Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
June 6, 2004
Trinity Sunday

Saved by the Trinity
The Rev. Margaret W. Jones

Gospel:John 16:12-15
(This sermon is also available in audio)

Today is Trinity Sunday, notorious for challenging preachers to make sense of a doctrine that causes many rational people to scratch their heads in bewilderment. The Trinity is the central dogma of Christian theology: God exists in three persons and one substance. It is articulated in the Nicene Creed which we say every Sunday.

Some of us have grown up with the idea of the Trinity, and we can say the Nicene Creed without crossing our fingers behind our backs. But for those who base their beliefs on reason, believe me, it is not simple. Not at all. The one and only thing theologians agree on is that the doctrine of the Trinity is a mystery – a holy mystery, but a mystery nonetheless.

This is the only Sunday of the year we are asked to deal squarely with the complexities of the Trinity. Yet most of us come to church for consolation, encouragement, inspiration, or all three. How can the Trinity affect our daily lives, I asked myself? Then I remembered a story my friend Lily told me several years ago.

Lily, though that is not her real name, is one of my closest friends. We share many things in common: love of our families, love of books, and an abiding interest in the church. We also love to walk, and have spent countless hours together on our neighborhood sidewalks. We talk while we walk, sharing stories and secrets, philosophizing and laughing. It was on one of those walks that Lily told me the story.

She was flying to New York. Seated next to her were two young women, 18 or 19 years old. They each had books about Christianity, and from what Lily could tell from the titles and from the girls’ conversation, the books and the girls were what we Episcopalians might call e-van-gel-i-cal. Lily had a book on psychology, which happens to be her field.

Suddenly the plane hit turbulence. Lily grabbed her seat belt, which was already fastened, and tightened it with a vengeance, closed her book, and looked anxiously around her. (I forgot to mention that Lily and I share an inordinate fear – that is, terror – of flying!)

As the turbulence increased, Lily turned in desperation to her seatmates. “What are you reading?” she asked, trying to appear calm. They eagerly talked about the books, and their faith in Jesus. Then one girl looked intently at Lily and asked, “Are you saved??” Lily paused a minute before answering, “Yes, I am. I am saved.” “Oh,” said the girl. “What saved you?” Lily said she was quite taken aback. “The Trinity,” she finally said. “The Trinity saved me.”

I can still remember where we were when Lily told me that story. I stopped walking and turned to her, incredulous. “The TRINITY?! Good Lord! If ever, God forbid, I have to preach on Trinity Sunday, I’ll remember that.”

God must have a great sense of humor. Here we are, here I am, and it’s time to talk about the Trinity! Last week we celebrated Pentecost, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, with pomp and circumstance. The church was filled with red balloons. Today we wrestle with doctrine. But this is an important doctrine, at the heart of our faith. How to bring it to life, and make it meaningful to us, like it is to my friend Lily?

Renée Miller begins her sermons with a wonderful prayer: “May the Sacrament of the Word and the hunger of our hearts meet, and lead us ever more deeply into the heart of God.”

Maybe there is a way to talk about the Trinity that will lead us ever more deeply into the heart of God. I consulted three of my favorite theologians. They are brilliant and practical; they care more about people than doctrine, and they all have something to say about the Trinity.

First, Harvard chaplain Peter Gomes. “It is very easy to think about the Christian faith as a lovely story,” he writes. “But the concept of the Trinity invites us to think about the Christian faith as having a content that forces us not simply to act or to feel but to think … We must remember that the object of Christian theology is not to reduce the incomparable to our small size but rather to make us grow up in some small degree to the capacity of the subject.”

He continues, “Why does the church cling to the Trinity in the face of claims of the modern for tidy, useful thought? Because it works to explain the unexplainable. It allows us to imagine, anticipate, and celebrate the fullness, wholeness, and unity of God.” Gomes underscores the value of thinking about the Trinity so as to enjoy God as three gifts in one: Creator, Christ and Spirit.

Herbert O’Driscoll, Anglican priest, author, and renowned preacher who has visited Calvary many times, says, “There has never been an end to our search for images by which to express the mystery of the Trinity. St. Patrick used the shamrock to teach about the Trinity. To him, the shamrock spoke of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was a primitive way of teaching, but it is open to question whether we have succeeded in improving upon it. If the Trinity is our way of groping for an expression of the totality of God, then what can be better than to stoop down to the green earth and lift from it an image of God’s truth placed there by God’s own hand?”

The third person I consulted is our own resident theologian, The Rev. Dr. Robert M. Watson. He gave me a typically brilliant exposition of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit, and then he added a most valuable insight.

“Mimsy,” he said, in his sonorous voice, “the formula does not save us. Love does. The power at the heart of the universe is love. God is love. Christ is the most complete form of love who ever walked the earth, and the Holy Spirit is Christ’s love among us after Easter. But the essence of the Trinity is love- relational, community love. People should know us by our love, not our doctrine.”

Gomes, O’Driscoll, and Watson, three great Trinitarian theologians. And then there is my friend Lily, the one who brought it all together.

I called her last week and said, “I’ve always meant to ask you what you meant on the plane that day when you said the Trinity saved you. What did you mean? “Oh,” she said, “I meant it made me feel secure.” Then she laughed and said with such joy in her voice, “It still does!” “How?” I asked. “How does the Trinity make you feel secure??” “Well,” she said, “I feel that all three: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are holding me up. It’s the most wonderful feeling!”

“It certainly is,” I said, and meant it. Thanks be to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Copyright 2004 Calvary Episcopal Church

Gospel: 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 NRSV

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