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Baptism of Edward Douglas Lockton
Jesus heals Simon's mother in law and others
Story of a Veteran
Trinity Sunday Reflections
Gordon Buck Funeral Homily
Military Homecoming. University of San Diego
Christian Mission: Do We Really Understand It?
VA Funding, an Ongoing Disgrace
« | Main | Story of a Veteran »
Trinity Sunday: Isaiah 6:1-8; Rev 4L 1-11; John 16: 5-15
SHEMA YISRAEL ADONAI ALOHANU ADONAI ACHAD
Hear, O Israel, the Lord, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Thus begins the Shema Yisrael, the ancient Hebrew prayer found in Deuteronomy 6. It is the foundational and daily prayer of the people of Israel from biblical times to this very day--a bold proclamation that there is only one God--a gutsy statement in the ancient world--the foundational understanding of God as well for us, the people of the new Israel, the new Covenant. The Lord our God is One.
It was this God who made the promise to Abraham. It was this God who called to Moses from the burning bush and promised to rescue the people from slavery in Egypt. And when Moses asked the voice for a name, he got a very short answer and no name at all: 'ehyeh asher ehyeh' translated "I am who I am" or better "I will be who I will be."
It was this God whose name could not really be uttered, a God of awesome mystery, who dwells totally beyond the world--and yet a God who hears the cry of the people. This is a God of absolute power, more powerful the Pharoah's army, more powerful than the sea--One who could rescue his people. This name and this God admits of no further penetration, no further interpretation.
But this God had to be called something: Adonai, El, Elohim or simply the short form of God's unpronounceable name "Yahweh" which means: "he is," or "he will be" or "he will cause to be." And, God tells Moses, "this is my name forever and my title for all generations." (3:15)
As we heard in the readings from Isaiah and Revelation a moment ago: This is the God who created the heavens and is now enthroned in the heavens and is called: "Holy, Holy, Holy." "Who was and is and is to come." The people will see who this God is when they witness what this God does--as Ezekiel reminds us: "And they will know that I am Yahweh." This is the God who tells Isaiah: "I am the First and the Last." (48:12) and yet a God whom Isaiah knows cherishes the people with a mother's love and comforts them as a mother comforts her child (49:15; 66:13).
This is the God who hears the groaning of all creation (Rm 8:22). This is the God who has mercy on his people in their struggles with sin and suffering and death. This is a God who connects with earth, not like the kite at the end of a string, but as One who comes among us: This is Emmanuel, God with us.
SHEMA YISRAEL ADONAI ALOHANU ADONAI ACHAD
Hear, O Israel, the Lord, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
And yet there is more, far more. For this God is finally revealed in a way so new and shocking that it remains down through the centuries a scandal and foolishness. Within this one and only God, there is also community life. For in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Distinct from the Father, and yet also God. This is One who is the image of the invisible God, and yet is also the firstborn of all creation, the One in and by whom and for whom all things were created...the One who is before all things and in whom all things hold together. This was One, who, though by nature God, thought it not robbery to leave aside the form of God and to come among us, taking on the form of a servant, being found in human likeness. This One became flesh and dwelt among us.
This is the Eternal Word of God who became speechless for us in the womb of a young woman. This is a God who did not turn away from a stable in Bethlehem, nor from human friendship and dinners and wedding feasts. Nor did this One refuse the torture and agony and awful death of the cross. This is the One, Jesus, Eternal Son of the Father, now Son of God in human flesh, whom God raised from the dead. This is Jesus, who shares our flesh, victorious over death and suffering, having destroyed the power of sin, now seated in at the right hand of the Father, who has gone before us to prepare a way for us.
Because we have seen the "Jesusness" of God, Paul can now rewrite the Shema Yisrael to include Jesus (1 Cor 8: 6) "There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist."
And yet, there is more--far more. Within the one God, there is yet another Person, One who also has the power to create and to renew and to do all things. One who cannot even be imaged except as tongues of fire or a dove or as a powerful wind. The Holy Spirit. Called the Comforter, the Advocate, this One, promised by Jesus, as we heard in the reading from John's Gospel, This One now remains among us. Jesus, having gone before us in the flesh to claim for us our eternal inheritance, together with his Father, now sends among us this Advocate, whose powerful presence continually does in us those things that were accomplished in Jesus. Constantly re-creating and renewing us, the Spirit, with all the creative power of God, causes the work of God to continue among us.
So Paul can rewrite the Shema Yisrael yet again: "May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." (2 Cor 13:14)
The name of God remains, still 'ehyeh asher ehyeh' , "I will be who I will be." But now this Name has new power, new meaning, for the Lord our God is One--and yet the Lord our God is a community of three divine persons. We can never understand this, for it lies beyond our comprehension, but it is revealed to us in a way we can just barely begin to grasp.
The power of God is absolute: the power to create in the first place and then to re-create, to bring redemption out of sin, peace out of suffering, life out of death. But so too is the love of God absolute: It is the boundless and infinite love that exists among Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When, as Paul tells us, we shall see God face to face, we shall see the face of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Incredible as it seems, we are called into this community life of God--and into the love of God. We are called, as scripture tells us, to be sharers of the divine nature--sharers, through adoption and as creatures, as co-heirs with Christ--but sharers nonetheless of the divine nature. Yes, we are called to enter in some way into the community life of God. All human community is an echo of the divine community. All human striving for love, acceptance, community can find its ultimate fulfillment only within the community life of God and within the limitless love of God.
So the mystery of the Trinity, that feast we celebrate today, reveals to us our final personal destiny, the will of God for the entire human family, and hence the life and mission of the Church. Trinity Sunday is our feast as well as God's, for we are baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
This is no abstraction. It is God's reality here and now in this congregation, at this moment in the life of this parish. For even now, the voice from the bush "I will be who I will be," demands of us a response: who are we and who are we to become. We are called to enter into God's community life even now at this moment--as even now the One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is present among us.
SHEMA YISRAEL ADONAI ALOHANU ADONAI ACHAD
Hear, O Israel, the Lord, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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