Sermon for May 22nd 2005 The Revd. J. Michael Povey at St. James's, Cambridge, MA

 Genesis 1:1-2:4a + Psalm 8 + 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 + Matthew 28:16-20

A couple of years ago I was talking "Church" with another Christian. (Oh how we love to talk "Church", a handy diversion from talking about God, or God's world! Funny, come to think about it, Jesus doesn't talk much about Church!).

So there we were, being idly diverted and he asked me a strange question. "What would it take", he asked, "for you to leave the Episcopal Church?" I wish that I'd had the wit to say "a simple coffin and six pall-bearers".

We were taking "Church" again last Tuesday at the end of Vestry. Someone told us of his visit to an "open house" at the new "Vineyard Church" and of how phenomenally successful that Church has been. We mentioned our neighbors at "Hope Fellowship" just down the road, also very successful.

Both those Churches are in the Evangelical tradition, and we know one thing about that tradition for sure. They are fantastically committed in bringing people to Christ. I grew up in that tradition, and there is much about it which I love.

 But it is a tradition for those who long for certitude. "Here is the answer, here is the way" they are bold to say. But certitude in and of itself is not necessarily a cardinal value. Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses have certitude. And, as I said at Vestry, those Churches are often not very good at dealing with failure. "Spiritual success" is part of the soul of their message.

 I went on to say that a Church like St. James's has plenty of room for those with questions and doubts, and un-certainties. But then again, so do Unitarian Churches. So I went on to say that there is a core of belief which is at the heart of our life. But I didn't say what it is!

If you are a Roman Catholic, a core of belief will have something to do with the Church, and the authority of the magesterium. If you are an Evangelical, a core of belief will have something to do with the authority of the Bible. If you are a Pentecostal, a core of belief will have to do with the experience of the Holy Spirit. If you are a Unitarian a core of belief will have to do with the dignity of humanity. If you are an Episcopalian, a core of belief will have to do with the ability to juggle four or five books whilst drinking tea!

 But if you are Orthodox, e.g. Greek, Russian, Roumanian Orthodox, the core of belief will be the worship of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And I am with the Orthodox here. What would it take for me to leave the Episcopal Church? The explicit and official denial of the Trinity!.

What is at the core of our belief, the matter which I did not mention at Vestry last Tuesday. It is God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

When I was in Greece in 1999 our tour guide, on discovering that my friend and I were Priests of the Episcopal Church, told us that we had the formula of the Trinity wrong. She went on to say in her gently self assured way that in the Western Churches we often say "God the Father, God the Son. God the Holy Spirit", hinting at least at tritheism, a belief in three Gods.

"No" she said, "when we talk of God we should say : God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit?" Now you can't see it when I say it, but there is a colon after the word "God" . "God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit". When we speak of God, it is to speak of God as Holy Trinity. So now you know where I have been heading. It is Trinity Sunday!

 Now, if the earliest Christians had had a great convention to develop a theology of God, they could not have done worse than to come up with a doctrine of the Trinity. But it did not happen that way. They came to a belief in, and worship of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, through their experience which was rooted in tradition.

The earliest disciples of Jesus were all Jews, willing to die for their fierce conviction that there was only one God, and that God was One. But, to put it somewhat crudely, they began to see and experience the totality of God-ness in Jesus. And when Jesus was no longer with them, they experienced God-ness in the Spirit bestowed upon them. But they knew that Jesus was not God the Father, for he had said that he came from the Father, and was going to the Father. And they knew that the Spirit was not Jesus (though Paul was a bit confused about this), for Jesus had said that God would send them the Spirit.

So it was in the untidy matrix of:

first knowing their Jewish roots - God is one;

then of re-calling and re-telling the memories of Jesus;

and finally of feeling or knowing the presence of the Spirit of God (with some Greek philosophical concepts to help them) that they came to a theology of God as Holy Trinity.

 But it was more than a piece of theology. They came to believe that the very nature of God, God's very being is Trinity. And they claimed that what they thought was a voyage of discover, had in fact been a voyage of revelation.

It is of course the distinctive Christian doctrine. It is the worship of God as Trinity which sets us apart from our friends in the Jewish and Muslim religions. Everything we say about God springs from our conviction about God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

To speak of the work of the Father apart from the Son and the Spirit; to speak of the work of Jesus apart from the Father and the Spirit; to speak of the ministry of the Spirit apart from the Father and the Son, well, to speak in these ways is to miss the meaning of God.

