Trinity, Year C

“GOD IN THREE PERSONS, BLESSED TRINITY”
A sermon by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, May 30, 2010
Isaiah 6:1–8; For the Psalm: Canticle 13; Revelation 4:1–11; John 16:5–15

We’ve just finished singing hymn #362, which goes like this:

Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty,
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee:
Holy, Holy, Holy! Merciful and mighty,
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.

This very familiar hymn (in the second verse) goes on to recall the saints who cast “their golden crowns around the glassy sea,” an obvious reference to the images that our reading from the Book of Revelation paints for us this morning.

That same verse also goes on to mention the heavenly hosts, the cherubim and seraphim, who fall down in worship before the Holy God, a theme we hear in our reading from Isaiah, chapter six, this morning.

Well, have you ever wondered just what we mean by the phrase, “God in three Persons”?

Since we find ourselves this morning celebrating the Holy Trinity, and – might I say – this is our “Name Day” feast, for our parish is named in honor of the Trinity, let’s consider the matter of God in three Persons, or – put another way – God, who is the three-in-one.

We begin with an observation: If you check a good concordance of the Bible, you won’t find the word “Trinity” anywhere in it. That’s because at no time in Holy Scripture does the term “Trinity” ever get used.

To be sure, however, there are some verses in the Bible, which mention all three persons of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The clearest mention of the three persons is found in Matthew 28: 19, which reads, “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….” If you remember, that is the formula which is used at every baptism here at Trinity Church. Another verse which mentions all three persons is found in II Corinthians 13: 14, which reads, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”1

However, the use of the term “Trinity”2 didn’t emerge until about the year 180 AD.3 And, it is the theologian Tertullian (whose dates are c. 160 – 225 AD) who makes use not only of the word “Trinity”, but also of the words “person” and “substance” when talking about the nature of the Godhead.

Now, let’s acknowledge another aspect of our discussion about the Trinity: Its mystery.

Our opening hymn this morning realizes the fact that we human beings cannot know the fullness of God, who is One, the same God who is three. Verse three states this fact quite well:

Holy, Holy Holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see.
Only thou are holy; there is none beside thee,
Perfect in power, in love, and purity.

And, yet, we must admit that we can know God, and least to some extent.

It is to the aspects of God that we can know and understand (at least in part), that we turn.

We will consider, in turn, the following:

1. How did the Church come to understand that God is the Three-in-One?
   
   
2. What prompted the Church to hammer out its understanding of the Trinity?
   
   
3. How do we understand God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit with respect to:
   - God’s very nature, and
   - God’s acting in human history?
   
   
4. How should our understanding of God as we see this understanding in the answer to question #3 inform our knowledge of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

Our examination of the mystery of God now turns to these four questions:

How did the Church come to understand that God is the Three-in-One? The short answer is, “Certainly, the Church didn’t come to that understanding overnight.” On the contrary, though the apostolic witness of the faith acknowledges the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (recalling what we said about Matthew 28: 19), it took about four centuries for the Church to fully flesh out its understanding and its teaching about the nature of the Holy Trinity. We mentioned a moment ago Theophilis of Antioch’s use of the term, and Tertullian’s application of the words “person” and “substance” to the matter of the Trinity. Beyond these and other early theologians, however, it was the formulation of the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed which more fully articulated the doctrine of the Trinity, for both creeds are Trinitarian in outline, since each person of the Trinity has a paragraph devoted to it in each creed. And, along the way, many early theologians explored the nature of the Godhead and the relationship between each of the three persons of the Trinity.

What prompted the Church to hammer out its understanding of the Trinity? Here, there are two answers:

• It was the coming of Jesus Christ, and the things that He taught about Himself, and His relationship to God the Father and to the Holy Spirit, which provided the window into the nature of God. Notice, in our reading from the Fourth Gospel this morning, what He has to say about the unity which exists between the Father and the Son: He says, “All that the Father has is mine.”4 Now, notice a little earlier on in that same reading, what He has to say about the coming of the Holy Spirit. He says, “..for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”5 (This “sending” is a point we will come back to shortly.)
  
