Full service can be viewed HERE. Sermon is at 32:30.
Holy Trinity Sunday
June 12, 2022
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15
INTRODUCTION
Today, Holy Trinity Sunday, is a difficult one to preach or even talk about, because it is the only Sunday dedicated not to celebrating a particular event in Jesus’ life or the life of the church, but rather, a doctrine. And at that, it is a doctrine that is, by definition, impossible to describe, because as soon as you try to define God, you have limited God to something definable by a merely human mind. So, what our texts do today is present to us some of the ways God works. They each (except Proverbs) mention all three persons of the Trinity. And they paint a picture of some small part of who and how God is. As you listen, don’t try to figure out exactly how to explain God, how the Father relates to the Son, relates to the Holy Spirit. Instead, just let the images wash over you, and sit in them, and imagine how these images of a Triune God can feed you and give you life. Let’s listen.
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In the past week, some fairly ugly news concerning our denomination, the ELCA, has hit the mainstream media. The story is long and complicated, and I won’t get into all the details here. The short version, if there is one, is that the bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod in California, Megan Rohrer, the first openly trans, Lutheran bishop, was asked by the presiding bishop to resign, over some racist conduct. The whole ordeal has been pretty poorly handled, and has left many deeply pained or traumatized. In the end, the bishop in California resigned without taking any responsibility for the pain caused by their actions, and people are still reeling and trying to heal from the mess that was left. (If you want to know more about this, I’m happy to talk with you, but it is too complicated to get into in a sermon!)
What is perhaps most painful for me, as a white woman and pastor who doesn’t have to deal with racism on a daily basis, is to see that even in the Church, this sort of conflict is possible. Turns out, the Church is full of broken people just like every other place on earth, and though we strive to follow Christ’s teachings regarding love of neighbor, we still too often fail miserably. We hurt each other, we judge each other, we make assumptions. We may not call ourselves racist, but we do benefit from a racist system. And because of all that, we all suffer.
“We boast in our sufferings,” writes Paul, “knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” I admit I find more consolation in these verses when I read them in hindsight, than I do in the moment of suffering. It’s hard to feel that “hope that does not disappoint us” in the midst of the pain – especially, in the case of Sierra Pacific Synod, when the pain is caused by the very Church that was supposed to proclaim hope!
So how can we be better, Church? How can the teachings of scripture help us to manage better in conflict – whether at church, or work, or home, or wherever – so that we don’t let it tear us apart, but rather, do as Paul describes: letting it produce endurance, character, and finally hope?
Our readings today can help us. First, let’s look to the Gospel. Once again, we have a piece of Jesus’ farewell discourse, the speech he gave to his disciples on the night before his death. Here he tells the disciples, “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” I find this both frustrating and encouraging. It’s frustrating because it first requires us to admit: we don’t know everything. We don’t know the whole story – certainly not God’s whole story, not someone else’s story, and sometimes not even our own! Jesus names that reality straight out, saying we simply can’t know everything at once.
But as frustrating as that is, it can also be liberating. Because if we can let go of our need or desire to know everything, and to be right all the time, we can focus instead on the person’s feelings, their experience. Usually the most important arguments don’t have answers that are right and wrong; they are just different. I’m not talking about facts here, I’m talking about what is true for someone, what resonates with their heart. In that sense, one person’s truth might be different from another person’s truth, but that doesn’t mean one has to be right, and one wrong.
And so, a much harder, but more faithful way to approach disagreements is to listen to Jesus’ words, and take to heart the reality that we don’t know everything, and we never will – we cannot know the mind and ways of God, and we cannot even fully know the experience and feelings of another person. What we can do is put aside our insistence that we are right… and simply listen to one another, with open hearts and minds, and try to hear and understand as much of the other person’s truth as possible. That’s when that second, more encouraging part of Jesus’ statement can enter in: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” The Spirit will guide us into truth. But this can’t happen unless we first admit that we need guidance, and then let down our sword and shield and make room for the Spirit to do that important work. It requires humility, and self-awareness, and it may hurt a little, or even a lot, but as Jesus promises, this listening – to each other and to the Spirit – is what makes truth be known, and from there, healing and growth can follow.
The next place to turn for guidance in this difficult work is our reading from Proverbs. Isn’t this text lovely? Part of the reason I love it is that it describes the Holy Spirit’s role in creation, as God’s co-creator – but here the Holy Spirit does not possess the masculine identity we’re used to. No, here the Spirit is described as “Lady Wisdom.” This is actually a fairly common way to describe the Spirit, as Wisdom, which is, in Hebrew, a feminine image. “Sophia,” she’s called. So here we see God as both male and female, creating both male and female, creating a world that has differences, and different ways of understanding, and that very difference is what brings about life. We also see a God who, even in the very act of creating, works together in community. Bringing life is not an act that can be accomplished by one alone; it is a task to be done as a community, working together, delighting and rejoicing in one another’s work. When we are able to work together, we can be one, even in our differences, just as God the Creator is one with Christ and with the Holy Spirit. Genuine community is challenging, but it is also creative, enriching, and productive.
Finally, we turn to this text from Romans, because while all of this other stuff is good to work toward, none of it is possible without what Paul expresses here in Romans. Paul begins this chapter saying, “Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.” That’s a lot of dense, churchy words, so let’s break it down: the reason we are able to do all this hard work that is required in a fruitful, productive, loving community, is that we already have the gift and promise of God’s peace. It’s not a gift we have to earn. We have that peace already, not because of who we are and what we do, but because God is who God is, and does what God does. God loves us and accepts us despite our various shortcomings (and let’s admit it, there are plenty of those – if there is one thing we all have in common, besides God’s love for us, it is that we all make mistakes, and we are all sinners in need of grace!).
But here’s the really stunning news: because of who God is – one who justifies and loves and embraces even the ungodly, even those who make mistakes – because of who God is, we come to truly know the peace of God, and are empowered and encouraged to turn in love to extend the same grace, mercy, acceptance, and forgiveness to those around us, those with whom we are in community, those with whom we need to work and live each day.
Accepting God’s unconditional love for us can be difficult; extending that love, mercy and forgiveness to others can be even more difficult. But as Paul also tells us, we don’t need to know how just yet – the Spirit, Lady Wisdom, will show us how if we listen to her and leave space in our hearts and between our words and before our reactions for that same Spirit to move and breathe and do her thing to guide us toward the truth. With the help of the holy communion, the Holy Trinity, we, too, can grow in love for one another, becoming a holy community who loves, cares for, listens to, accepts, and embraces one another, even as we continually hold each other accountable to this holy call. May it be so.
Let us pray… Holy Three-in-One, in our passion for justice, we don’t always remember to listen to the pains and experiences of others. By your Holy Spirit, assure us of your peace, and empower us to hear what is true for our brothers and sisters with whom we may disagree. Draw us ever into closer community with each other and with you. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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