June 19, 2011: Trinity Sunday

Trinity Sunday
June 19, 2011
Gn 1.1-2.3; Mt 28.16-20
Fr. Dow Sanderson 

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In his very fine Pentecost Sermon last Sunday, Fr. Patrick (quoting Karl Barth) reminded us that Christianity is not so much a religion as it is a Gospel... not about what we have done or ever could do... but about what God has done.

And in fact, much of the intent of our liturgy, Sunday by Sunday and year by year, is to focus on what God has done.

We began this morning by beginning at the very beginning: God created the Heavens and the Earth...

He creates.  He has created. He calls into being that which was not.

And having created man and woman in his own image, he continually unfolds the mystery of his Divine life, in order that we, his children might know him, love him, and worship him.

By the Call of Abraham he revealed his purpose in choosing a particular people, not only to know and worship him, but to be the light and source of his truth to all the world.

He revealed something of Himself to Moses in the wonder of the burning bush, and condescended even to reveal his name in order that we might call on Him...  I am as I am... I shall be as I shall be...

He revealed his righteous will at Sinai by giving the Law...

He revealed his Hesed his Steadfast Love in continuing  to love a stubborn and stiff-necked people... guiding them through forty years in the wilderness, until at last the came to their own Promised Land... a land flowing with milk and honey...

Through prophets and sages, through mighty acts in history... he prepared his people to receive a Savior, and in the fullness of time brought forth His Only-Begotten, Co-eternal with the Father, and yet made Flesh of the Virgin Mary His Mother.

And after this Son had lived among us, was tempted in every way as we are, yet did not sin... and after, in perfect obedience to the Father, he submitted himself to his perfect will, even death upon a Cross...

...God Raised Him on the Third Day, after which he appeared to His Followers...

On the fortieth day he ascended into Heaven...

On the fiftieth day, the Pentecostal Spirit filled and indwelt His Church...

And this Church, His Bride, His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, continued, under the inspiration of that same Spirit, to reveal his nature to all the world...

Through Word and Sacrament, through Council and Creed... the Church, like her Savior, born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God continued his mission on earth...

So having done all these things... having given us Testaments of his Mighty Acts... God, on Trinity Sunday seems almost to sigh, the mighty breath of his Pentecostal Spirit a bit more gently exhaled now... and say to us... And so my children... THIS... is who I AM:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And I have revealed this Truth to you, in order that you may know that I am perfect love.  For the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and the Spirit of Love proceeds eternally from our heart of love.

I am all-sufficiently and above all else... Love.

And do you know what is also true, my brothers and sisters?  We are only able to share love with each other (you and I)... in proportion to the measure that we have received it.

For God's love is pure... and unconditional...

And ours is not.

God is never selfish...

We are often so...

In fact, do you know what the opposite of loving someone is?

You might think that it would be to hate them...

But there is something, if you can imagine, even more damaging than hatred...

The opposite of loving someone... is to use someone.  To insinuate the words and sentiment of love... but to have as the desire of our hearts, not the good of the other... but our own selfish gratification.

Tragically, that is all too often what is called "love" in this broken and fallen world... but we can see that it is counterfeit... no matter how cleverly disguised.

We see that it is counterfeit, most often, when we have been hurt by false promises and the wound of empty words and broken trust...

Today is Father's Day... a day on which we honor those who have sacrificed for us and loved and cared for us... And it is right that we should do so.

But not everyone has happy memories of their fathers.

The truth is... all of us have been wounded in some way...

And all of us have wounded others... in some way...

So how is it that, on this Trinity Sunday, we may find the strength and grace to do better?

Well, as in all things, the first step is repentance.  To admit to God and to those we have hurt the reality of that sin.  To repent and seek absolution.

But the Truth of God's amazing love is that, having repented... having dumped the demon of our own pride and selfishness, we have available to us an unlimited reservoir of Divine Love.  We simply cannot exhaust God's love!

When we Prodigals have made our way back to the Father's House, limping with shame the whole way...rehearsing our pitiful little speech... we are utterly astounded to see the graciousness of his response.

He offers us a loving response that we do not deserve and could not possibly earn...  We are almost baffled that he could love US... when we ourselves know what we have done!

And yet he does love us in that way...

And in that moment, we learn something of loving as he loves.

Of loving our children, not so that they will love us... but of loving them so that they will love their children...

Of again lifting up, not just marriage, but the permanence of marriage... in order that those who have been made one flesh might know the joy of unselfish love, through better or worse, sickness and health, till death do us part.

Of loving our brothers and sisters with a generosity that is mysterious and divine, and not the product of a human heart, but truly gift.

And on this Father's Day, I will admit that I have shared with a few new Fathers in the parish some of the things I used to say to my children when I rocked them.  I won't embarrass any of you with the sentiment of it...

But it is of a kind with the advice I share with couples in their first pre-marital counseling session... and that is simply to describe the transformation of learning something of God's unfettered love:  For those who are called to be parents... for those who are gifted with this blessed vocation, there truly is that moment of seeing for the first time.

Suddenly, all the things we THOUGHT we knew about how we had been loved as children are magnified a thousand fold... and the light bulb in our dim little brains is turned on...

If we are capable of THIS kind of love... then our parents must have loved us more than we ever knew...

And if our parents, being fallible limited creatures had this kind of love... then God's love must be more than we could ask or imagine.

But in the end... it matters not if we are parent or child, brother or sister, married or single... or whether or not the relationships we have had are fulfilling or tragically flawed...

The Good News on this Trinity Sunday is that God's Love transcends and Redeems.... And there is not a wound in our heart that he does not desire to heal...  And having been healed... to have the courage and freedom to love others... again... or even for the first time.

God in Three Person, Blessed Trinity:  +++Father...Son...   Holy Spirit Amen.