voice. Just like Isaiah, we are forgiven, and when we turn to God, we join the dance, we are empowered to serve.
And this is why we come before the Lord in all confidence. We know that even if some of us are facing difficult times, God will never fail us. We can bring our needs to God and ask for what we need, as the sons and daughters of God who we are, with all the rights that belong to this role.

When we have a need, we come before God with our whole being and ask God for assistance with our whole heart. And in God’s time, help will come. And when God calls us, we know that we can serve, not in spite of anything we are or have lived. But in fact, we can bring everything we are to enrich our service in the name of God.

Because this is the mystery of the triune God. God invites us to engage Godself and live in self-respect and love for others. And our Presiding Bishop tells us that when we live in the world where love is the way, “no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook. When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields down, down by the riverside to study war no more. When love is the way, there’s plenty good room, plenty good room, for all of God’s children. Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well, like we are actually family.”[2]

We are family in Christ. We are forgiven by our God. We can serve and we can be proud of who we are. This is the mystery. Thanks be to God.

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[1] Rolf Jacobsen, Karoline Lewis and Matt Skinner, “Sermon Brainwave #607 – The Holy Trinity,” for May 27, 2018, https://www.workingpreacher.org/brainwave.aspx.

[2] Michael Curry, From "Bishop Michael Curry’ s Full Sermon from the Royal Wedding," https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/style/bishop-michael-curry-royal-wedding.html.