Holy Trinity A 2023
2 Corinthians 13, Matthew 28:16-20
Today is Holy Trinity Sunday, and there are few, if any, words that can accompany this mystery. For the holy trinity is ultimately a mystery we cannot fully comprehend. The mystery of one God in three “persons,” Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The mystery of God’s very being. A mystery only God can fully comprehend. And so, today, we will not come to understand the mystery of the trinity. We will not somehow break down or pull apart or dissect how God died on Good Friday, how the Holy Spirit created the heavens and the earth, how Jesus continues to enliven the church through his presence. On Holy Trinity Sunday, I am less a scientist and more an appreciator of fine art. And the mechanics of the mystery are less important for me than standing back and taking in the big picture, like I might do at the Phoenix Art Museum standing in front of one of my favorite paintings.
For the big picture, I would like some help. Could I get three volunteers?
Stand right here in a circle, and please grab hands. To clarify, God isn’t human. We are seeking to understand God with our human minds. So here we have God. We have God the Creator, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Who is who and how they can be one and isn’t Jesus time-bound and all these questions, we won’t address. But when we stand back and take in the holy trinity, we notice something else. Relationship. Relationship is at the heart of God. God being God means relationship. God cannot get away from relationship for, at the most fundamental level, God is relationship. That’s the holy trinity. Meaning, the very essence of divinity is relational, not individualistic.
God, you may return to your seats. Thank you.
We, who are made in the image of God, are created to live in relationship. We take our cues from God who shows us by God’s own self what life, life abundant looks like. Of course, we know this. We know how the second creation story from Genesis chapter two reads. God says: “It is not good for man to be alone,” and God creates the animals hoping that Adam will find a companion. When none of them are found suitable, God creates Eve, bone of Adam’s bone, flesh of Adam’s flesh, a companion who shares life with Adam. From there, the entire biblical story is one of community. Even on the ark with only Noah’s family left to continue humanity. Even among the families of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob broken by scandal and barrenness and tricksters. Even among the early Christians who struggled deeply with factions in their churches and division between Jews and Gentiles. Every time, God called the people back to community, to relationship.
Just two weeks ago, we gathered for our annual meeting and approved our new mission statement. Do you remember it? Esperanza Lutheran Church creates authentic connections and a deep sense of belonging as a Christ-centered community. In a world where we are surely divided, in a culture where we spend most of our time in echo chambers, hearing only what we agree with from our preferred news sources, in an age when we spend inordinate amounts of time—each one of us, me included—on our phones and computers, God has called us to create authentic connections and a deep sense of belonging here at Esperanza.
Perhaps when you first read this mission statement, you wondered: what is this actually calling us to do? What is our mission? At least in generations past, church mission statements have included words like “serve” and “worship” and “love.” It’s a bit confusing…we are just called to create connections? To build relationships? To form community? Well, yes, primarily that. How we go about creating connections, that can come in many forms—like hosting VBS for the neighborhood, like taking part in community events, like gathering school supplies for the Kyrene Resource Center, making connections with children, with our neighbors, with one another. Because this is the actual need of not just the world, but our particular neighborhood right now. Witness the mental health struggles of our teenagers. Remember our veterans whose combat experiences have traumatized them. Think of the broken relationships that litter our 21st century landscape.
About ten years ago, I officiated at the wedding of a young couple in their mid-20s. As they were going through pre-marital counseling with me, we of course spoke about their families, what they learned from their families about how to be in relationship, what marriage is, how to forgive, how to deal with conflict, and other typical relational dynamics. Suddenly, the couple looked at each other and then looked at me and said: “There is literally no one in either of our families who is married now to the other parent of their children.” Either, the parents got divorced or the parents were never married and broke up or it was a single mom who raised her child alone from day one. And then they realized that nearly all of their friends’ parents were also divorced which led them to reflect: “No wonder we have no idea how to resolve conflict! We have no models.” A few months later, just before the wedding, the women of the congregation threw a shower for the bride. 25 women sat in the living room of a member’s home, and one by one, we shared wisdom from our years of marriage. A dozen of the women in the room had been married over 40 years and most of us for a decade or more. To this day, that bridal shower is one of the most beautiful experiences in which I have ever participated because of the way these women raised up the bride and through their encouragement and wisdom and love modeled for her what a healthy marriage could look like.
When we create authentic connections and a deep sense of belonging as a Christ-centered community, we are not only living out God’s call for this congregation; we are fully embracing our identity as children of God. For at the heart of God lies relationship. On Holy Trinity Sunday, I am less a scientist and more an appreciator of fine art, and in this mystery lies the joy of life abundant—connection with God and one another. For which we can say: thanks be to God! Amen.
P.S. Let’s learn the new mission statement. Esperanza Lutheran Church creates authentic connections and a deep sense of belonging as a Christ-centered community.