Today is Trinity Sunday!
We celebrate it now because the Holy Spirit has just been actively revealed through the experience at Pentecost. Expressing the Gift of the Spirit - Three in One. The Trinity. Pentecost is celebrated with the color red. It represents the fire of the Spirit, the transformation of our hearts, and like blood - an inner vitality, that’s been gifted to us. The Trinity is not that complicated really. We are connected to God the creator of all things, seen and unseen. God in Jesus came as one of us to give us this message, And gifted us with the Holy Spirit who guides us into truth and love and peace. It’s that simple really. We do not need all of the complex theology wrapped up over so many years to believe that we are connected to the creator of all things: Loved and called to Love. Believe can really be translated into Beloved. This is what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus… who seeks him out after dark to discuss the teachings and the signs that Jesus was offering. Nicodemus is a Pharisee; a religious leader, a scribe and a lawyer. He isn’t here to question Jesus’ validity, but rather to understand more. He approaches Jesus calling him Rabbi - and he says WE know that you are from God. Different than other public accusations and pointed questions from religious leaders, this is a private and quiet moment of spiritual direction from one who seeks to understand what Jesus has to offer. John 3:16 has been considered the foundation of the Gospel meaning the Good News at large: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Taken out of context, Sometimes this phrase is experienced - or used as a threat in our Christian evangelising… But importantly 3:17 goes on to say: “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” Jesus came to teach us that we are saved through a great love that God has for us. And it is a big message of unification, communion and peace. It frees us. There is no condemnation. There is Love that is so great that it’s difficult to wrap our intellectual minds around it (as we have attempted to do for centuries). It is a message of the heart. And it gets corrupted and confused when we try to only intellectualize it. That is a worldly response. The Spiritual Direction conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus is similar… Nicodemus may be so caught up in the thinking aspects of theology by this time, the intellectualization…that he has lost the true message that sings from and to the heart of the matter: The heart of God. Jesus says we need to be born anew, from above. Nicodemus asks, “Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” It’s a seemingly rhetorical question… But the word “womb” used here is also known figuratively as “the heart.” The answer is yes. Not no… We can be born anew, Yes - we can return to the “mother’s" heart. Jesus offers spiritual direction to an already studied man. We all need to be born anew to remember the awe of God, not simply the law of God and theology - that humans have projected onto God - but the Holy Holy Holy part: Richard Rohr writes, "The Spirit is always a gratuitous gift. It’s always an unmerited favor. It’s always pure grace. Like wind, it cannot be seen… [And echoing Isiah’s call in the temple] Like smoke, it cannot be controlled. The Spirit is elusive, blowing where it wills. …Yet like fire, the Spirit can be felt. The Spirit is experienced as the warmth of God’s love. And like blood, it is experienced as an inner vitality…” This vitality, this energy is available to us… freely given. The Holy Spirit is not some quiet third of the Trinity… - It is the agency of our lives if we let it flow. Like Nicodemus, Jesus directs us too - to the spiritual wonder. The Holy: The voice of the Lord is the voice of Splendor. The psalmist sings again and again of the voice of the Lord. 3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; It Thunders. *The voice of the Lord splits the flames of fire; the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; * … [And even with all this power, lastly] the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace. There is awe and wonder in response to the vastness of God. As our outline of faith states: Awe as “Adoration is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God, asking nothing but to enjoy God's presence.” How do you marvel? And what makes you awed? What reveals the Holy, Holy, Holy in your life? The Spirit didn’t just show up on Pentecost. The Spirit was revealed to many that day…but everything, everything in the World including Jesus came through the Spirit of God. And each one of us deserves to have the kind of Spiritual Direction that Nicodemus received from Jesus… …Receiving guidance in your Spiritual Life. What prayer practices would animate you - what stories, what passages, what bits of psalms move you? What is it about nature, art, sports, cooking or other activity that makes you marvel at the intricacies of life; the mystery; the glory of God? Where is Holy, Holy Holy in your life? The question Jesus might ask is, Where is it stirring in you? The Trinity is really not that complicated. It takes three aspects to describe the work of the Lord. And since we are made in the image of God, we share in these aspects. We too have the desire and ability to create, the call to love and forgive, and the vitality to live and move and have our being in the fullness of life. It’s that simple really.
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AuthorThe Rev. Heather K. Sisk Archives
July 2024
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WE ARE ALL MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD |
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