HOLY TRINITY

YEAR – A

Genesis 1:1 – 2:4a

            This text is truly the “beginning of the beginning” for both Jewish and Christian readers, however mythically, legendarily, literally, metaphorically or narratively one wishes to consider God and the world.  On the festival of the Holy Trinity, the question to ask of this text (if used for preaching) is why this Old Testament text for this Sunday?  Since the focus is on the Trinity, this text bespeaks the God who creates and finds all components and elements of the creation good. 

            Inherent in the proclamation of the Trinity are two primary approaches for the preacher/theologian.  One can talk of God as God and one can speak of God in relationship to humanity (the immanent and the economical understandings of God).  Thus division is useful but the two also flow into one another.  What are humans to make of God?  In speaking of the Trinity, this text reveals the kind of God we worship in terms of what God is and does. Clearly we are introduced to a God who creates and loves doing it!  This God enjoys and blesses what is created.  Diversity in life forms and inanimate objects characterize the kinds of creative productions of God.  This is the God with whom humanity must deal; a God who revels in differences, repetition, uniqueness and being and existence. This God stands in favor of what is and against what it is not.

            An important point to consider about the creation story is that this text implicitly serves as an important the basis for trinitarian reflection.  When one speaks of Jesus, (as part of the Trinity specifically), the scriptural texts, creeds and traditions of the Church point to the creator God who “begets” a Son and does not “create Jesus.”  Jesus is not an extraordinary creative venture of God on par with angels or humanity.   Jesus is God and not an extraneous and created product of God’s primary actions.  As the creeds say of Jesus:   “Begotten not made.”  Thus in preaching this text one must exercise caution in not subsuming Jesus into the order of creation.

Psalm 8

            This poem is rich both structurally and theologically.  It ends with a repetition of the same verse with which it started.  Sandwiched between these two verses, the psalmist reflects on both the cosmos and the humanity’s place in and response to it.   As already underscored by the choice of the Genesis selection for this day, this psalm is, in effect, a miniature recapitulation of the creation story:  humanity and the created order are both causes for praise and rejoicing. The religious history of these verses is set in the ancient Near East and stems from all sorts of sources that consider the nature of God, the creation and the role of human beings in terms of both.                    In reading this psalm, note how the structure of it clearly and gracefully marks out the descending ladder of creation’s glory: from God to the heavens, to humanity, to the creatures on the earth and finally those in the sea.   Verse 2 starts with references to babies and little children.  There is a purported old rabbinic say which goes:  every time a baby is born God affirms the Creation.

            What Verse Two really means is open to many interpretations.  It could be that through the existence of babies, there is provided a witness to a God who not only creates but guards, nourishes and values humanity in all its fragility.  Even the most embryonic of life is a gift of God and a witness to the Creator God.  The verse might mean that the very existence of children creates their own praise of God however unknowingly.  It is indeed poetic language to contrast babbling children, created by God, as those who God uses to “silence the enemy and avenger.”   But then that is what happened in the birth of Jesus….

            In v.3 the psalmist resorts to the first person pronoun and narrates how the works of the heavens – such as moon and stars – all silently witness to the fact that God made them.  By extension, thinks the psalmist:  God created humanity, too.   Verse 4 finds the psalmist wondering how God would care about human beings.  In fact, so insignificant is humanity - set against the grandeur of the universe - why would God even notice the human creature at all?  As the celebration of Holy Trinity falls in the early summer months, this psalm indeed can echo the nighttime star-gazing thoughts of many listeners in the congregation. 

            Just as God cares for the child, so even in the face of all creation’s entities and beauty, vv. 5-8 continues to unfold the specifics of just how much God does focus on humanity.  In particular, vv. 5 and 6 note that God does three things for humanity.  First, God has made them just a little less than divine; God has found ways to”crown them with glory and honor” and finally, they have been given work to do.  God has made humanity stewards of God’s creation:  “You have given them dominion….”  The psalmist goes on to name a few of the creatures of both the earth and the seas over which humanity is to reign. 

            Any references to this psalm on Holy Trinity Sunday would refer to the God who encompasses all: the God who creates, saves and infuses all of creation with life.

2 Corinthians 13: 11-13

            This brief farewell of the epistle’s writer includes two main areas of interest for preaching the Trinity.  First, in vv. 11, 12 the writer admonishes people to live lives which reflect the triune God’s desires for them.   This means exhibiting peace, communal unity, attentiveness to the things of God and love. The concluding verse is important historically for it reflects what is called the “trinitarian formula.”   Jesus is named first as one who brings grace; God’s love is next listed and then mention is made of the creator of community through Jesus’ grace and God’s love, the Holy Spirit.  This naming of God can serve as a tri-partite structure for a sermon which can examine first separately the functions of the trinity in human life and then how these all work together.

            Where is the naming of God found for listeners who are Christians?   By way of sermonic example, it is the name in which people are baptized, confirmed, married and finally buried.   The Trinity is named in hymns, depicted in architectural symbolism and spoken in creeds, liturgies and proclamation.  Most importantly – and this takes some homiletical pondering – the three names offer the shape of lives we are to lead.   How trinitarian-oriented are our lives?   This call to live in a trinitarian fashion off-sets excesses in theology and can particularly assist listeners  to reflect on the ways God intersects and shapes the world and their lives.

