Trinity Sunday, Year B
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
May 26, 2024
the Rev. Jonathan Hanneman
To watch the full service, please visit this page.
Trinity Sunday is the one feast on the Church Calendar dedicated to a doctrine rather than to an event or individual. Priests and pastors often consider this one of the more difficult days to preach, made especially hard because the idea we’re meant to celebrate neither does nor can make logical sense. The thought that one God can function as three distinct Persons—not simply appearing as different modalities or expressions of themself at different times and places—yet all the while being one, singular God has baffled and confounded some of humanity’s greatest minds for nearly 2,000 years. Yet that’s the best way anyone has figured out to describe certain instances in the New Testament, like Jesus’ baptism, where we experience God individually as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same moment. One thing that is three separate things, each of which are in fact the entirety of the one thing, yet all of which are, both individually and collectively, the one thing itself, is probably the ultimate paradox, a riddle against which the ocean of human thought can continually crash yet that will wholly endure beyond the day that even the thought of thought has completely worn itself away.
So, if you don’t “get” the Trinity, you’re in good company. No one ever has, and it’s pretty much certain that no one ever will. God’s being is one of the foundational mysteries of Christianity—as soon as we think we have a grasp on it, we need to have the humility to recognize that we are, in fact, undoubtedly and completely wrong.
Beyond the challenge of the Trinity itself, there’s a certain amount of danger in how we tend to embrace particular doctrines. Church doctrines are long-standing, well thought out teachings meant to help people more easily comprehend certain realities about God. Doctrine, as a generally stabilized form of theology, can be a very good and helpful thing. The problem arises when we look at doctrines as absolute answers to theological questions, perfect realities in and of themselves—what someone must know or the way an individual is required to think if they want to be a “genuine” Christian.
We as the Church have a long history of doing this—of deciding who’s in or out with God and who we can or need to love or hate, who we can rightly discriminate against, who we can kill, and who we can permanently bind from God’s Kingdom.[1] But none of that that is either the function of the Church or consistent with Christianity itself. It’s just human beings justifying our own pride and prejudice—our inborn attachment and allegiance to Empire or “the flesh” with its gifts of power, influence, and certainty in one’s own desire—all under a false face of God.
Despite what we may have been taught, being a Christian is not based on the ideas about God to which you assent or what (you hope) you correctly understand about the supernatural world. It isn’t defined by your mental acuity or any particular line of philosophical dogma. Being a Christian is rooted entirely in following Jesus. It’s about living: about turning to God again and again, about caring for and serving[2] the people around us; about demonstrating your love for God—sometimes through the course of what we’ve learned but often in spite of what we might think or how we might feel or the way we understand things ought to be. It’s actively and preemptively treating your neighbor as you long for others to treat you. Being a Christian is a physical—not a potential, intellectual, or imagined—reality. It is a lived imitation of Christ. It’s not just considering, debating, or embracing certain ideas about God. Christianity involves actually doing what Jesus did—caring for the poor, welcoming the outcast, standing against abusive practices, protecting and restoring other people to (and even past!) the point of risking your own self—your soul[3]—for the sake of someone else.
Does that mean that we don’t need to think about God or that we shouldn’t pay attention to particular teachings or doctrines? Not at all. Think as much as you want. Study as much as you can. Take advantage of the work others have already done in your attempts to comprehend the “whats” and “whys” of Christian life. Contemplate the “hows” until they’ve embedded themselves within your own being. Do everything possible to learn and love and dream more about God! Let that learning guide your daily activity! But never let any of those ideas get in the way of living for—and especially like!—God.
Our ideas about God are important, but only in the way that they lead us into action. If a teaching or thought helps you actually and physically live a Christ-like life, great! But if it’s preventing your action or otherwise getting in your way, it’s okay to toss it. If something I say doesn’t direct you along the path of love for God making itself real by compassion for and service toward your neighbor, ignore it. If contemplating the Trinity leads you into anything other than awe for God’s impossible majesty coupled with a desire to share that wonder and love with others, then stop wasting your time and energy thinking about it.
Instead, live!
Live as the Body of Christ somehow still incarnate in the world. Live in the power and energy of the Spirit that animates us. Live as God’s own soul—God’s united body and breath—in and for and throughout this world that God so loves.
Live like the Father, providing life and sunshine and rain and sustenance to everyone, both those who recognize and those who would reject their Creator. Live like the Son, “[loving] your enemies, [blessing those who] curse you, [doing good] to [those who] hate you, and [praying] for [those who] despitefully use you.”[4] Live like the Spirit, pouring out the fullness of its presence and gifts upon all flesh[5] in spite of perceived worthiness.
Live like God! Love like God! Serve like God!
Yes, we look to God—we most certainly need to look to God!—but never use anything I or any other human might say or think about God as an excuse to avoid living Jesus’ one command that sums up all others—to love!
[1] Unless, of course, that individual decides to embrace our viewpoint and become exactly like us.
[2] And the humility to receive the same care and service from...
[3] See http://www.slouchingdog.com/sermons/year-b-may-19-2024-pentecost for a discussion of the soul.
[4] Matthew 5:44 | KJV (adapted)
[5] Acts 2:17