That is why to substitute the words "Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer" in place of Father, Son and Holy Spirit leads us into error, for God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit is creating, redeeming and sustaining. We cannot simply identify the persons of the Triune God simply by their job descriptions, so to speak. (There, your Rector has identified theological error - don?t let him get started!)

And although in private piety folks pray to Jesus, (and private piety is to be preferred to public impiety!) , the way of prayer is to God, through Jesus our Lord, in the power of the Spirit. Or to say much the same thing in a different way, the Spirit points us to Jesus who introduces us to the Father.

"Now" you might ask, (and if you don't, I will), "what is the utility of the doctrine?" "Doctrine is all very well" we might think, "but what use does it have?"

First I believe that the experience of God as a Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead leads us to understand that at the heart of the Universe is mutuality and inter-dependence. We might begin to think of God as an eternal dance of creating, loving, giving, hearing, speaking, sharing, sacrificing and uniting. And within God is koinonia: communion, participation, fellowship. Just think about that for a moment. Quite apart from us and our own needs, desires, hopes and aspirations is God, who within God's-self is creating, loving, giving, speaking, hearing, sharing, sacrificing and uniting. Within God is koinonia: communion, participation, fellowship. This alerts and encourages us in two ways. It leads us to believe that relationship with God is based in communion with God: a communion which is expressed in creating, loving, giving, speaking, hearing, sacrificing and uniting. And it leads us to believe that authentic community in the Church is a community, not necessarily of like-minded-ness, but certainly one of creating, loving, speaking, hearing (oh that's a hard one!), sacrificing and uniting. That is the communion to which we are called. It will require love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. These are virtues that we might find hard to create, but they will most certainly be the fruits of our immersion in God's Spirit.

Second The experience of God as Trinity will lead us into a sharing of God's Mission. What is the mission of God? It can be summed up in "sending for purpose". The Father sent the Son for our redeeming. The Father sent the Spirit for our sanctification.

I remind you that Byron Rushing, in a sermon I heard him preach last year said: "God's Church does not have a Mission. God's Mission has a Church". If the Church is deeply Trinitarian it will long to share in God's missions of redemption and sanctification. That will lead us to know that there is no single human being, nor no single human situation, however lost, dangerous or evil which cannot be redeemed or restored to God. There's a word of hope for you!

And it will lead us to know that there is no part of our lives, or the life of the world, that cannot be sanctified, that is "made holy". Our personal worlds of sex, ambition, knowledge, laughter, of passion, or fear, or loneliness can be made holy in the communion of God's Church with God.

And our world can be sanctified. The worlds of prisons, schools, music, art, poetry, slums, starvation, famine, dread disease, conflict - are worlds which are crying to be made holy as the people of God share in the mission of God. That is what we mean when we pray "your will be done, on earth as in heaven". That, and much more, is the utility of Trinitarian belief and practice. But God save us also from thinking that life is just about utility, just about usefulness.

Thats the great American heresy by which we measure people as to their usefulness. You'' ll know what I mean when you recall that Companies used to have Personnel Departments, rooted in the idea of persons. But according to the world of Wall St we are no longer persons, but "human resources". The change is significant. But the Gospel word to us is not "what do you do?" , but "who are you?" In Christ we value and cherish others not for what they do, but for who they are!

And God save us from thinking that theology is only about utility or usefulness. The doctrine of the Trinity can help us to move us away from thinking of God in terms of what God does for us, and towards thinking about who God is for us. And I believe that when we move towards a deep appreciation of the mystery of God's Being, then we shall be moved towards something akin to awe and worship.

That leads me back to my deep appreciation of some aspects of the Eastern Orthodox Churches. For in their deeply Trinitarian understanding of God they tell us that the heart of faith is not correct doctrine. It is "right worship" The very word "Orthodox" gives us the clue. "Ortho"= right, or correct, or appropriate. "Dox" = worship or praise as in "Doxology".

I, with the Orthodox, believe that it is the life of worship which leads us best to lives of deep trust and belief, and to lives of deep practice of our faith. Last night many of us enjoyed a quite remarkable Concert by St. James's musicians. I was moved to think and say that it was wonderful for the audience not to have to do anything, but simply to relax in sheer pleasure. Relaxing in sheer pleasure is a most Christian thing to do!

 That's the heart of worship. It is to relax in the sheer pleasure of God's Being. This morning, this Trinity Sunday, let's move away from thinking "what's in it for me", and move into the sheer pleasure of God.

Blessed be God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen