The Trinity – Power
I think that anyone who wrestles with the concepts of “what is God” and “who is God” limps away from the experience. God is one, and yet Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. People smarter and holier than I have failed to explain God, and have themselves been confused. Their attempts to simplify or to distill things down to the essentials inevitably wander into error. I can clearly not hope to say anything clarifying without being at risk of misleading someone by what I say, or by how I say it. I can clearly not explore the mystery of the trinity.
And yet, we are intended to explore this mystery. How can we love someone we do not know? How can we love someone and not seek to know them better? How can I hold, proclaim, and encourage a deep love for God if God is a stranger to me? I can clearly not neglect seizing every opportunity to come to know and love and share God.
So, like the Sicilian in “The Princess Bride” – left clearly unable to proceed, I must attempt to distract you, then cheat.
Last year, the readings for this Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity encouraged us to consider the amazing love of God. This is absolutely essential. God is approximately irrelevant to us if God does not love us. There can be no relationship with a God who is infinitely greater than us, unless God chooses to love us. Thankfully, that is exactly what God does.
It is easy and it is good to preach about the love of God. We want to hear it. We need to hear it. I want to talk about it. God wants us to listen and believe it. It is true. God loves us. Honestly, I thought I could reuse last year’s homily, since I was at Holy Cross last year. I forgot that this solemnity has different readings for each of the three years of our Sunday lectionary cycle. And, what do we find in today’s readings?
Our first reading from Deuteronomy, says
- God created us.
- God chooses us, and interacts with us.
- God is great, strong and terrible. Obey him.
In the letter to the Romans, we learn that
- Through the spirit we are adopted as children of God.
- We are children, not slaves.
- We are heirs to God’s power and glory.
In the Gospel, Jesus tells us that
- All of God’s power belongs to Jesus.
- Make disciples who will obey God.
- I am with you.
These readings are mostly about God’s power. God is powerful. God is great, strong, and terrible. God uses signs and wonders and terrors and wars to accomplish God’s will. God deserves and demands obedience, and Jesus tells his disciples to go and teach obedience. And he’s with and watching us. There is no doubt. God is powerful.
The word love never appears in today’s readings, but God is one, and there is no division within God. God is powerful, and God is loving. The Father sends the Son, the Spirit brings us into relationship with the Father, and the Son is both obedient to the Father and possesses all power and glory.
So where is the love today? Do you see it?
God created us so God could love us, and so we could love God.
God interacts with us to show us and to teach us God’s love.
God chooses us to be loved.
God exercises terrible strength and power for us.
God provides instructions so that we will be happy, healthy, and holy.
We are adopted as children.
Jesus desires to give us everything.
Our command is to go share what we have learned that allows us to become happy, healthy, and holy.
And most importantly – I am with you.
God is powerful. And God is with us. And by “with us” I mean both that God is present with us, and that God stands with us, on our side, and for us.
And that is love, isn’t it? To be there. To stand with someone. There is no greater gift than presence. There is no greater sign of love than to choose to be present for someone. From the garden of Eden, to the wilderness, to the cross to our Lord’s glorious return – all of it is for love of us. God exercises power out of love for us.
So, then what?
First, rejoice. You are loved by the mighty and powerful God.
Then, love by being present to people. Love by exercising whatever is in your power on behalf of others. Be God’s presence in the world.
