Trinity Sunday, Cycle B

The Festival of the Holy Trinity is an occasion on which we are called to speak boldly and as well as is humanly possible about our faith in God and about how we perceive God. The texts selected, the liturgy, and within the liturgy especially the hymns provide resources for our use. Beyond these, there are people, and ultimately there is God.

We speak about God from within the context of this world and of our experiences. In many ways, we ourselves are limited to this world, speaking about God whom we believe is not limited to this world. Nevertheless, we are inspired by God to speak within the limits of this world about God whom we believe is not limited to this world.

As Christians, we believe that God is totally transcendent, totally beyond, all powerful, all knowing, perfect in every way. We also believe that God is also always here among us as pervasive Spirit, like the air, the wind, always necessary for us, that we might breathe in and breath out, permitting us to do evil as well as good, though guiding us to do only that which is good. Finally, we believe that God is active in our lives, coming to us most of all in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, whom we believe to be the Risen Christ, here among us, but also ascended to the Father. We believe in God perceived as God the Father, as God the Son, and as God the Holy Spirit.

Within the texts appointed for this day in Series B, there is no explicit expression of our Christian concept of the Holy Trinity such as we have it in the post-biblical ecumenical creeds and in the writings of post-biblical Christian theologians. We do not have the explicit reference to God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit such as we have this in Matthew 28:19 appointed for Trinity Sunday in Series A. It is surprising that the benediction “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit of God be with all of you” (2 Corinthians 13:14) was not selected for use anywhere in The Revised Common Lectionary. 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 is used on Trinity Sunday Series C in The Revised Common Lectionary, but not 2 Corinthians 13:14. Unless we are strictly bound to use The Revised Common Lectionary with no variations, I think that we should include 2 Corinthians 13:14 in Series C on Trinity Sunday next year.

Isaiah 6:1-8

In this magnificent “call of Isaiah” text we have the threefold acclamation of the Lord of hosts in Hebrew as kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, in Greek hagios, hagios, hagios, and in English “Holy, Holy, Holy.” In Hebrew and for the Israelites and Jews the repetition of this word that means “Most Awesome” or “Totally Set Apart” is a way to indicate emphasis on and great respect for the Lord God as they perceived and continue to perceive God. We as Christians see in this text an indication, even a prophecy for some, of the threefold being of God and proclaim our understanding of this most notably in the words of Reginald Heber, combined with music provided by John B. Dykes, in one of our favorite hymns: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,” with lines one and four concluding with the words that have been perhaps more influential than the Isaiah 6:1-8 biblical text itself, “… God in three persons, blessed Trinity!”

We should note in our study of these concepts that in the Greek language in which most of the earliest development of our Christian theology was developed and expressed the Trinity concept was depicted by using the Greek word, in plural form hypostases, by which they meant three ways of perceiving God. The Latin writers used the Latin word personae to express this, and English translators rendered this word as “persons,” as we see it in the favorite Trinity Sunday hymn mentioned in the previous paragraph.

In terms of belief in one God, it is better that we speak about God on Trinity Sunday and throughout the year as “one in three” rather than as “three in one,” one God whom we perceive in three principal ways rather than as three whom we perceive as one. In dialogue with people who are Jews and Muslims, this is especially important. We as Christians are monotheists, not tri-theists.

Psalm 29

Within the context of these Holy Trinity Sunday texts, the Lord God is revealed in Psalm 29 as the God of the storm, with powerful and frightful winds, as “the voice of the Lord” sweeping over the land from the Mediterranean Sea to the desert to the east, with the elements of a storm of lightning and thunder, strong winds, and heavy rain. The phenomenon of nature is used very effectively in this ancient hymn to the Lord as the Lord of the storm. It is appropriate also for us.

Romans 8:12-17

The Aramaic “Abba” in this text can be translated as “Daddy!” here rather than retained in a transliteration. In either case, it provides one of the closest links through the liturgical practices of the earliest followers of Jesus between the Jesus of history and the Apostle Paul. Paul’s use of the words Father, Christ, and Spirit of God in this text provide additional materials for us in our teaching and in our proclamation on this Festival of Trinity Sunday.

John 3:1-17

The key verses for us for our use next Sunday are John 3:5-8 and John 3:16-17. They also are the portions of John 3:1-17 that most likely were the first portions of John 3:1-17 developed within the Johannine community, prior to the addition of the anti-Jewish segments that surround them in this text.

We have elements in John 3:5-8, 16-17 with which to speak from our hearts about God as God is revealed to us. Our Christian traditions depict God as the Father of Jesus and consequently as “Our Father.” Through our use of John 3:1-17 and Romans 8:12-17 next Sunday, we shall certainly proclaim that the Risen Christ is God for us. We believe that the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jesus, is blowing among us wherever God wishes. We cannot see God, but we can feel God — just as we cannot see the wind but we can hear it and we can feel it – and we can see the effects of what God does. We believe that God certainly is revealed also in other ways, but for us as Christians these three are by far the most important. Throughout all of this, we remember that God is, after all, “One,” actually most significantly “Number One,” as indicated in the theology of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Baha’is, and other theists.