St. Paul's Episcopal Church

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
425 Cleveland Ave SW
Canton, Ohio 44702
Phone: 330-455-0286
Fax: 330-455-9818
E-mail: office@stpaulscanton.org

Trinity Sunday
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Canton OH

June 7, 2009
The Rev. Barbara L Bond

Trinity of Experience

Trinity Sunday invites us to examine a theological concept, the Holy Trinity. There are lots of ways of coming at this – the early church had many councils about it, and some pretty vehement arguments. Today we pray in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, so we are invoking the Trinity quite often, yet we are not necessarily as precise as those 4th century delegates about what we mean. Sometimes we come at the Trinity with symbols, or drawings, or objects. St. Patrick famously described the Trinity using a shamrock, with the three leaves making up the unity of the plant. Your bulletin cover has another attempt, with three overlapping segments, bound together in a circle. Well, yay! That explains it all, right? No? Well, then. Let’s come at it from an entirely different direction. Let’s come to the Trinity through experience. Let’s put flesh on the Trinity – our own flesh, our own life in this world.

Have you ever heard people say, “Things happen in threes”? Perhaps a string of three happy events, or three unhappy events. Well, I’ve had a string of challenging events. This week I was dealing with three funerals, two of which I officiated yesterday. How does the enfleshed Trinity help me with these challenges?

A member of our search committee, which called me here three years ago, asked me somewhat sheepishly, “Well, Barbara, when you agreed to come here, did you know you were signing on for so many funerals?”

Oh yes, I signed on for funerals about fifty years ago, when I was baptized. I entered into sacred covenant with God and community, and signed on for all that life can bring. Our life in community brings joy and sorrow. We rejoice at birth, at baptism, at confirmation, at marriage. We rehearse the sacred story with our Eucharistic feast each week. We eat, sing, and play together. We join in projects for the common good. We visit the sick and support those in need. And we gather to respect those who die, celebrating their life on this earth with us, and their new life that continues in God’s eternity.

And so our rich sacramental life can be seen as experiencing the Trinity, enfleshing the Trinity. Think of God’s functions: Number One: God the Creator has given us this beautiful earth, and God continues to create it – even as some of our human actions work to destroy it. But God and the earth are forgiving, and as we come to new awareness of our part in the creation, and new appreciation for our beautiful earth, we are living and experiencing God the Creator. That’s One, one function of God that we experience.

The second function of God is God’s offer of redemption. We see redemption lived in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we see other signs of redemption, when we reexamine our own lives and set out on new and enriching paths. See the redemption in members of Alcoholics Anonymous. See redemption at work in anyone who practices the teachings of Christ, who helps those less fortunate, who works for a better world. God the Redeemer. That’s Two, a second function of God that we experience, God with flesh on.

The third function of God is God’s abundant sustaining presence in our lives. Some people call it the Holy Spirit. We felt it last Sunday and celebrated the spirit among us in music, in dance, and in playful liturgy and action. We had an indoor picnic. We enjoyed each other’s presence. We tried out the Lord’s Prayer in six different languages. The buzz was terrific – and the Holy Spirit was certainly among us, sustaining our spirits in our common worship.

Three ways of experiencing the Trinity – God the Creator, God the Redeemer, God the Sustainer, a three-part experience of the Living God.

I recently read another description of God the Trinity with Flesh on It. This is from priest and theologian Eric Law, who invites us to live the Gospel in our community. Eric says, “Live Christ’s life in your action. Don’t just go to worship: live the worship in everything that you do. Don’t just partake of the communion: be the body of Christ in every action that you take. Don’t just observe the baptism; live the death and resurrection in your work…. Don’t just read the words, but be the Word. Let the Word become flesh and dwell among and in and through you, full of grace and truth.” (Eric Law, Sacred Acts, Holy Change, p. 5)

AMEN