  
• The challenges that the early Church faced in the form of the heresies prompted the Church to clearly state its orthodox understanding of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We can enumerate the most serious challenges that the Church faced in those early centuries: Marcionism (2nd century),6 which challenged the understanding of God the Father as being constant throughout Old Testament and New Testament history; Gnosticism (first through the third centuries), which maintained that Jesus was fully divine, but wasn’t fully human; and Arianism (fourth and fifth centuries), which denied Jesus’ divinity. It was in response to these understandings of the nature of the Father and the Son that the Church was forced to articulate clearly and forcefully the orthodox understandings that were consistent with the faith that had been received from the Apostles.

How do we understand God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit with respect to God’s very nature and God’s acting in human history?

Here, we tackle to different aspects of the Trinity, and we do so using technical terms that theologians use:

• God’s very nature: This has to do with God’s very being, and this is usually referred to as the ontological Trinity. (Ontology has to do with the very essence, or being, of something). In this respect, all three persons of the Trinity are equal. All are eternal, all are without ending. The Athanasian Creed7 (which may be found on page 864 of the Book of Common Prayer, 1979) addresses the very nature, the very being, of God. A sampling of this creed will illustrate the point:
  
  

  And the catholic8 faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity
  in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.
  For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost.
  But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.
  Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost
  The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate.
  
  
  

  (The creed with continue in this fashion, describing each person of the Trinity in equal terms.)
  
  
• God’s acting in human history: However, when we examine the record of the Bible, we see that there seems to be some sort of a hierarchy of action, each person of the Trinity undertaking a certain sort of work. That would seem to be the case with the Father, who sends the Son (a frequent theme in John’s gospel account), and the Son, who sends the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, as we heard in our gospel text for this morning. Theologians call this aspect of the Trinity by the technical term the economic Trinity.9
  
  How should our understanding of God as we see this understanding in our answer to question #3 inform our knowledge of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit? We turn, finally, to the practical aspects of our relating to God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And, as we do, we should note two things about our thinking and our relating:

• We often think of God in relationship to the functions that God in the various persons exhibits as we encounter Him. For example, when we look at the created order of the world around us, we might give thanks to God the Father for the wonderful gift of creation. When we come to God the Son, seeking a new life with Him, we think of God the Son as Redeemer, as Savior. When we seek inspiration, we might call upon God the Holy Spirit to enliven and enlighten our hearts and minds. It is this approach, the practical (or, in the word we used a minute ago, the “economic Trinity”) that we most often think of God, it seems to me. At least, that is my practical experience: I tend to think of one person of the Trinity at a time. Theologians have a word for this approach: It is called modalism, a word that refers to the various “modes” in which we experience God. Putting this in human terms, I can say that I am a father to my children, a grandfather to my grandchildren, and a priest to my congregation. I am one person, but I operate in three different “modes” of acting. I suspect many of us fall into the modal understanding of God.
  
  
• To counteract this modal tendency, we would do well to remember the ontological Trinity, that God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all three who are co-eternal, co-equal, almighty, God and Lord. For whenever we encounter one person of the Holy Trinity, the other two are also always present. We enjoy, therefore, the fullness of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit at all times and in all circumstances, even if we think of only one person of the three.

Well, how did we do in trying to understand the mystery of God, the Three-in-One? Trying to understand this mystery is a bit like something we used to say about the business of learning to sing: Once you think you’ve figured it all out, you realize there’s more to learn.

May God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, guide and enlighten us to see God in His fullness, God in His actions in human history, and in our lives today.

