The last time I was at St. Aidan’s was back in Advent, in person, in your beautiful new nave, which I admit feels like a lifetime ago. From Advent we went through Christmas, and Epiphany, and then into Lent which became the longest, Lent-iest Lent ever when we all went into quarantine and physical distancing. Then we had the entire season of Easter pass by without worshiping in our worship spaces. And now today we are in the Season after Pentecost, where we add to the global pandemic still raging now two weeks of protests across our nation to demand justice for the Houston native George Floyd who died in police custody from one officer’s knee on his neck. The protests in Washington DC included one of our fellow Episcopal parishes, St. John’s on Lafayette Square, where they were supporting the peaceful protesters with water and snacks from their church square when they were attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets to remove all protesters including the priests on their church’s front porch from the area ahead of the President’s visit in front of their church.  

When Father Les asked me before all of that happened to preach this Sunday, I jumped at the opportunity. I’m a theologian at heart and love to talk nerdy God talk about things like the Holy Trinity, but between me accepting the invitation and this Sunday, I lost my words in shock. In grief. In confusion. In anger. In sadness. I don’t know about you, but I’ve said many times lately that it all feels like too much. Too much at once. The protests on top of a pandemic – and then a storm in the Gulf on top of that. It’s overwhelming. And yet somehow I had to come up with a lot of words for today’s sermon. A sermon on the Trinity since it’s Trinity Sunday.

So, on this Trinity Sunday, I’m going to read the section of the Gospel today where we see the Holy Trinity in action, and then we’ll focus on one simple, easy-to-understand part of the theological mystery that is the Holy Trinity.

First, the Gospel reading:

“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.”

Matthew 28:18-20

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Which we do at Baptism. And a side note: at Jesus’ own baptism, all three persons of the Trinity were in action: Jesus being baptized, the Holy Spirit descending as a dove, and the Father saying that this was God’s son with whom he was well pleased.

So Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all active and working together in tandem, in relationship at Christ’s baptism.

Which leads us to the one simple-to-understand part of the Trinity: the Trinity is one God in relationship with the three persons of God’s own self.

The Trinity is God-in-relationship with God’s self.

God-in-relationship. And as we humans are made in the image of God, we are made in the image of the Trinity, and in the image of God-in-relationship.

Therefore, we are, in our very being, made for relationships. Because we are made in the image of God who is in God’s very being, in relationship with God’s self.

So what does that mean? One thing that I want to be very clear, as a single person, is that it does not mean that we are made for marriage and that someone else is our soulmate. After all, Jesus never married, and the Apostle Paul said it would be better to be single as he was. Instead, what being made in the image of God-in-relationship is that we are made for one another. No person is an island. We are all interconnected and interdependent, just as the Trinity is connected and interdependent. And if God is love, then the Trinity is not just God-in-relationship, but LOVE-in-relationship. We are made for one another, and our act of living that out in the world is the act of loving others. Some call that the act of Holy Friendship. In the Gospel of John, Jesus calls his disciples friends. Holy Friendship. Love-in-relationship. That is the image of the Holy Trinity we are to reflect into the world as followers of Christ.

But – and this is a big but – right now it’s not easy to live lives of Holy Friendship and Love-in-relationship. During this time of quarantine and social distancing where we can’t come together in person for worship, it’s hard to connect with others in relationship.

Can we talk about that for a minute and share in the chat? What are you all missing from being social distanced? How are we missing being able to be Love-in-relationship in the world? How are our Holy Friendships suffering?

It’s hard when we are instructed not to give hugs to those who are hurting. And it’s hard when travel is restricted and our loved ones are far away. It’s just hard right now.

On the flip side, how are we living into Holy Friendship, modeling the image of God-in-relationship to the world, despite social and physical distancing? Maybe you all can share some of that in that chat too.

Holy Friendship is hard to do right now. For a lot of reasons. But I’m going to name one other reason: It’s even more difficult to be the image of God-in-relationship, the image of the Trinity to the world, when we live in a hyper-partisan, divided society. And that feels especially divided with the events over the past weeks. But it’s been like this for some time.

There was a Wall Street Journal article back in 2016 that showed how the social media feeds of liberals and conservatives was drastically different (you can still go look it up if you’re curious – but not right now – do it after my sermon). We are getting different news, we’re watching different TV shows. But it’s more than that. Social scientists can predict whether or not you’re liberal or conservative from the purchases you make, the car you drive, what brand of peanut butter you eat, what restaurants you go to. We are truly living in two different Americas. It’s gotten to the point where we don’t even agree on the same facts or science or truth.

Unfortunately, it may be getting worse with the advent of social media, but it is not a new problem.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech on March 14, 1968 to Grosse Pointe High School in Grosse Pointe, Michigan entitled “The Other America.” He said,

“I use this title because there are literally two Americas. Every city in our country has this kind of dualism, this schizophrenia, split at so many parts, and so every city ends up being two cities rather than one. There are two Americas. One America is beautiful for situation. In this America, millions of people have the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality flowing before them. This America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies, culture and education for their minds, freedom and human dignity for their spirits. In this America children grow up in the sunlight of opportunity. But there is another America. This other America has a daily ugliness about it that transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair.” Then Dr. King goes on to describe the conditions of poverty he saw all around him for the Black community, and the riots that had sprung out of that despair, not unlike the protests and riots of today. He continues, “it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear?”

What is it that America has failed to hear?

What is it that we, as Christians, have failed to hear?

The social science researcher Dr. Brene Brown says that being heard and understood is one of our most basic human needs.

Which means that being heard and understood is one of the fundamental pieces of being Love-in-relationship. In reflecting back the image of the Holy Trinity to the world. In engaging in Holy Friendship with our neighbors.

So as we go about our weeks this next week, scrolling through our social media feeds that are so different from our neighbor’s, eating different brands of peanut butter and driving different cars, what have we failed to hear from those who are different from us?

• What have we failed to understand?
• How can we listen better?
• How can we better hear and understand our neighbors?
• How can we be better friends?
• How can we better reflect Love-in-relationship to the world?
• How can we reflect the Holy Trinity on this Trinity Sunday and beyond?

Amen.

A sermon given to St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in Cypress, TX online on June 7, 2020.