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Lifesaving Circle
by The Rev. Canon Heidi E. Kinner
Year C, Trinity Sunday, John 16:12-15
May 30, 2010
unedited
Here we are at Trinity Sunday again. And I'm sure that you were all brushing up on the doctrine of the Trinity this weekend in celebration; perhaps memorizing the Athanasian Creed (BCP page 864) with its reminder that, “We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.”
O.K. maybe not.
Let's face it, most of us don't think much about the doctrine of the Trinity at all. And when we do try to wrap our minds around the fact the God is eternally One and yet also always Three Persons, well it just gives us a headache.
But, whether we understand it or not, it is the truth.
I don't have time to go through all the biblical proof of the Trinity, but will suffice to say that in both the Old and New Testaments the truth of the Trinity shines through. There is One God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – three distinct persons and yet still One God.
It is a holy mystery, and one that is terribly important, for the reality of the Triune God intersects with God's plans for our salvation. As someone once said, “Anyone who denies the Trinity is in danger of losing his salvation, but anyone who tries to understand the Trinity is in danger of losing his mind.” (Attributed to St. Augustine in R.E. Olson/C.A. Hall, The Trinity)
So, I don't want to spend time trying (and failing) to explain how the Trinity works.
But I do want to use this morning's readings, primarily Romans, but also the Gospel to talk about why the Trinity is important for us and for our salvation.
We read that Jesus, God the Son has justified the faithful by His death and resurrection. He has forgiven our sins, borne our judgment, and made us right with God.
Therefore we have peace with God the Father, who loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die for us in the first place.
And God the Holy Spirit now guides us into all truth and pours the love of God into our hearts, which strengthens us to endure the sufferings of the world and reminds us of the steadfastness of our hope.
The Three Persons of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit working for a unity of purpose: our salvation so that we can have peace with God.
So even in these short passages we glimpse the mysterious truth of the Trinity and its importance for us and for our salvation.
And it is amazing!
What wondrous love and mercy it is that the Triune God, perfectly complete in Himself, reached down to redeem us from slavery to sin and death. The fact that God, whose majesty and mystery we barely understand, would lay a plan before the beginning of the world, then send God the Son to execute the plan, and the Holy Spirit to proclaim the truth of the work and guide us, is incredible. It should bring us all to our knees in humility, thankfulness, and awe. And it should fill us with joy and hope, just as it did Paul.
You see Paul understood and had internalized the marvelous reality and love of the Triune God. He knew that God the Father had chosen him. He knew that God the Son had died to save him from his sin. He knew that the Holy Spirit prayed in him and poured out God's love into his heart.
He knew therefore that he had peace with God, and because of that he had abundant life and freedom with God; life that saw beyond this world's short horizon to the endless morning of God's Kingdom; a life of luminous joy that could never be taken away or diminished, even when he was sitting in a prison cell facing execution.
Paul had a whole new perspective. With the Triune God at the center of his vision, everything else was shown to be big shadows cast by the evil petty dictators of this world. Or to borrow from Shakespeare, it is all just “sound and fury” with no lasting substance and no eternal power.
So with his heart firmly fixed on God, Paul could rejoice in the midst of suffering, for he had no ultimate fear, or worry, or despair. He knew as he says in Romans chapter 8 that nothing could separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus. He knew that no matter what happened, he was already heir to God's Kingdom, and the inheritance could never be taken away by the people or events of this world.
As I've been pondering and praying this week, thinking about the Trinity and about Paul's rejoicing in salvation, an image has kept popping into my head. As with all images of the Trinity, it does not come close to really explaining the wonderful mystery, so I offer it with apologies:
It is the image of an abandon ship coldwater survival technique. Survivors from the ship are to gather into groups and form a tight circle. Then each person in the circle takes a turn in the center of the group. The one in the center is buoyed up by those forming the circle and so gets a slight rest, and he is also able to warm up surrounded by the body heat of the group. And I suppose that in shark infested waters the one in the middle is also protected by the others from attack.
In this life we are often in the cold dark waters of sin and sadness, treading water in exhaustion or doggy paddling like crazy just to keep our heads above water. And let's face it, a lot of us feel like we've been thrown overboard into shark infested waters, wondering when we're going to get our legs bitten off by the circling predators.
But, when we give our lives to Jesus we find that we are not in the waters alone. We are encircled by the Trinity. In salvation the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit surround us; God surrounds us. But unlike the survival technique, in salvation we never have to rotate to the outer part of the circle. God does all the work. He keeps us in the middle.
God buoys us up, keeps us from freezing in the waters of despair, and protects our hearts and souls from the ripping jaws of the enemy. So we know that we are saved. We can rest safe in the protection of God's arms and know that we will arrive safely home. We shall not be lost at sea, we will make it home to claim our inheritance as adopted sons and daughters of God the Father.
So, we may not be able to explain the Trinity, but we surely can rejoice in the hope that we have because of our salvation wrought by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – ever One God, world without end. Amen.
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