Trinity Sunday 7th June 2020
Exodus 34: 1- 8
The Lord said to Moses, ‘Cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you broke.
Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me, on the top of the mountain.
No one shall come up with you, and do not let anyone be seen throughout all the mountain; and do not let flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.’
So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the former ones; and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tablets of stone.
The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name, ‘The Lord .’
The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed,
‘The Lord , the Lord ,
a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
yet by no means clearing the guilty,
but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children,
to the third and the fourth generation.’
And Moses quickly bowed his head towards the earth, and worshipped.
The Gospel according to Matthew 28: 16- 20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
Reflection:
When we think about the nature of God we call the Trinity, it makes me think of the transformation that God offers and the lifegiving nature of the experience of God. Richard Rohr in his book ‘The Divine Dance’ suggests that when we begin to see God and experience God as Triune and we begin to recognise God’s very nature and relationship of love, interiorly and outwardly, then we will know there’s a place at God’s table for everyone.
God has been calling people together since the beginning. Jesus didn’t come to divide but to draw all people to himself. Where we experience God as Trinity, we see above anything else a relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a relationship of love. God the Creator is one with creation, bound together in love, binding us in the power of the Spirit in love. Therefore, as we experience God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit our experience with God is one of relationship and love. This then calls us into relationship with each other and therefore calls us into community.
Today is Trinity Sunday- OHHHH Triune God, how do we explain, experience or know God? God who is a great mystery that is immeasurable to human mind or knowledge and yet is accessible to us in relationship that has the potential to be profound and intimate.
In baptism we are united into God’s mighty acts of salvation and given new birth through water and the Spirit. This is the teaching of the church, we are baptised in the name of the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Last week we celebrated Pentecost, the birthday of the church, the coming of the Holy Spirit. For those who were able to watch the diocesan Pentecost service, you may have experienced as I did, a great sense of oneness and connection with Christians around the diocese. From Tweed heads to Port Macquarie. The Spirit of God equips, empowers and unites us. But often we can confuse unity with uniformity. God created each of us in his loving image, in all our diversity. Yes, sometimes it difficult to be diverse and yet one. Still we see this in the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, diverse yet one, and perhaps the challenge of this teaching is to recognise that with all our diversity we are all connected, untied and loved.
Jesus demonstrates God’s grace toward and inclusion of people of all backgrounds. This was something that I suggest Jesus wanted the disciples, his followers including us to embrace. Jesus tells us in his final commission, often called the great commission; Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. He doesn’t tell them to only baptise those with a certain colour skin, hair or preference. He says make disciples of all nations.
In these present times, when pandemic, natural disaster, riots, financial stress and other threats encroach on our very being, some closer to home than others- Jesus message still stands. God’s love, forgiveness and grace is for all who turn to him.
Perhaps the challenge for us as the church, that is as the people of God, not just of the Bellinger Parish or the Grafton Diocese, but for us as the church- is unity in diversity. We are the body of Christ; His Spirit is indeed with us. We are community and we are called to make disciples of all nations. ALL. And yes, it’s hard to welcome everybody. It’s hard to share the gospel and share our faith. It’s hard to see someone who has flittered their life away or who has different ideas to us get the same reward as we do.
However, the gift of God that we hold and have is something to be shared, not kept just for ourselves. As we prepare to begin worshiping and functioning again as the Bellinger, and we reopen the churches in our parish, one of my many questions is how can we re activate our church community? What are the things we want to pick up again and what can we might rejig or even leave aside- for now at least?
The very nature of the Trinity is transcendent. This transcendence, this excellence, this supremacy is transforming. The very nature of the Trinity doesn’t leave us where we are but takes us on a journey, in relationship that is life changing. The very nature of the Trinity desires to draw us (and others) into relationship with God himself. Moses was drawn to worship God, knowing that the Lord, is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. God is a God to be obeyed and honoured. And, as Jesus himself promised, he will be with us even to the end of the age. This is the gift of God that we hold and have and have been commissioned to share. It isn’t if you want to or if the weather is good on the day- it is a command- Jesus said go- Go, make disciples and I suggest there is no more important time for us to be actively doing this than this very day. Amen.