Trinity Sunday

Genesis 1:1 – 2:4b

Psalm 8

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Matthew 28:16-20

May 18, 2008

Creation.

The first chapter of Genesis gives us a poetic rendition of

‘the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.’

An unfolding of events:

Light from darkness, land from the waters, and all life springing forth,

all connected to each other, teeming with life-bringing-forth-life.

Somehow this made me think of the house I grew up in -

an old house on the river with generations of life-bringing-forth-life.

When I think back on it, the first memories that come up are very ordinary.

Our air-conditioning system in the summer

consisted of a ritual that involved us all.

In the evening the windows were opened wide and fans turned on

to pull in the cooling air.

In the morning windows were lowered and shades partially drawn

to keep out the heat of the summer sun.

When the afternoon summer rain came pelting through,

depending on which way the wind was blowing,

windows were closed until the showers stopped.

In the late afternoon, we would migrate with our bug spray out to the patio

which was halfway down the yard toward the river.

The breeze could be felt there long before the fans could do their job

of pulling it through the house.

There were parties out on that patio.

There was a wedding between the large oaks in the back yard.

There were newborn babies brought home from the hospital.

There were birthdays to celebrate each year.

Life-bringing-forth-life.

All pictures of people living life together.

Exchanging, always exchanging with each other.

When the afternoon rain suddenly appeared…

‘Honey, you run up and close the windows upstairs

while I get these down here!’

From the patio…

‘I need a platter out here!’

 my dad would call out when the burgers were done.

And he knew someone would appear with one.

As we lived our lives in that house

what came forth from all our daily exchanges were those qualities

that make a house a home, and a bunch of people a family:

Between us there was comfort, belonging, identity, support, strength, protection, encouragement, purpose, …

What happens when life-is-bringing-forth-life.

On this first Sunday after Pentecost, which we call Trinity Sunday,

The church turns its attention to the Trinity, the Triune God.

We sing in hymns and draw from scripture that express a mystery..

that within God there are three distinct persons

in community with each other.

So, God is no single Lord in heaven that rules everything.

No power of providence who determines all and is affected by nothing.

God is a society of persons, a community of persons,

rich in relationships within the three

and extending out to embrace and incorporate others into community.

Reminds me of my mother who wouldn’t think of having Thanksgiving dinner

without a guest from outside the family at the table.

Usually someone who was alone or going through rough times.

Sometimes an acquaintance, often times someone from the halfway house downtown

that she and my dad supported.

God – a community of persons, a household of persons.

It is from this perspective that we can claim that ‘God is love.’

Love exists, is expressed, appears, when life-bringing-forth-life

takes place between two that are distinct and separate - and they are joined together.

Weddings and births and birthdays and cook-outs.

Between parent and child, sister and brother,

friend or stranger, human and beloved pet.

Jurgen Moltmann writes that the Triune God is a habitable God.

Perhaps that is why we are baptized INTO Christ.

It’s not just about allegiance,

but more about being welcomed INTO a household, a community.

We find that God is not simply to be believed,

but more essentially to be inhabited,

moved into, lived into.

With the idyllic picture from the creation story in Genesis 1

and selective scenes from our memories of home,

who wouldn’t want to move in, unpack, and stay forever?

What’s not to love?

What’s not to love comes in Chapter 3 of Genesis

when Adam and Eve moved out of the habitation of God

and in Chapter 4 when the first murder took place

as one of their sons killed his brother.

What’s not to love in the house I remember?

Or, at least, what is very difficult to love?

Oh, the usual…

Difficult relationships, misunderstandings, broken trust,

hard times, illness, weariness, disappointments,

bad decisions, addictions, anger, blame…

…and life-bringing-forth-life can seem like a long-lost dream.

In symbols of the Trinity, like this icon,

there is usually the presence of either the cross or the chalice.

Here we have a chalice in the midst of the three persons

that represent Father, Son and Spirit.

The good news that Jesus sent his disciples out to teach

is news about God that takes place in chapters 3 & 4 of our lives.

Deitrich Bonhoeffer put it this way:

“Only a suffering God can help.”

It is when love is expressed in suffering with and for someone

that it becomes purest and most powerful and MOST LIFE GIVING.

And so the cross or chalice is always deeply involved in the mystery of

God as a community of persons.

It is there that this most life giving love is revealed to us.

In the Trinity the Son suffers with us and for us

when we find ourselves no longer inhabiting a life-giving-forth-life home.

The Father suffers the death of his beloved.

And coming forth from all love, and expecially suffering love,

the Spirit is the dynamic exchanged:

moving between, comforting, sustaining, strengthening, hovering,

connecting, gathering, enlivening, encouraging.

And finally bringing new life from the old.

When we find that our life, our home, our relationships

are not within that life-giving-forth-life place,

God comes to dwell with us.

And God brings to us, within God’s presence, a community of persons

That in their perfect love for each other,

come to suffer with us and for us

so that we might be settled into their habitation

and so that we and all creation, called into this life-giving community of God,

can go forth from our life lived into God to bring others home.