June 16, 2019 – John 16:12-15
John 16:12-15
Named for the Trinity
The Holy Trinity – June 16, 2019
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
I think most of you know that First Lutheran Church was not always called
First Lutheran Church.
Our official slogan was not always “We’re Number One!”
No: for the first six years of our life together, the name of our community was
Trinity Lutheran Church.
Really.
Which is a wonderful name for a church – much better, I think, than First Lutheran Church.
Okay: maybe not as good as Discount Lutheran Church, but there it is.
Anyway, there are Trinity Lutheran Churches all over North America,
and that is kind of amazing, I think.
I mean: the naming of a church is a big deal: it tells the world about your community.
About what is fundamentally important to it.
About what is the main thing about it.
For the people who founded our community, apparently that thing was the Trinity –
the very name of their God.
As Christians, when we say “God” we mean the Trinity:
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Or, perhaps, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier in another classic formulation.
Three persons or masks, one God.
Way back in the day when people were trying to describe what the Christian God was like,
the best anyone could do was to say,
“God is most like a loving community of three persons.”
The God that is like a loving community of three persons was the most important thing to
the people who founded our community.
Think about that, just for a moment.
I want you to think about it so that you immediately think the most obvious question: Why?
Why on earth would anybody name their congregation this?
Why on earth would anybody even think this about God?
Well, they thought God was most like a loving community of three persons
because of how they experienced God in their lives.
First, they experienced God as creator, for sure, as the provider of all that is,
the one responsible for all this beautiful stuff – like: where did it all come from?
Why is there something . . . rather than nothing?
Then, too, they experienced God fully at work in Jesus, creating new life, new relationships,
new people in mission for others.
And finally they experienced Jesus’ Spirit present with them in their communities,
where God continued to be present with them, inspiring them, guiding them,
comforting them.
They experienced the one God at work in three ways, in three distinct persons –
and based on the way Jesus talks about the three in John’s Gospel they
drew some conclusions about how the three interact.
In John’s Gospel this morning, for example, you can clearly see that there is great intimacy and
sharing in the life of the three.
The Spirit overhears what the Father and Son say to each other and shares it with the community.
What belongs to one belongs to all, and that is shared with the community.
You find a great deal of language like this in John’s Gospel,
and it speaks to many things that are at the heart of God, the God with the name Trinity.
Well: what is the big deal?
Why would anyone name a church Trinity?
And why would we devote a whole day to the Trinity?
If we see Threeness as the ground and essence of God’s being,
asks the Christian writer Debie Thomas this week,
what will we discover about God’s character, God’s personality,
and God’s priorities?
(https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay?id=2251)
For one thing, we will see, quite simply, that God is diverse.
Each person of the Trinity has its own way of expressing goodness, beauty, and love
that is different from the others.
Diversity, apparently, is good – even essential to being.
God, within God’s very self, is diverse.
And so Debie Thomas asks,
“Why do we fear difference so much when difference lies at the heart of God’s nature?”
God is diverse.
Secondly, we will see that God is communal.
God doesn’t just value community – God is community. God in God’s self is relationship.
Now you can start to see why Trinity Lutheran Church is actually a very good name for
a congregation – maybe the perfect name.
Okay: not as perfect as Discount Lutheran Church – but still: a pretty good name.
God is intimacy. God is connection. God is communion.
God is not an isolated One – God is an intimate Three.
Therefore God is always seeking more communion – because communion is at the heart of God.
This God is hospitable – there is always room for more:
this God is always inviting one more into the communion of the Three.
There is always room for more at this God’s table: this God is inclusive and
invites difference into its embrace, the embrace of the Three.
God is communal – God is communion.
Finally – and thirdly! – we will see that god is love.
The relationship of the three is one of unselfish, intimate, sacrificial love.
What belongs to one belongs to all.
Within One there cannot be love – but where this is more than one, there can be love.
And the love within the Trinity is a perfect love, with each member having something to give,
and each having something it needs to receive from the others.
The three are in a relationship of deep, life-giving love.
Love is at the heart of God.
God is love.
God is diverse. God is communal. God is love.
Why should we care?
We should care because we are children of the Trinity.
We are made in the Triune God’s very image.
To affirm the doctrine of the Trinity is to affirm that we are children of a mysteriously
diverse, communal, loving God.
We find our fulfillment as human beings in these things.
As different as we feel ourselves to be, we find a home in the embrace of the Triune God.
As different as we feel ourselves to be, we find a home in the community that
worships as its God the Trinity.
We find hospitality and we give hospitality – and so find the reason for our journey on earth.
As we more and more reflect the image of the God in whose image we have been made,
we find our reason for being: in embracing diversity and even our own uniqueness;
in being a genuine part of a hospitable community;
and in loving those who are different and inviting them to join the circle.
Through thick and thin we have a home in the Triune God.
In loss and grief we are embraced.
In struggle and hardship we find accompaniment.
In uncertainty and we find steadfastness.
In doubt we find acceptance.
In alienation we find hospitality.
These – and many more – are the gifts of the Trinity.
The good news this morning is that we have a God who is triune – and its name is Trinity.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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