The Great Trinity

This sermon was given at our Trinity Sunday service on 7th June 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, and the blasphemy of Donald Trump using the police to gas peaceful protestors, helpers, and clergy in order to clear a way to stand outside a church and wave a bible in the air.

Today is Trinity Sunday. I’m not going to spend this sermon digging into metaphors and similes for what the trinity is like. I’ve given those sermons before, and, if that’s what you’re after, you can find one from five years ago on my blog, or countless others elsewhere on the internet – many of them with good, sound theology (and some with not so much! – I’ll let you decide which into which camp you think my previous sermon falls).

I think today, though, calls for something more than sound theology. The world in which we’re living today needs something practical, and not theoretical, and so, for that reason, I’m going to jump straight to the conclusion of what might be a ‘normal’ trinity sermon, and save the theory for another day.

The fact that our God is a triune God proves that God is all about relationship. Before the creation of the world, before the creation of any other beings, God was already in relationships. God existed as three in one and one in three in community with himself. And this conclusion is going to be the whole point of my sermon.

When we first went into lockdown, in my sermon on Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones at the tail-end of March, I remarked upon the season of Lent in which we were in as one that threatened to go on forever. I saw someone refer to this whole time of social distancing and abstinence from the Eucharist as the ‘Great Lent’, and, just like in Lent, throughout lockdown, we have been mourning and waiting; waiting and mourning.

And then, came the events of the past week or so; coinciding with Pentecost, where the people of God, honed by the season of Lent, and inspired by the events of Easter, are spiritually set alight, on fire with a burning passion for the world to follow the ways of Christ. I don’t know what you imagine Pentecost looks like, with God’s people being fired up for justice and to spread God’s good news for the poor, release for those held captive, sight to those who are blind and freedom from oppression, but I would like to remind you that good news for the poor is likely very bad news for the rich who need indebted workers, and that those who hold others captive, and prefer others to be blinded to their own motives and hatred, and who oppress others will not take kindly to God’s call for justice nor his message of hope to those who have none. No – where they can, rather than allowing them to be free, those people would rather kill others whom they deem unworthy of freedom, and they will send in their armies and gas God’s messengers in order to try to keep control of those whom they oppress, and, in order to keep the people blinded, they will do it all whilst waving a Bible and claiming the authority of God. And if that makes you angry, if the fire inside you is raging, then welcome – welcome to the Great Pentecost; it is sweeping the nations.

No image. Just a blackout.

And now, it’s Trinity Sunday – the day that shows us that the whole point is about community – that the whole point of life, the universe and everything is about community and relationships, and it feels so difficult this year, because we cannot do the things for which we were made – we cannot meet, we cannot hug, we cannot touch – we cannot interact with others in the way God designed us to do, in his own image. But… doesn’t that just make it all the more valuable? Doesn’t it show the very great power of those relationships? I don’t know if you’ve managed to take advantage of the easing of the lockdown rules, but if you have, I’m sure you’ll agree that never have you valued meeting people in person as much as you do now? It really is all about relationships, and now we know it more than ever – welcome to the Great Trinity Sunday.

You may not have realised it, but God is moving amongst us; God is building us and changing us; and as each week of this extraordinary season passes, God is empowering us to be his witnesses to all the world.

In ordinary times, Lent comes, we dress the church in purple, and then it goes; Pentecost comes, we dress the church in red, and then it goes; Trinity Sunday comes and then it passes in the confused blink of an eye reading a dusty, wordy theology book. Not so now – the Great Lent came, and we are still mourning and waiting and waiting and mourning – and will be for some time; the Great Pentecost came, and we are still burning with passion and rage and love – and I pray we will not stop; and now the Great Trinity is here, and I for one am very much looking forward to seeing how God forges and builds our relationships for the world to come. I hope you’re with me. That’s the point after all – being with each other.

Amen