Homily Notes Trinity Sunday
Trinity Sunday/ “Are We Willing to Risk Communion with God?”
In the Book of Genesis (Chapter 18), a story is told of Abraham having a close encounter with God. Abraham was sitting outside his tent one day at Mamre. Suddenly he sees three men standing nearby looking at him. He recognizes that it is the Lord.
He invites the three men to sit down in the shade of a tree. Hospitality to the stranger was an important value in the ancient world. He works with Sarah his wife to fix a meal for his heavenly visitors. The two, bake bread made of the finest floor. A tender calf is slaughtered. Abraham serves his guests fresh water. He does everything to make his visitors at home.
But he does not presume to sit down to eat with them. He observes them shyly from a distance. Why? Probably because Abraham does not feel worthy to eat with God. In Old Testament times, this typifies God’s relationship with most of humanity.
In Orthodox Christianity Icons are a very important part of worship. Icons are, of course, very stylized paintings. Andrei Rublev painted an Icon of this Biblical scene from Genesis. The Icon is titled, The Trinity. The three men who came to see Abraham are shown as Angels. The three Angels are identical except they wear different colors. One angel is pictured wearing Gold representing the Father. Gold is the color of perfection and wholeness. One angel is pictured wearing blue. Blue is the color of “the Human.” Sea and sky mirror one another in blueness. Jesus’ humanity mirrors his divinity. The last Angel wears green which in the Orthodox tradition represents the Holy Spirit who brings fertility and life.
The three angels in the Icon sit in a semicircle around a table sharing the meal that Abraham and Sarah had prepared for them. One side of the Table is open, the side that the person is on that is looking at the Icon. The implication is that the believer who looks at the Icon is invited to sit down at the table with the Trinity. The three figures in the painting are in intimate communion. The believer who looks on is not be like Abraham, an observer of the meal, but is invited to sit down at the table to share in the ongoing relationship that is the Holy Trinity. The essence of God is relationship. The Christian God does not want to eat alone.
We can all make a mistake in how we view God in our life. We can be almost pagan in that we can make God an object that we put on a shelf to worship. God can also be that absolute monarch that sits on a throne observing what we do. We can believe God exists to keep score. God’s whole purpose is to evaluate how we perform in life. But that is not what the dogma of the Trinity teaches us.
God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden sharing earthly delights with them. God was a friend of Abraham. God told him he who wanted a chosen people that he could love and guide. Our God talked to Moses face to face until Moses face reflected the divine presence so brilliantly that others could not look on his face. Moses had to cover his face. Our God is Jesus Christ who came into the world as a human being. He lived with Peter and Mary and all the other Apostles. His intimate connection with them was what made their faith vibrant.
God is all about a community of three persons who invites us to join them. God comes to us in the day to day experiences of our lives. Our Lord does not want to be at a distance watching us, but God wants to be right next to us at ever moment embracing us, experiencing everything that we experience.
The mystery of Trinity is needed in our world more than ever. Why? Because we have so many things driving us apart. One of the natural consequences of community is that we can wound one another. Because of that we can seek to protect ourselves from others. We can retreat to where we think it is safe. We can think that being disconnected from people is the place to be, but what effect does that have. CS Lewis described the effects of disconnectedness in this way:
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
We remember this Trinity Sunday that God offers us communion with the divine at every moment of our life. But it takes the willingness to be vulnerable and to risk intimacy in order to feel the passionate love of God.
Please note: rough draft, grammar may not be perfect