All Truth -- A Message for June 12, 2022

 

            Today is Trinity Sunday. In our reading this morning, we focus on a snippet of scripture in which Jesus tries to explain God’s Trinitarian form. God the Creator is also Jesus the Son is also the Holy Spirit. We sometimes struggle to understand this, but the important thing to remember is that God wants us to feel a connection and dependence on God. God strives to be relatable and to relate to us.

            Hear our reading as it is found in John Chapter 16, verses 12 through 15:

Scripture Reading                        John 16:12-15

‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 

He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 

All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Prayer for Understanding

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

        Today is “God” Sunday, the day we celebrate God’s Trinitarian origins. Each year, our worship service on the Sunday after Pentecost focuses on the Trinity.  Our church was named in honor of the Trinity, so this is a special Sunday for our congregation – the day we honor our Trinitarian God at Trinity Christian UCC.

            When we sing our Doxology, we say: Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  We praise God because all good things come from God. We want all earthly beings, all human beings to praise God. We want all heavenly hosts, all the angels, to praise God. And, then we praise God as the Father and Creator, as Jesus, and as the Holy Spirit. 

            When I was a little girl, I felt like God was very distant from me.  I imagined a man, sitting up in the clouds, looking down at us from afar. I kind of imagined God as looking like a character from one of my story books, a little man like Rumpelstiltskin.  My childhood image of God was not warm and fuzzy. And, some of the things we do as a congregation emphasize this “distant” version of God. When we say the Apostle’s Creed, we imagine God in a throne room, a deity sitting along-side Jesus. And, we often imagine God as looking like us….human.   

            Throughout our lives, as we grow and change, we develop more expansive ways to imagine God. God is not in one place, far away from us and distant. God is able to hear us….to see us….to relate to us….to love us….to forgive us. And, God has worked to connect with us.

In Jesus, God chose to come to earth to live the human experience. In Jesus, God related to us as another human being. In Jesus, God worked to teach us and demonstrate to us a better way of living our lives. In Jesus, God worked to connect to all people—not just Nazoreans---not just Jewish people---but, us, people from different origins and different ethnic backgrounds. In Jesus, God worked to embody sacrificial love, and to teach us that we are also called to be generous and loving to each other.

            Every moment of our lives, God is present with us as the Holy Spirit. God is not just watching us from afar, but is here with us right now. One of the things I love about the Holy Spirit, is that God is not trapped in a body like we have. We know the presence of God is not in one place, but is where we are. The Holy Spirit of God is here with us. God’s Holy Spirt is also within us, providing us comfort and courage, support and guidance.

            The Trinitarian understanding of God gives us a framework through which God is relatable. God is the creational force in the Universe and God created us in God’s own image. Jesus Christ is God made flesh, our crucified and risen savior, who reconciles the world to God. The Holy Spirit is the part of God who is here with us right now and who sustains us and God’s church.  God may take on different forms, but through each, God reaches out to us. God is as close to us as our own breath and is also as distant as the furthest stars.

            We thank God that God chooses to be in relationship with us.

Amen.