Trinity Sunday

SUN., JUNE 18, 2000, 4:14 PM
FARM, STUDY

This morning your pastor announced and “celebrated” Trinity Sunday, a more important theological remembrance than Father’s Day. But maybe I can show some ways in which these alternative remembrances can relate. (Quite probably more of those who were with and around you for chicken dinner at the Lodge were “Father’s Day Fans” rather than “Trinity Trippers”!

The True Point of the Trinity, theologically, is that I am both One and Three. The Three of Us are solidly One, and yet We each have characteristics that differentiate us from the Others. We are often referred to as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet, as you remembered in both the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, I, Holy Spirit, am “given credit” for “coming upon” Mary and causing her to be pregnant with Me, Jesus. So I, as Jesus, clearly had two fathers, so, it could be argued logically, I, Holy Spirit, must have been male. But I have told you, in our many Teaching/learning sessions, that I am also as completely female as male. Logically this can’t be, but who says logic is supreme? Certainly not I!

As is usual in these presentations on the Trinity, it is affirmed that the Three of Us are One… and presumably equal, though this is never clearly stated or clarified. In Christian theology there is much less that can be said about Me, with firm Scriptural backing… as compared with the Old Testament God, as Creator, Sustainer, Destroyer, and… Father.

Or… compared with Jesus, the Son (of Mine?), with the Teacher, Healer, Preacher, Redeemer, “Sacrificial Lamb”. I Am there from the beginning, and I am referred to throughout the Bible. (Yes, do use your concordance and see how many references you can identify as Me.) Now this would logically mean that I am not as important as these “Other Aspects of Me” – God and Christ. The other interpretation, however, which I clearly favor, is that the lack of “specifics” about what I did or said leaves Me freer to influence folks in this modern world.

God can be quoted as approving or disapproving of… Jesus, likewise, left many quotes which can enlighten… be confusing… be irrelevant to this time in human life. Paul, who wrote the Letters which are sometimes more important for Christian theology, can say that homosexuality is an abomination, while I am free to say, over 1900 years later, that “some of them serve Me quite well”.

There was little acceptance of the equality of male and female, even as I, as Jesus, had several good female friends… and My death was attended more by women than by men. Yet even though I “apparently” fathered Jesus I have taught you to see Me and to refer to Me as either Him or Her, She or He. As God, of course, I have no single gender, but Father God is too firmly rooted in Christian thought. But I, Holy Spirit, am freer to speak as either sex… or with no definite, “binding” gender.

As Yahweh, in the Old Testament, I had times of being angry and cruel. I favored the Jews, eliminating some of their enemies, but then punishing the Jews for their non-compliance with Commandments and Laws of Mine. As Jesus, it was remembered that I was not often angry (the incident with the sellers in the Temple being a major exception). I was forgiving and loving and didn’t meet Jewish criteria for being their Messiah. So they rejected Me, and crucified Me. (But this was the way it was supposed to come out!) For out of My Triumphant Resurrection and Ascension came this faith and religion of which you are a part – the Christianity, which is, of course, behind this celebration of Trinity Sunday.

As Holy Spirit I am pleased to be included in the Trinity. As I just have told you, I accept little recognition, in this modern world and in most Christian services, in “exchange for” freedom to act in any way I please, for there are few to no Scriptural passages that limit Me.