Today reminds me of my complaining ninth grade self, whining to my Geometry teacher when I reached the limits of my understanding—about two weeks in if I remember correctly!—about how hard this was.
Perhaps you remember a time when your brain had been stretched too far and, in that frustration and discomfort, you complained, “Why do we have to study this stuff!?”
Welcome to Trinity Sunday! The one Sunday of the year where we celebrate, and therefore, confront the mysteries of the Holy Trinity. God is three. God is one. Confusing? Yes. Frustrating? Yes. Blood has been shed and communities have been splintered over the issue. But necessary? Absolutely!! Because it is our life’s work, and God’s good pleasure, to ever deepen our knowledge of and connection to God’s very being. And it’s also essential work, because to know God is to know ourselves and the work that God has entrusted to us, having been created in God’s image and likeness.
So, what is God like? The inner workings of the Trinity, reveal a God of abundant goodness; a trustworthy God who provides abundantly.
For example, in the creation story we hear today, notice the abundance of creatures. But also notice the abundance of power, of creativity, of imagination, of generosity. In fact, “Genesis” and “generous” share the same root word meaning “to beget.” All creation flows from the abundance of God’s love. God didn’t need to create, God just can’t stop the outpouring of divine abundant, loving, begetting. It reminds me of the springs of Augusta County, they continue rising up and flowing out. That abundance of God’s life-giving goodness can’t help but spill over and flow outward….ever outward… “bringing forth life and giving growth, bread for eating and seed for sowing,” to quote Isaiah (55:10).
Similarly, in the saving work of God the Son, the grace of Jesus embodies the abundance of God’s radical, profligate love, while also proving it to be trustworthy and true. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. In Jesus’ last words to his disciples in Matthew’s gospel, he promises to be with us always, even to the end of the age. Trusting that he will never leave us to face our troubles alone allows us to do the work of proclaiming the good news of God’s saving love for the world to all the corners of the world. We can depend on the words of the Word of God made flesh.
Also, in the ongoing comfort and inspiration of God the Spirit, we continue to experience God’s abundance and dependability. As Cara pointed out in last Sunday’s Pentecost sermon, the light kindled at Easter has become a firestorm at Pentecost. The abundance of God’s spirit continues to be poured out onto all those willing to accept it. As Richard Rohr said in his Pentecost sermon, “We all are temples of the Holy Spirit—equally, objectively, and forever! …God doesn’t give the Spirit to those of us who are worthy, because none of us are worthy. God gives the Spirit… to those who want it.” ( “Why Do You Ask for What Has Already Been Given?” homily, June 8, 2014.)
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are different and distinct and God the Holy Trinity is also perfectly One in being, a perpetual Love united in the eternal work of creating, redeeming and sustaining. I sometimes think of the Trinity as water. Water has its various forms – liquid, ice, steam – yet it remains the same: two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. God is three. God is one. We know the power of water—to both give life and health but also to cause death and destruction. Seeing how God uses that power informs how we should also.
The Triune God exercises power by giving life—generously and abundantly. And since we are told three times in today’s foundational scripture text that we are created in God’s image, understanding God as the trustworthy, generous, life-giving Trinity grounds us in this same life of generosity and abundance so that we too can be a force for life and healing. Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been the case.
God’s charge to humanity “to have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth,” has too often leaned towards domination rather than dominion. Duke University Biblical scholar, Ellen Davis, points out that, “Since the Renaissance, Gen 1:26 has frequently been invoked in the West to support the project of ‘conquering,’ ‘commanding,’ or ‘enslaving’ nature through scientific and technological means.” A practice painfully inconsistent with the life-giving goodness of a God who eternally creates, redeems and sustains.
Davis also observes a translation problem. She writes, “Another difficulty with the common translation is that the Hebrew phrase (radah b-) includes a preposition that is in most cases not equivalent to the English preposition ‘over.’” She suggests “A more satisfactory translation of that crucial verse might be ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness, so they may exercise skilled mastery among [or, with respect to]the fish of the sea and among the birds of the air.’”
Having been created in the image and likeness of the Triune God of abundant generosity—the God of infinite Love who dependably acts to create, redeem and sustain—our work is to join God in this work, we are called to be loving stewards—God’s agents—exercising skilled mastery among all of creation because:
- We trust in God’s abundance and share it abundantly.
- We witness to Christ’s loving grace and offer it freely.
- And we depend on the Spirit’s ongoing presence and join Her in renewing the face of the earth.
Yes, the intellectual labor of wrestling with the Holy Trinity is difficult, but it’s also more essential than ever in a fractured world obsessed with domination, rather than dominion. May we go forward today mindful of the blessing St. Paul used to help equip the conflicted church in Corinth to be stewards exercising the skilled mastery and loving generosity of the Triune God:
“May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God, and
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us evermore.”