AMEN.
______________________________________________

1) This is known in its liturgical use as “The Grace”, and it is the verse which closes Morning and Evening Prayer.
2) The word “Trinity” derives from the Latin (trinitas), for it is a combination of the word “trinus”, indicating “three” and “unitas”, indicating “one”.
3) Theophilis of Antioch is the first to use the term
4) John 16: 15
5) Verse 7
6) Named for its founder, Marcion (who died about 160 AD), this movement regarded God the Father as being a vengeful, punishing God in the Old Testament. This Old Testament God wasn’t the same God that Jesus referred to as “Father”, for this God is a God of love and forgiveness.
7) Though named for the great fourth century bishop, Athanasius (c. 296 – 373 AD), this creed probably dates from about the year 500 AD.
8) “Catholic” meaning “universal”
9) The word “economy” here is used in the sense of a “plan”, which is the original meaning of the Greek word oichonomia

The Feast of Pentecost, Year C

“TELLING THE MIGHT WORKS OF GOD TODAY”
A sermon by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, on Sunday, May 23, 2010
Acts 2: 1 – 11; Psalm 104: 25 – 32; I Corinthians 12: 4 – 13; John 20: 19 – 23

“And how is it that we hear, each in his own native language….the mighty works of God?”

These are the words of those who witnessed the coming of the Holy Spirit with the force of a wind, and with the appearance of divine fire, which rested over the heads of each individual member of the Church, that first Pentecost day.

Indeed, it’s the coming of the Holy Spirit with discernable power and energy (that is, something like the tongues of fire) that empowered the Church, and gave it the drive to become the Lord’s witnesses to all the ends of the earth.

For that reason, this great Feast of Pentecost is often nicknamed “The Birthday of the Church”. For, on this day, the Church was given birth and its life force.

But, I am getting a little ahead of myself, so let me back up a little.

The coming of the Holy Spirit, which enabled the assembly to testify to the mighty works of God, provided the proof of Jesus’ command to the disciples, as they gathered on the hillside to witness His ascension into heaven, some ten days earlier. On that occasion, Jesus said to them, “But you shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1: 8)

So, now, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did, indeed, come, and the Holy Spirit came with power: discernable, noticeable power. And, as a result, those upon whom the Spirit came were able to testify in Jerusalem to devout Jews from “every nation under heaven.”

The “end of the earth” had been reached, in one day.

Of course, what would come after this day of Pentecost would be the “sending out” that made these disciples into apostles. And, as these disciples-now-become-apostles went, they would go to Judea, and to Samaria, and then to points north, west, east and south, in other words, to the end of the earth.

Jesus’ charge to these original disciples, to “be my witnesses”, is the same charge that He gives to you and me today.

In order that we might understand a bit more about the task which lies before us in the year 2010, we ought to look at some of the specifics of that original Pentecost event, in order to see how we might apply those same aspects of God’s expectations of us to the task before us today.

We should consider the following from the original Pentecost event:

Each individual was graced with power from the Holy Spirit: Notice that Luke (the author of the gospel account which bears his name, and also the author of the Book of Acts) tells us that the tongues of fire were “distributed and rested on each one of them” who were present (Acts 2: 3). Each individual present received divine power, through the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Each individual’s identity was preserved: Now, notice that Luke tells us that those who heard the speakers recognized that they were Galileans. The personal identity of each speaker was preserved. Their identity could be discerned and noticed.

Bridging the language gap: If the culture gap was bridged by the power of the Holy Spirit, then the language gap was also bridged between these Galileans and the devout Jews, who had come from all over the world. Indeed, this sort of speaking in tongues isn’t the sort of ecstatic, divine speech that St. Paul addresses in his first letter to the Corinthian Church. No, in this instance, the ability to speak, which is given by God, is the ability to speak in another, human language.

The mighty works of God: The reason for all of this is to make the powerful and transforming works of God known to all persons, everywhere. Indeed, the Great Commission (see Matthew 28: 19 – 20) makes this charge quite clear, to all Christians, in every time and in every place. The Great Commission says this, “Jesus said, ‘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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

Now, let’s turn our attention to the task of being God’s witnesses in the time and the place where we find ourselves today, as members of Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon.

