Trinity Sunday, June 15, 2025: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15; Psalm 8or Canticle 13
Years ago, a clergy friend told me that Trinity Sunday was the Sunday you always wanted a guest preacher, because most people only have so much to say about the Trinity. The Trinity is both central to Christianity, and deeply confusing. So our readings remind us of all the persons of the Trinity. For whatever reason, three years ago I didn’t even post on Trinity Sunday!
In Proverbs, Wisdom (another name for the Spirit) tells us that she was with God from the beginning, with God as the earth was created. And, she claims, “I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.” The image of delighting in the world and the human race is a powerful reminder of the way the spirit is with us.
Paul manages to tie everything together, reminding us of the way the three persons of God are one in action. We have peace with God through Jesus, and God’s love has been “poured into our hearts” through the Holy Spirit.
One of my experiences has been that different aspects of the Trinity seem present to me at different times. And in his address to his disciples, Jesus acknowledges this. The disciples “cannot bear” what Jesus wants to say at that time. Instead they will be guided to the truth by the Holy Spirit. Jesus, walking with his disciples, knows what they can and cannot bear.
I used to say that I did not “get” the Trinity. I understood God, as I could see the wonders of the world he has given us all around us. I understood Jesus, because I hear his teaching in the scriptures we read every week; he speaks to us through the Gospels. For a long time, the Holy Spirit did not make sense to me. Then I began to understand the spirit as that which sustained me and made me feel part of God’s world in the periods of stress and grief. I am certain it is the Holy Spirit that has sustained this community over the last 10 years.
Some churches celebrate Trinity Sunday as the birthday of the church, complete with cake. It is with the idea of the Trinity that the teachings of Jesus were brought together after his death. Not only did God send us Jesus, but the Spirit/Wisdom is with us always. And it is good to remember that Wisdom rejoices in us. In a world that feels at this moment very fragile, knowing that God is present with us offers comfort.
May we be open to the Trinity. And may we reflect with gratitude on the ways the different aspects of the Trinity have been present in our lives.
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