YEAR - B

Isaiah 6: 1-8

            This section of Isaiah is a call story.   It follows the extended condemnations against Israel in Chapter Five, using the metaphor of a fruitless vineyard.  Obviously the people need address of their sins and the following chapter expresses the call to Isaiah as a prophet for this particular time in Israel’s history.  Vv. 1-5 demonstrate in vivid and mystical imagery the power of God and God’s response to Israel’s chaotic state.   God, as seen in temple, is imagined as so vast that only “the hem of his robe filled the temple.”   Isaiah, confronted, by this vision of God, surrounded by seraphim, responds with a confession of his sinfulness, both as an individual and living in a nation of sinners.

            God, however, has chosen Isaiah and the deal is sealed by one of the seraphim purifying him with a burning coal from the altar.  The seraph announces to him this signifies the removal of his guilt.  But to what end? Not only are sins removed, but God now speaks and asks who shall be sent to Israel as God’s change agent.   Isaiah replies “Here am I; send me!” 

            This biblical passage has been celebrated in song [1] and poetry and the famous line:  “Here am I; send me!” is an often-repeated line as a response to God’s call to mission of all kinds.  Why this text for Holy Trinity Sunday?  A sermon on this text can consider the plight of all peoples, in all times and places, who need God’s word, who need change and repentance.   A sermon might look at the role of the Trinity in all its aspects as the restlessness of God works to perpetually seek humanity, to heal and produce new life.   This passage witnesses to the fact that God does not abandon sinners but reaches out to them and does so most often through human agency.

Psalm 29

            I am one of those who loves a storm!  They are can be awesome, amazing productions of creation.   And of course, I particularly enjoy them if my basement is not flooded and if my house escapes damage from any falling trees.  This psalm discusses the power and glory of God manifested through a thunderstorm!  What is truly a deft artistic touch of the psalm’s author, an ancient version of the television’s Weather Channel, is tracking the path of the storm as it starts in the Mediterranean Sea, sweeps through what are now areas of Lebanon and blows itself out in the wilderness.

            Vv. 1,2 invite people to worship God.  The concluding vv. 10, 11 describes the God who can bless humanity and also sits in control over nature:  “The Lord sits enthroned over the flood.”   Between the introduction and conclusion, the psalmist describes the places the storm bespeak God:   through thunder, lightening, tumultuous seas, downed trees and across vast geographical territory.  With global climate changes, there are many recent examples of storms of all types which have had death-dealing consequences for millions of people.  In preaching this psalm, the preacher must be cautious about discussing the relationships of nature, God and humanity lest the violence of nature be directly read as sings of God’s anger and vengeance.

Romans 8: 12-17

            This selection from Romans is trinitarian in flavor throughout.  Paul is addressing the Roman community of faith by use of a kind of daisy chain of reasoning in these verses.   He is intent on urging them to live life differently because they are Christians.   Their lifestyle choices will show whether or not they live in the power of God’s Spirit.   One writer notes:  “Indeed, their own body [that of Christians] is the battlefield upon which the fight between the flesh and the Spirit is carried out.  God’s people may take comfort in this struggle, however, from the fact that they are not dependent upon themselves.”[2]

            Vv. 14-17 unfold legacy language, speaking of what it means to call God “Abba! Father!”  It actually entails several matters.  Those who call God Father are children.  Children inherit from their father and furthermore, living in this parental relationship, means they are linked to another child of God – Jesus.  The children of God, willing to live in the Spirit, also become “joint heirs with Christ.”  Stuhlmacher sums it up well:  “the more clearly Christians presently participate in the conflict of suffering of their Lord, the more certain they may be of their common inheritance of a relationship to God as his child and of their fellowship with God the Father.”[3]

            Proclaiming this passage for this Sunday can use the Trinity to focus on what its works mean for human salvation: 

• a new relationship with God;

• life lived in a guided by the Spirit;

• joint participation in God through Jesus Christ and

• salvation pronounced now as promise fulfilled “so that we may also be glorified with him.” (v. 17

YEAR - C

Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31

            The Book of Proverbs is an example of ancient wisdom literature whose sources, contents are debated in terms of authorship, dating, intentions and section descriptions.  Anyone using this as a preaching passage must give significant study time to reviewing such sources.  The bulk of this passage asserts that Wisdom, personified as female, was created by God “at the beginning of his work…” (v. 22).   Wisdom is eternal, ancient, present in all times and places.  Perhaps the most poignant and loving verse is 31:  Wisdom is always “rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.”

            The use of the passage will entail some definition of how the preacher understands Wisdom theologically and the role Wisdom plays in human life.   This passage offers a poetic look at the mysteries of God, in keeping with the nature of the Trinity.  A sermon on this text might respond to the question of how God’s wisdom operates for the well-being of humanity and how that is experienced by Christians as having a trinitarian shape.

Psalm 8 (See Year A for commentary)

Romans: 5: 1-5

            This passage is part of a larger section whose topic discussion generally falls between vv. 1- 11 and it has to do specifically with the topic of reconciliation between God and humanity.  Since this passage is part of the longer argument concluded in v. 11, the preacher may wish to extend the text to that verse if preached.

            As with other Pauline passages, this one also presents an argumentative chain of reasoning.   For those who live in God’s grace, it means suffering for the cause of the faith that will teach believers endurance.  Endurance = yields character and character = yields hope.  This hope is sustained by God’s love through the power of the Holy Spirit.

            This is a rich preaching passage as it assesses the relationship of God to humanity in a trinitarian fashion.   In effect preaching this text for Trinity Sunday means a focus on atonement (theory/ies).    Paul is describing the changes wrought in believers who have been reconciled to God; it assesses the role of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit in the process of human redeeming.  This passage particular holds up the core of atonement theories:  “we are justified by faith.” (v. 1).

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