Taking the same categories as we did for the original Pentecost event, we make the following observations for our own charge and ministry today:

Each individual is graced with power: Each of us, as baptized Christians, are empowered by the Holy Spirit to use our own talents and abilities in witness to the mighty acts of God that we see in our own lives, and in the lives of others within the faith community. We affirm this in our baptismal service. As each person is baptized, they are anointed with holy oils, and these words are spoken over them as this action is done: “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism, and marked as Christ’s own for ever.” (Book of Common Prayer, 1979 (BCP), page 308) Furthermore, as the baptized person come to the point of being confirmed, the Bishop who confirms them asks God to send that person “forth in the power of that (Holy) Spirit to perform the service you set before them…” (BCP, page 418)

Our own personal identity will be preserved: I don’t think God likes cookie-cutter Christians. Certainly, if we take even a brief look at the original disciples, we can see that they were a motley crew, weren’t they? Highly individualistic, they came from varied backgrounds, and carried with them into their life in Christ markers of their backgrounds. Today, the same is true: We come from various backgrounds, and have varied perspectives on God’s power to save and to transform the meaninglessness of life into a spirit-filled, meaningful life in God. Indeed, as I consider this point, I think it is proof of the power of the Holy Spirit, that God is able through that same Spirit to meld us into one body in Christ, to unify us, one to another, and to God, through Christ. (From the Catechism, found at the back of the Book of Common Prayer, page 855, which states that the mission of the Church is to “restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”)

Bridging the language gap today: With this aspect of our life in Christ, we come to one of the most difficult issues which confront us today: Bridging the language gap. But, you may say, “Don’t we all speak English?” Indeed, we do. That isn’t the issue for us, as it was on the Day of Pentecost. Today, we encounter people who know little-or-nothing about God, little-or-nothing about Jesus Christ, little-or-nothing about the power and the meaning that life takes on when we come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It’s as if we are speaking a foreign language to many people that we meet. As I reflect on the changes in society in general over the past forty to fifty years, I would have to say that it is a paradigm shift in people’s knowledge of the Bible, and of its basic contents, which has changed the most over that period of time. Years ago, most people could probably tell you the basic stories that are in the Bible, including many of the major life events of Jesus, and many of His teachings. Today, that is no longer true, for the most part. We cannot assume that, when we talk about our life of faith, the people who will hear us will be able to glean any meaning at all from what we say. So, we have to seek God’s guidance as we pass along the Good News of God in Christ. We need divine fire and divinely given abilities to speak in a language that our hearers can understand.

Witnessing to the mighty works of God: God is still at work among His people. He is still doing mighty works among and through us. I suspect that each of us could recount a time when God’s healing was present within us, either physically, mentally, or spiritually. I suspect that each of us could recount a time when someone we know was healed by the power and the intervention of God, in some similar way. I suspect that each of us could look back on our own lives and tell of a time when God lead us, and delivered us, from a difficult and trying time in our lives. These are but some of the “mighty works” which God is doing today.

So, I leave you with some points to ponder, which are taken from the points we made above about the Pentecost event. They constitute a series of things which pose challenges to us, in our time, in our place, and in our Church:

• How do we speak in a language that people can understand about the things of God?
  
  
• How do we make sense of the rich heritage we have as Episcopalian Christians to people who probably know very little about our heritage?
  
  
• How do we show that our rich heritage as Episcopalians isn’t a dull, boring and lifeless matter, but that it is alive, joyful and uplifting?
  
  
• How do we do these things, using our own personal experience as proof of the mighty works of God which are present in our own lives?

May God’s Holy Spirit guide and enable us to be witnesses to His mighty power, in our community, and in our own time, today.

AMEN.

7 Easter, Year C

“THERE’S A BLANK WITH MY NAME IN IT”
A sermon by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, May 16, 2010
Acts 16:16–34; Psalm 47; Revelation 22:12–14,16–17,20; John 17:20–26

There’s a blank with my name in it in today’s gospel text.

And, oh yes, your name is written there, too.

What do I mean by this statement?

Simply this: Jesus prays, in the words we hear today, not only for “these only”, that is, His original disciples, but for “those who believe in me through their (the disciples’) word.” That would be you and me, believers in the 21st century, who are direct descendents of all those, down through the centuries, who have received the testimony of the disciples-become-apostles, and have passed it on.

