The Gospel isn’t meant to be gulped down on Sunday morning, but gnawed on through the week so it really becomes a part of us. You’ve got to work at it, like a dog with a good bone! Here’s the Gospel for this coming Sunday — Trinity Sunday — with food for thought about truth-telling.  Gnaw away!

Trinity Sunday – John 16:12-15

Jesus said to the disciples, “I have much more to tell you, but you can’t bear to hear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all truth. She won’t speak on her initiative; rather, she’ll speak only what she hears, and she’ll announce to you things that are yet to come. In doing this, the Spirit will give glory to me, for she will take what is mine and reveal it to you. Everything that Abba God has belongs to me. This is why I said that the Spirit will take what is mine and reveal it to you. Within a short time you won’t see me, but soon after that you’ll see me again.”

The Backstory – What’s Going On Here?

This passage comes toward the end of a larger section of John’s Gospel called the Farewell Discourse (John 14-17). It is Jesus’ love letter spoken to the disciples after Jesus washed their feet at the Last Supper and before his arrest. He is telling them that he is leaving, but that he is not abandoning them. As is John’s style … he says these things over and over again in rather convoluted style! But the message is still very simple. Jesus loves his disciples deeply. They are his friends and his companions and they are more than that … they are the family that God has given him to care for and love. And he wants them to know — you’re going to be OK.

A few things to chew on:

*This Sunday is Trinity Sunday … and preachers often jokingly call it “Heresy Sunday” because pretty much any time you preach about the nature of God, somebody can find something they think is heretical about it. I think there’s something instructive in that. Maybe God isn’t to be described technically … there’s no way to know exactly who God is and how God works. Maybe Jesus’ message to his disciples in this reading is all we need to know about God — that God loves us passionately and will never leave us. When have you felt those things most strongly in your life? When have you felt most distant from God’s love and presence? How do you feel right now?

*Jesus calls the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of Truth.” Years ago, when I accepted the call to come to my last community in St. Louis, I sought counsel from a broad range of people. One of them, Bishop Greg Rickel of Olympia, said simply: “Be honest. Be brave.” I have found that the two go together. Claiming Truth is tricky. The Truth really is Spirit, and we can only make truth claims as we see in the mirror dimly. But we can always be honest. And honesty requires courage. It’s the courage to say “I messed up. I got it wrong.” It’s the courage to tell someone something they really need to hear (instead of telling it to someone else) and say it lovingly and in a way they can hear it … and not be afraid of the conflict. It’s the courage to just say what’s on your mind and on your heart and put yourself out there — put yourself “on the table.” Where has the Spirit of Truth inspired you? Who are “Truth-tellers” in your life? How can you be a truth-teller in this community and the rest of your life?

Try This:

Studies have shown that if you are trying to adopt a behavior — be it exercise, writing, reading or prayer — the best time to do it is first thing in the morning when you get up. It makes sense … our days get going and the distractions come fast. We tend to have “morning routines” more than “afternoon routines.” Trinity Sunday invites us to dive into the mystery that is God. I am convinced this can’t be done without prayer and study. This week, if you haven’t already, begin to cultivate a morning routine of prayer and/or study. It can be while taking a walk. Or sitting and journaling. Or saying the daily office. Or just sitting quietly and offering yourself to God or letting a piece of scripture sit on your heart. Often it helps to dedicate a specific place in your home as your “prayer space” so that your body will naturally shift to a prayerful mode when you enter it. This week, try taking just a small amount of time first thing in the morning and playing with that. And please, on Sunday or some other time … come up and tell me how it’s going. And I’ll tell you how it’s going with me.

Trinity – An Expanding Hurricane of Love

What is the Trinity?

The Trinity is a doctrine that signifies that within the one essence of God, we have to distinguish three “persons” who are neither three gods on the one side, nor three parts or modes of God on the other, but are coequally and coeternally God.

This means – Creator – Christ — Holy Spirit… or Creator – Redeemer – Sustainer. Or any other number of designations that have been made. 3 persons, 1 substance.

So what does all that mean? Why is the Trinity important.

Because God in unity isn’t big enough.

Look at 1 John 4:7-16

God is love, and we participate in God by participating in love. This is not Hallmark Card flowery “love means never having to say you’re sorry” type of love. It is love that is self-giving and abiding. It lives through thick and thin. It is the deepest kind of love imaginable.

This is the kind of love that God is and this is the kind of love we are invited to participate in.

But love must have an object. Always.

You can’t just love. You love something.

“God so loved the world as to give the Only Begotten One.”

“Love the God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

“A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved
you.”

So if God is love, even internal to God, there must be an object of God’s love. There cannot just be a unity of God. God is about relationship. About a relationship of the most perfect love that can possibly be. And that relationship begins within the Godhead. God is love, so God is inherently relational.

We see this from the very beginning “Let us create humankind in our own image” – plural.

Trinity is not just a doctrinal belief like “I believe Jesus walked on water.” Trinity is the basis for our whole Christian life.

We believe that the truest thing in all the cosmos is a love that has been since before time. God in three persons, Creator, Christ and Holy Spirit – is an expanding hurricane of love that cannot be contained … swirling around until it spills out of itself creating more objects to be in loving
relationship with.

Trinity is how we live as a part of that love. Saying we believe in God, Creator, Christ and Holy Spirit. Baptizing in the name of the Creator, Christ and Holy Spirit means that we are not just branded like cattle, it means that we are living parts of this expanding hurricane of love. Trusting in the Trinity means that we are not only created out of this love and for this love but that the best and highest thing we can do is give ourselves to the world in this love.

Do you know this scripture passage: “Be perfect even as God is perfect?”

How do you feel when you hear that passage? Inadequate? Me too. How can I be perfect? And if that meant of your own volition to generate love like God we would be so completely out of luck!

But a God who is Trinity means that love, that perfect love is not something we generate of ourselves. (I have to really try to love this person) but something that we participate in, that we get swept up in. Trinity means that our task, our opportunity, our gift is to let go and be love.

Can we describe love? Can we engineer love? Of course not. We can only stand in awe of it. We can only try to embrace it the best we can.

Check out the rest of Sunday’s readings

The Lectionary Page has all of the readings for this Sunday and every Sunday -[3] click here for this Sunday’s readings.

Collect for Sunday

Pray this throughout the week as you gnaw on this Gospel.

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Creator; who with the Christ and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Want to read more?
“The Text This Week” is an excellent online resource for anyone who
wants to dive more deeply into the scriptures for the week.
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References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farewell_Discourse
2. http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=235731785
3. http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CTrinity_RCL.html
4. http://www.textweek.com/