Called?

Isaiah 6:1-8, John 3:1-17

Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller

Every year when we come face to face with the doctrine of the trinity I am left wondering: “How do you preach this?” What sort of enjoyable and memorable story can I share to help illustrate the mystery of our faith? The honest truth is that I do not have one. Since that is the case I have a few things I want to share about the trinity and hope that we can make some sense of this mystery for our lives.

The trinity, or at least the churches emphasis of the doctrine, has been greatly affected by the setting in history and the culture. What I mean is that different aspects of what is essentially a mystery have been emphasized, or overemphasized depending upon the setting in time and location. I offer this as an interested observer and not as an historian. There was a time when the Trinity was understood as a form of divine hierarchy. This understanding affected the way we saw ourselves and the way society was ordered. If we human beings then are made in the image of God it was then thought natural that some, mostly men, would rule over others. While this was a distortion of the doctrine it served an important role in the ordering of society. But this is not longer relevant or interesting except to point out the follow of our predecessors.

Much of the most interesting work being done these days on the Trinity emphasizes something very different. It has been a turn inward, focusing on the way in which the persons of the trinity are interrelated. This move appears, from my way of thinking, to come from a sense that it takes a village to raise a child. Or, as more communally based cultures teach us: “I am because we are.” It emphasizes the importance of community over the individuals. While communitarian thinking has its well documented pitfalls, I think it can serve as an important corrective to the excesses of the great American myth: Rugged Individualism. This is not to say that the Trinity leads us to state collectivism but it does work as a corrective to an individualism which shows no concern for the needs of others.

We proclaim that God is one known to us in three persons. This ancient belief of the church is not one that I want to debate or unpack. In other words, today, on the doctrine of the Trinity, I am going to assume the argument. Instead of arguing about the doctrine of the trinity I would rather focus on doing something more constructive. I think we find within the three persons of the trinity the source of our helpful corrective to rugged individualism and a collectivism which subverts the individual. The nature of the trinity is that there is one God who is in three distinct persons. They are not three isolated individuals nor are these persons subservient to the whole. There is no hierarchy within the trinity. It is a community of mutuality.

The trinity then, matters to human beings because it is we who have been made in the image and likeness of this Triune God. At our very being, we are not made to be alone but in relationship. It is not a stretch to say that we cannot be fully human alone. We need other people. It really is that simple despite our attempts to deny it. For example, we did not choose to be born and when we are born we are completely dependent upon others for our survival. And, at the end of our lives we will most likely be dependent upon others for our care as well. We are needy people who live in a culture which says that asking for help is a sign of weakness. But the good news is that if we are made in the image of God being interdependent is what it means to be fully human. We are made to be in relationship and our need is not a sign of weakness.

There is nowhere in the bible where the doctrine of the Trinity is explicit. It has been faithful folk though, who have engaged the witness of scripture and see God revealed in three persons. It may seem like a stretch to find an explanation for the trinity in our scriptures from this morning. But instead of trying to explain the trinity using our scriptures, I want to take a different approach. So let us ask this question: “What can these passages teach us about the nature of the trinity?” Again I am assuming the argument.

When it comes to the calling of Isaiah and the famous passage from John, we get a picture of the importance of our calling as people, individuals, made in the image of God, and in the love of God for the whole world. It is within these passages where we can see the importance of the individual and the whole world in God’s plan. One does not take precedence over the other. Herein lays the correction to the excesses and abuses of individualism and collectivism. By assuming the Trinity, we can understand our calling as children of God. And that calling includes each person and the whole world.

The Trinity matters, not as a doctrine for which we accept, reject, or simply ignore, instead it matters because it is radical good news. We have been made in the image and likeness of God. The God in whom we bear the image is by its nature affirming and upholding both the individual and also the community. When we gather at the communion table we eat together as individuals but never alone. We gather in community and are bound together so that we might just become fully human; that we might get a glimpse that the intractable battles of our lives may not have the last word. As a people made in the image of God we can never accept any calls for community which ignores the needs of individuals, particularly the most vulnerable. Likewise, we can never accept an individualism which privileges the needs and whims of one person to dictate the work and ministry of the community. Our calling is bigger than our individual wants and needs but it is not bigger than the love of God for each person. Indeed, the Trinity is a mystery, but it is not all that mysterious. If we accept this strange word to be both champions for the individual and the community, it is then when we just might get a glimpse of the reality of this mystery. Amen? Amen.