Essentially, this “passing on” is the heart of the mission of the Church, which, as the Catechism at the back of the Prayer Book says, is to “restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” (Book of Common Prayer, 1979, p. 855)

Now, let’s be sure that we understand that there are some threads in today’s gospel passage that carry forward some threads which we remarked about in last Sunday’s gospel reading. (Last Sunday’s text was John 14: 23 – 29.) The things we noticed last week are:

• The unity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is a unity which exists because of the bonds of love which tie all three together.
  
  
• We are drawn into this equation of love by the sending of the Son by the Father. The sending of the Son is the supreme expression of love with the Godhead has for one another, and for us.
  
  
• As a consequence of this equation of love, and our being drawn into it, we are then drawn into the very interior existence of God, through the incarnation of the Son, who, being fully God, also became man. By His incarnation, Jesus Christ connects God and humankind.

Now, we step one step forward in our understanding, building on what we observed from last week’s reading.

But before we do, we ought to be sure that we remind ourselves that today’s text is found in the final part of what has come to be known in the Fourth Gospel as Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse”, which stretches from chapter thirteen all the way to the end of chapter seventeen.

Today’s passage, just the last few verses of chapter seventeen, is part of usually called Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer”. This “High Priestly Prayer” occupies all of the chapter. It is in this prayer that Jesus first prays for Himself (verses 1 – 5), then He begins to pray for His original disciples (verses 6 – 19), and then, in the passage we hear today, He prays for all those who will come to faith through the witness of the original disciples (and their spiritual heirs), which would be, of course, you and me.

Now, we are ready for the next step.

The observation we can make from today’s passage is that God, by His very nature, reaches outside of Himself in love, seeking an object of that divine love, and as part of that divine love, God bestows gifts on those He loves.

Why would we come to that conclusion? I think the answer lies in the frequent use of the word “sent”. Notice that it is heard no less than three times in today’s passage alone.

The use of the word “sent” underscores a constant theme in the Fourth Gospel: God sends, gives the Son, out of love for the world.

Hear the words of John 3: 16, which says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Here, we see an expression of divine love. “God so loved the world,” we read, that he “gave his only Son.”

Earlier in this “High Priestly Prayer”, we hear Jesus pray, “And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”

The Lord will make mention of the Father’s sending no less than seven times throughout John’s gospel account.

Well, what conclusions might we make about all of this? I offer the following to prompt your own reflection:

• Since the unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is formed by the bonds of love which exist between each person of the Holy Trinity and the others, then we are caught up in this equation of love. Love between us and God will be confirmed by our adherence to the “word” (another frequently read word in the Fourth Gospel) which comes from the Father through the Son.
  
  
• Unity between God and us will be confirmed by the unity which exists between all believers. Notice that Jesus prays for the unity of the believers, that is, the Church, which is His body. (See verse 23, which reads, “I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one…”) So, just as the unity of the Godhead is perfect, so is the unity that exists here on earth between believers to be perfect.
  
  
• This unity will be the proof of the love which exists between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and which also exists between these three and us.
  
  
• Then, just as God seeks out those whom He seeks to love, moving outside of Himself (if you will), then we, too, are also called to move outside of ourselves, in service to God and to others. This is the Church’s mission. Notice that, in today’s text, Jesus makes mention of the “world”. This is another word which is frequently read in the Fourth Gospel. In the context of John’s account, the “world” means all who are outside the equation of love which exists between God and us, or – put another way – all who are opposed to God’s purposes, love and plan. It is those who are still outside, looking in, that God seeks to fold into the relationship of love which has been given in Jesus Christ.

One final comment is in order: All of this is God’s eternal plan. Notice how Jesus mentions the beginning and the final goal of all of this….He says (verse 24) that all of this stems from God’s plan “before the foundation of the world.” He says this in relation to His desire that all who come to faith would see Him in the glory that He had with the Father “before the foundation of the world.” But then, He also refers to our life in God which is yet-to-be, saying that He wishes that we might “be with him where I am.” (Verse 24).

