Day of the Church Year: Holy Trinity C2022
Scripture Passage: John 16:12-15
We are not God. That much, we understand. By our own power, we do not create the heavens and the earth. By our own power, we do not lift up the valleys and bring low the mountains. By our own power, we do not raise the dead, heal the sick, and still the storms.
We are not God. We cannot take in the full complexity of truth. We cannot understand all mysteries and all knowledge. We see as yet through a mirror dimly.
We are not God. Sometimes, we are wrong. Many times, we stumble. At all times, we are limited. We are not God.
And because we are not, on this Sunday when we lift up the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, I have wondered: what does the trinity have to do with us?
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is the theological declaration that we worship one God who shows up in three “persons,” usually named Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or simply God, Jesus, Spirit. Ever since this doctrine’s inception in the fourth century of the common era, more than sixteen hundred years ago, preachers have attempted to explain the Holy Trinity through clever metaphor, but dear friends in Christ, let’s just stop doing that. No matter how deeply we plumb the depths of this mystery, we will not reach its bottom. Given that, I more urgently wonder: what does the trinity have to do with us?
Fortunately, God has my back and at least partially addressed my question through a sermon I heard just yesterday. Rev. Louise Johnson who serves as the Executive for Administration at the ELCA Churchwide Office in Chicago joined us at the Grand Canyon Synod Assembly this past Friday and Saturday. During synod assembly worship, Rev. Johnson preached on a passage from the gospel of John, part of the same conversation captured in today’s reading, where Philip, one of the disciples, tells Jesus he wants to see the Father. Jesus, in response, basically, tells him: I’m standing right in front of you, Philip. And when I am no longer with you, I will be IN you through the coming of the Holy Spirit. Rev. Johnson proclaimed the good news of the Spirit recruiting us to join the dance of the trinity.
In John chapters 13 through 17 in Jesus’ final long conversation with the disciples, Jesus makes as clear as clear can be—and as muddy as mud can be at the same time—that Jesus and the Father are one in a way we cannot untangle. To make matters more complicated, when Jesus no longer lives on earth, he promises, he will send the Holy Spirit, a promise fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit showed up as divine wind, fire, and language. Furthermore, Jesus says in our passage today: The Spirit will take what is mine—meaning Jesus’--and declare it to you—to the disciples and, by extension, to us, followers of Jesus today.
We are not God, but the Holy Spirit invites us, recruits us, compels us to join the dance of the trinity. In this post-ascension, post-Pentecost world, where we have been filled with the Holy Spirit, where we are now the body of Christ raised up for the world, God compels us to join the dance. The dance of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In one of my favorite Holy Trinity hymns, the hymn writer Robert Leach has the people of God sing:
Come, join the dance of Trinity
before all worlds begun—
the interweaving of the Three,
the Father, Spirit, Son.
The universe of space and time
did not arise by chance,
but as the Three, in love and hope,
made room within their dance.
We do not and cannot understand the mystery that is the triune God, but we know how to dance—how to use our hands to do God’s work. We cannot prove or adequately explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity, but we know its moves of serving meals, of advocating for justice, of studying scripture and praying, of knitting prayer shawls, of stewarding the church property that we might care for our neighbors and neighborhood in a whole host of ways. And while we yet see in a mirror dimly, we recognize the Spirit’s dance in us, through us, among us.
The Spirit compels us to join the dance of the trinity, to join hands, to step in time, to move with others to love, to establish justice, to form community in a culture more and more isolated and polarized.
Today, we say farewell to Margie Betz, a long-time member of Grace, who will be leaving us for a year as she assists her family elsewhere. While she is gone, Margie’s voice will echo in my head in a whole variety of life situations for Margie is ever declaring possibilities possible “with God’s help.” With God’s help, we will discern the best choices in our lives and in the world. With God’s help, we will have the strength to do what we feel called to do. With God’s help, we will move through illness and grief and suffering to healing and new life. We do not meet these challenges alone for we are drawn by the Holy Spirit into the dance of the trinity, and it is a dance.
Another long-time member of Grace, Esther Robbins, loved to dance. Though Esther died several years ago now, I will always remember how, into her 80s, she took classes at the Arthur Murray dance studio at Indian School and 12th Street. Each week, she attended dance parties where she practiced her moves. For decades, she competed and won prizes for her graceful moves in high heels. After suffering a stroke and moving into a memory care unit, Esther’s dance instructor came to her—so they could dance the cha-cha, the waltz, the tango. I’m not kidding. I personally observed Esther dancing a tango after her stroke with the guidance of her instructor—in her room in the memory care unit. Prior to her stroke, at Esther’s urging and invitation, I too found my way to the Arthur Murray dance studio for those weekly dance parties. As someone desperately uncoordinated, I was more than a little intimated by the smooth moves of all the seasoned dancers. But here’s what I learned about dancing and what I observed also in Esther’s dancing lessons post-stroke: if we have a good partner, we can dance. Even if we don’t know the moves or have forgotten them. Even when we get confused. Even if we go right when we are meant to go left. Our experienced dance partner will get us back on track and lead us, in the most tangible ways, to the next step.
Today, we are compelled to join the dance of the trinity, to join with God in God’s work, and thanks be to God, we have a good partner. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with whom we dance leads us to love, to establish justice, to form community. We’re not always going to know the next step. The school shootings make that clear; we don’t know for sure what the next step is. That’s okay. The Holy Spirit will take us in their arms and lead us through it all. With God’s help, we will find our way to love, to justice, to community. Thanks be to God! Amen.