Sermon

The Trinity as a Clue to Community

June 6, 2004

By Rev. Tessie Mandeville

Much of the church the world over celebrates the first Sunday after the day of Pentecost as Trinity Sunday. This is a different kind of feast in the Christian calendar, because it does not celebrate a historical event in the lives of Jesus or the disciples, but rather of a theological doctrine. The doctrine is mainly the product of fourth century A.D. thought and is the result of debates that sought to define the relationship between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

As we talk about the Trinity this morning, I want to remind us that the church is a human institution, as fallible as all others, and that our allegiance is not to an institution, or some doctrine, but to a living God. I trust that the Spirit of Truth always points us toward this living God and toward new understandings of some old teachings. Let us pray.

Living and loving God, bless us this morning as we seek to understand you more. May we experience only your love, your justice, and your freedom in all that we do. Amen.

In the beginning was relationship. For those of us who grew up in Christian churches, we heard the stories of how God created the universe. And if we listened carefully, we heard God say in the book of Genesis, “Let us create humanity in our image.” The plurality of God always existed. God exists in relationship and wants to be in communion with us. We humans have always tried to explain our experiences of God. I believe this is how we need to understand what came to be known as the doctrine of the Trinity—not as some incomprehensible doctrine of the church, but rather as our earnest attempt to somehow put into words our experience of the overflowing love of God.

Augustine, an early church father, took fifteen books to talk about the Trinity. Be thankful I don’t feel the need to do that this morning! But I do want us to look at the Trinity. I believe we can still learn from it and even expand it. On one level, the Trinitarian formula is a mathematical impossibility. When has 1+1+1 ever equaled 1? On another level, the Trinitarian formula of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is inherently patriarchal. We can take this one step further and say that it is hierarchical as well. If we use the traditional understanding of the Trinity, it says that the Son proceeds from the Father and the Spirit proceeds from Jesus. If this is true, then it implies that all of creation is ordered from the top down. Therefore, this Trinitarian theology can and has been used to justify oppressive political and social systems. To even want to understand a deeper meaning of the Trinity, we have to throw away our math. We have to dismiss the patriarchal and hierarchical views. We need to embrace relational thinking as opposed to linear thinking.

The theology of the Trinity reveals a God in relationship; a God engaged in eternal communion. Here we see a God who enthusiastically loves all people and eagerly longs for them to experience that love. Our relationship with God begins when we realize that God, who created the universe, cares deeply for us. This is something that Jesus exemplified. Many of us believe different things about Jesus. Some believe he was fully divine. Some believe he was fully human. Some believe he was human and divine, which is rather impossible, but that’s a whole other sermon! I think we can all agree that Jesus had a deep relationship with God and Spirit. When people spent time with Jesus they felt as if they were in the presence of God; this was because of Jesus’ connection to God.

Trinitarian theology asserts that relationship is fundamental to God and that community is the foundation of God’s interaction with the world. The persons of the Trinity—and I use the word "persons" to help us understand relational thinking—do not allow for inequality, or subordination, or domination, or hierarchy. Barbara Brown Zikund says, “A truly social doctrine of the Trinity contains a vision of a community of people together without privilege or subjection to each other—or to God.” We all exist together as equal partners in a relationship of mutual love. God interacts with us as a community that accepts itself, and others, while honoring diversity. God interacts with us as a community that seeks unity without uniformity.

Understood in this way, a queer Trinity sets forth a radical ethic of justice and care. It is based on a vision that everyone should be treated as of equal worth; everyone should be responded to and included and that no one should be left alone or hurt. And this is the vision that we as a community of faith seek to embody—a place where every life matters and every person belongs.

God as community calls us to shared responsibility. Years ago, an Italian film showed a statue of Christ being towed through the air by a helicopter. The gilded Christ floated above city slums, above a landscape of dirt and grime and despairing faces. It came to rest atop a polished church tower, where passersby could look up and admire it. I suspect if Christ were directing that helicopter pilot, he’d be yelling, "Set me down. Right there. Right in the middle of all that hurt and hunger." The life to which God calls us is lived on the ground, not floating like a statue above a needy world.

We, as a community, are to be involved in ordering life for the sake of justice and freedom. We have a commitment to seek the right ordering of all things according to God's amazing desire for justice. We have a commitment for seeking the wholeness of humankind and of all creation. God's love calls for the reordering and transforming of our life together so that we exist as open and loving community not only for ourselves but also for others.

Based on the stories in our sacred scripture, it appears that the community of the early church reflected God as community. In Acts chapter 2 it says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day, God added to their number those who were being saved.”

God as community operates on a foundation of integrity and communal concern. Just like Jesus in many of our gospel stories, it seems that Mahatma Gandhi also knew people in high places who were irresponsible; who were operating not from a foundation of integrity and communal concern but from a place of greed, entitlement, superiority, and judgment. At the site of his cremation in New Delhi, there stands a plaque containing what Gandhi referred to as the Seven Sins of the World, sins that contribute too much of the violence that we experience in our world. They are:

–Wealth without Work
–Pleasure without Conscience
–Knowledge without Character
–Commerce without Morality
–Science without Humanity
–Worship without Sacrifice
–Politics without Principles

In 1987, Gandhi's grandson Arun Gandhi added another sin: Rights without Responsibilities.

The two Gandhi's understood that ignoring our shared responsibilities violates God as community. For Gandhi, the responsibility of every individual is to build communities where people recognize that they are inter-related, interdependent and interconnected. A community, said Gandhi, is guided by positive principles like love, respect, understanding, acceptance, and appreciation.

In the beginning was relationship. We are created for life in community—with God, with others, and the rest of creation. As Pentecost is remembered as the birthday of the church, we can look at Trinity Sunday as we would look on the birthday of a friend or loved one; a day we set aside for rejoicing purely in that person’s being. Today we celebrate God for being God. We celebrate God in relationship; God engaged in eternal communion. Today we celebrate God as community. God as mutuality and shared responsibility. Today we celebrate God who enthusiastically loves us and calls us into divine relationship so that we too, can experience the profound love of God. Let it be and amen.