So, this awesome and loving God, the one who made the world through Jesus Christ, and all that is in it, has also created a book – the book of life - which has a space for your name and mine to be written in it. For we are part of God’s eternal plan. The awesome God whose glory and power is seen in the created order, also cares deeply and eternally for little-old-you-and-me.

Thanks be to God for His awesome power, glory and love, whose comprehensiveness stretches throughout time and space, and into your heart and into mine.

AMEN.

6 Easter, Year C

“IS LOVE AN EMOTION, OR A POWER?”
A sermon by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, May 9, 2010
Acts 14: 8 – 18; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:22–22: 5; John 14:23–29

“Class, it’s a pleasure to do theology!” So said one of my seminary professors, at the beginning of each class.

“Church, it’s a pleasure to do theology!”

Today, we hear a small portion of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse, which, in the Fourth Gospel, is quite long, stretching from chapters thirteen through seventeen. The Farewell Discourse is the body of teaching that Jesus gives during the Last Supper, on Maundy Thursday, just before His suffering and death.

Today, we hear Jesus talk about the other two members of the Holy Trinity, the Father, and the Holy Spirit (here referred to as the Counselor).

Today, we hear Jesus talk about the love we have for Him, and the love which the Father has for those who love the Son.

So, since the theme of love is woven throughout the Farewell Discourse, and is heard here in our reading today, here is our theological question for the day: “Is love an emotion, or is it a power, a force?”

How would you answer that question?

Normally, we think of love as an emotion, don’t we?

That is the image we have in our movies, novels, and poems, to be sure.

But, if we take another look at the idea and concept of love, we see that it has enormous power. For example, drawing from another remark that Jesus makes during His Farewell Discourse, we hear Him describe the awesome power of love. In John 15: 13, we hear these words, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” So, love can prompt an individual to do things that a person would normally seek to avoid. Here, in Jesus’ suffering and death, we see an example of self-giving, self-emptying love. The Greek word for this sort of love would be agape.

Connecting the idea of the power of this sort of self-giving love to the results it will produce, we hear Jesus say, “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to myself.” (John 12: 32). Of course, Jesus is referring to His death by the use of the words “when I am lifted up from the earth”. It is a phrase which is used elsewhere in the Fourth Gospel.

So, we can see that love is a power, a force, which can produce significant results, significant change in people’s lives. The change cited in the verse from chapter twelve is the power to draw everyone to God through the sacrifice of the Son.

That is awesome power, a power which breaks down barriers of race, culture, economics, and class. It cuts across time, binding a chosen people to God through Jesus Christ’s life, teachings, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension.

Turning now to the relationships which bind together the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, theologians tell us that these three persons of the Holy Trinity are bound together by ties of love, a love which not only connects each person to the other, but a love which penetrates each of the other two persons of the Trinity.

Now, the great blessing is that you and I, as God’s chosen people, and invited into this equation of love. We are bound up in the very inner life of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We are invited to learn and to experience the very life of God, the intimate life of God.

Or, we might add, we are invited to learn and to experience the very life of God, as much as we are capable of learning and experiencing this side of eternity, seeing that life of God in the Holy Trinity from the inside, due to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as one of us.

Jesus Christ is the doorway into this inner life of God. For it is by His coming to us as one of us, fully human and yet fully divine, that the connection is made between the Godhead and humankind.

So, if love is a power, and not principally an emotion, then what results will this divine love produce?

The answer can be found in our reading for today: Notice that Jesus tells His disciples that the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, will “teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

So, the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit will empower us as God’s children to do the things Jesus told us to do, or – in the words used elsewhere in the Farewell Discourse – we will be able to “Keep Jesus’ commandments.” If we do so, then the Father will love us, and the relationship between Father, Son and us will be cemented together for all time.

One final thought: Jesus told His disciples – in another part of the Farewell Discourse – that they would do the works that He did. But, in fact, He said, they “would do greater works” than He had done. (See John 14: 12)

Thanks be to God for the power of love which binds the Father to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God for the awesome power of love which binds us to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, inviting us to be a part of the inner life of the Holy Trinity, now and forevermore.

AMEN.