Today’s Gospel passage makes me smile. The disciples met Jesus up on a Galilean mountain and it was a joyful reunion. Then Jesus gave them marching orders to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—some of the most familiar verses in the entire New Testament—what we’ve come to call The Great Commission.
And Matthew includes these three little words that make it all make sense, to me anyway:
“But some doubted.” Devout Jews that they were they knew, from the time they could talk, the Shema: “Hear, oh Israel, the Lord our God is one God!” They knew this truth about God inside and out.
But here they were, gazing at this one they’d experienced as human, like them, but had come to believe, in some undeniable way, was divine. And there he was, talking about sending them something called “the Spirit.” Even for those who may not have been as mathematically gifted, it was easy to figure out that comes to three, not one. And so, understandably . . . some doubted.
Today is Trinity Sunday, the one Sunday of the entire church year when we do not start our Sunday morning consideration with the teachings of Jesus or the words of the scripture text, but with a very difficult teaching of the church: the Doctrine of the Trinity. You know, God is three in one, but really one even though God is also three? And hopes for ease of understanding are not buoyed when one cracks open the commentaries and reads opening sentences like: “There are some themes for preaching that are both daunting for the preacher and puzzling for the congregation.” Or, even when the preacher turns to the timeless writings of Church fathers, like Augustine, who wrote in his great and cumbersome work, The City of God, these helpful statements: “The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. The Son is not the Father. The Father is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Son.” And, finally: “There is Only One God.”
And some doubted. And you can see why. See, we believe in a three-in-one God, but the word “trinity” does not occur anywhere in holy scripture, and while there are texts that hint at some kind of Trinitarian doctrine, there’s nothing in all of scripture that defines this essence of God.
So it turns out, that on Trinity Sunday it’s not our job to explain the essence of God, a mystery if ever there was one. Instead, it’s our job to learn the essence of the one in whose image we are created, and then live with brave abandon into the essence of who we’re meant to be.
And who we’re meant to be, according to the little picture of God we can see, the little picture we’ve decided to call “the Trinity,” is a people whose basic character is defined by relationship.
The essence of God and who we’re meant to be! When we the Gospel for today and apply it to ourselves, I ask which of us haven’t at some time wished we could have a time over again; that we could undo some thoughtless and angry word, some rash commitment or unwise judgement, or some careless mistake? Do those lines sound familiar? Certainly not the essence of God. The good news of the resurrection is different. Why? Because it continues to change lives in the present, each day offering hope and new beginnings to believers across the world. Easter Day may be over, but we cannot consign the message it proclaims to the past. It is still good news, today and every day! It’s still the essence of God.
Did you know that the power used to keep televisions and electrical appliances in the UK on standby for just one day would be sufficient to provide electricity for a small town? It’s a sobering thought isn’t it, all that power going to waste, achieving nothing.
Perhaps equally sobering is the thought that we as individual Christians and, together, as a Church, might be guilty of wasting a different sort of power – the power of God. ‘You will receive power,’ said Jesus, ‘when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.’ The essence of God. What he envisaged there was the power of the Spirit so flowing through us that we shall make a difference to the world we live in, changing lives through our work and witness. Some, of course, do just that, but, all too often, our efforts are devoted simply to keeping our own affairs ticking over. We look to our own journey of discipleship, our own relationship with Christ, and no further. As churches, we look inwards rather than outwards, concerned with serving our numerous committees, maintaining the fabric and supporting church events. Instead of surging out, God’s power becomes trapped in an internal loop. It is as though we are put on standby, rarely if ever used for the purpose we were designed for. If the power stored in all those appliances on standby could meet the needs of a small town, so the power at our disposal could meet the needs of the world, if only we had the will and courage to release it. Being the essence of who we’re meant to be.
And with all these essences of God, we understand the truth that Augustine articulated: There is only one God. Creator, redeemer, sustainer, a God who relates to our world in many different ways and at the same time is, in essence, the very embodiment of loving relationship.
Characteristics that seem in conflict instead exist in creative community, divine presence, three in one, offering us the challenge of taking all the beautiful parts of who we are as diverse and multi-faceted expressions of God’s creation, somehow recognising the very essence of God imprinted on each one of us and living with courage into the kind of community God models for us. That is, living out the image of God, in which each one of us, different as we are, was lovingly made. Our job is to learn the essence of the one in whose image we are created, and then live with brave abandon into the essence of who we’re meant to be.
Prayer; Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as we learn more and more of your essence, help us to abandon ourselves in you so that we can become the people you want us to be. Amen.
Questions:
1. How do you feel about the fact that God has commissioned you to be the essence of God? (Essence being made in His image, being transformed into His likeness, knowing that He working on us as you read this. To carry out to others His word, to be His hands, feet, heart etc.)
2. Do you know what God has commissioned you to do for Him? Has He given you a particular gift or talent or vision? Are you using it?
3. Pray for each other that as you grow in Him that you will be released to be the person He wants you to be.
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