Holy Trinity

Sunday, May 30, 2010
The Holy Trinity
First Sunday after Pentecost

Midweek Musings

Reflection by Pastor Macholz

INTRODUCTION
"O Lord our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" Today we celebrate the name of God: holy blessed Trinity. There is no other day quite like this one in the church’s year. There is no other god like ours. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!

Prayer of the Day (ELW)

Almighty Creator and ever-living God: we worship your glory, eternal Three-in-One,
and we praise your power, majestic One-in-Three. Keep us steadfast in this faith,
defend us in all adversity, and bring us at last into your presence, where you live in endless joy and love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

First Reading

Proverbs 8:1–4, 22–31

In the Bible, wisdom has many faces. It is portrayed in terms sometimes human and sometimes divine. Often, it is personified as feminine. In this passage, Woman Wisdom is depicted not only as the first creation of God but also as God's helper, rejoicing in God's creation, especially in human beings.

Does not wisdom call,
and does not understanding raise her voice?
²On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
³beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
⁴"To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all that live.
²²The LORD created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of long ago.
²³Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
²⁴When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
²⁵Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth —
²⁶when he had not yet made earth and fields,
or the world's first bits of soil.
²⁷When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
²⁸when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
²⁹when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
³⁰then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
³¹rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.

Psalm (ELW)

Psalm 8

Your glory is chanted above the heavens. (Ps. 8:2)

¹O ^| LORD our Lord,

how majestic is your name in ^| all the earth!—

²you whose glory is chanted above the heavens out of the mouths of in- ^| fants and children;

you have set up a fortress against your enemies, to silence the foe ^| and avenger.

³When I consider your heavens, the work ^| of your fingers,

the moon and the stars you have set ^| in their courses,

⁴what are mere mortals that you should be mind- ^| ful of them,

human beings that you should ^| care for them?

⁵Yet you have made them little less ^| than divine;

with glory and hon- ^| or you crown them.

⁶You have made them rule over the works ^| of your hands;

you have put all things un- ^| der their feet:

⁷all ^| flocks and cattle,

even the wild beasts ^| of the field,

⁸the birds of the air, the fish ^| of the sea,

and whatever passes along the paths ^| of the sea.

⁹O ^| LORD our Lord,

how majestic is your name in ^| all the earth!

Second Reading

Romans 5:1–5

Paul describes the life of faith with reference to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Even now, we have peace with God through Jesus, and our hope for the future is grounded in the love of God that we experience through Christ's Holy Spirit.

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Gospel

John 16:12–15

Jesus' ongoing presence with the disciples will be borne by the coming Spirit, who will guide them and communicate to them Jesus' will and glory.

¹²I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Reflection

How good are you at dwelling in mystery? I would guess that if you thought about it quickly your initial response might be ‘not so good’. Yet given further thought you might agree with me that we dwell in mystery each day of our lives and while we’d love to know the answers there is some wonder to be found in the dwelling in the unknown. It would be tough to do all the time but from time to time it’s a good place to be.

This Sunday we celebrate the Trinity on a Sunday called by the same name. Could you explain the Trinity to me? Three in one and one in three? Is it like an apple; skin, fruit and core? Is it like water in different stages; boiling, frozen and in a glass to drink? No matter what analogy or picture we might throw at it or paint, it will come up short. For, when all is said and done, it’s a mystery.

Maybe we should just stand back and revel in it as opposed to trying to figure it out. We begin to understand its expressions in the three article of the Apostles’ Creed but once we start pushing those boundaries it gets a bit confusing.

This past Sunday we celebrated the gift of the Spirit as the disciples, waiting in Jerusalem, received it. Each Sunday as we gather we celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ in, with and under the bread and wine. And when we, like the psalmist, walk outdoors we are in awe and wonder at what that Father has wrought in creation.

How do we put the three together and understand them as an undivided unity yet separate in person? I don’t know, my tiny mind can’t explain. But…I believe it and I trust it and I have experienced it in all its grandeur and glory. And…I’m fascinated to dwell in its mystery!

Let Us Pray

For patience in understanding regarding those realities that escape us

For leadership and wisdom in the gulf coast in light of the ongoing oil spill

For whose lives and livelihoods are affected by the spill

That those who mourn may be comforted with the hope of the resurrection

That the unemployed would find meaningful work

Quote

The much-maligned doctrine of the Trinity is an assertion that, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, there is only one God.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit mean that the mystery beyond us, the mystery among us and the mystery within us are all the same mystery. Thus the Trinity is a way of saying something about us and the way we experience God.

The Trinity is also a way of saying something about God and the way he is within himself, ie., God does not need the Creation in order to have something to love because within himself love happens. In other words, the love of God is love not as a noun but s a verb. This verb is reflexive as well as transitive.

If the idea of God as both Three and One may seem far-fetched and obfuscating, look in the mirror some day.

There is (a) the interior life known only to yourself and those you choose to communicate it to (the Father). There is (b) the visible face which, in some measures, reflects that inner life (the Son). And there is (c) the invisible power you have in order to communicate that interior life in such a way that others do not merely know about it, but know it in the sense of its becoming part of who they are (the Holy Spirit). Yet what you are looking at in the mirror is clearly and indivisibly the one and only You. Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking.