2nd Sunday Of Pentecost
May 26, 2002
Year A
Title: Going Out
Theme: The divine relationship within the Trinity reminds us that it is
relationship is the way we know any truth that really matters.
Today is Trinity Sunday, the day that we as the church muddle around
the mystery of the Trinity, this idea that God shows God’s own face to us
in three different ways, as the Father, the parent, as the Child, the
Christ, and as the Spirit, as this God within us. I guess it makes sense to
have Trinity Sunday after Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrated last
Sunday, the day we celebrated the gift of that God within us, when the
breath of God blew into the disciples and followers of Jesus that day
thousands of years ago. With the arrival of the spirit into the church, into
the lives of those women and men, we get a finally get a full picture of
who God is, but you know, the better, clearer picture doesn’t mean that
everything is explained, that we now completely understand who God is.
Actually, I think one of the reasons why Trinity Sunday exists in the
calendar of the church is to remind us that there is mystery, after all, that
things are not so simple, and that God is not so simple. The interesting
thing is that this invitation to immerse ourselves into the mystery that is
God, comes at a point in which Christ asks his disciples to do the
extraordinary—he commission them to do a seemingly impossible
mission: to tell the world that it is loved, that it has always been loved,
and that God seeks a fuller, deeper, relationship with each and every
person then and now and in the future. And its that relationship that is
so important to the Christ in this moment—you know, the mystery of
Trinity is really, fundamentally about relationship—that within God, the
Creator, there is this divine relationship going on—these expressions of
God we are given in this passage, and that we celebrate on this day, this
Trinity Sunday—they are simply a reminder that it is relationship, the
commitment of two or more to go on the journey together that changes
everything, and everyone—and it even changes God. And even more
important, it is relationship with God, with each other, with our friends,
with our enemies—it is that commitment to connection that will get us
through the rough times, that it will give us the good times, and it is in
relationship that will be reminded that we are never alone, never by
ourselves, but with another, the One who has not and will never give up
on us.
I think relationships are hard work, no great surprise, I am sure for most
folks—anyone who has ever been in one knows that it’s the truth. And if
you’re not willing to work hard on your relationships with your friends,
your family, your significant other, you’re probably not going to get what
you want from that relationship. Being intentional in our relationships is
difficult, and I think its even more difficult in a culture that sometimes
confuses romance with real relationship, or sometimes confuses
acquaintances with real friends. In my party days, it was the difference
between your bar buddies and those folks you knew you could count on
in your life—the friends you could count on and who could count on
you. And it’s these kinds of relationships that really matter, that really
count and sometimes we neglect them—I know I do—just ask any of my
close friends. But we neglect these relationships to our own peril—the
reality is that relationship is the way to life, to goodness, to hope, to
God. And it’s true that we need each other, especially during those
times when we’re in the midst of our crosses, in those moments where we
are in our own emotional and spiritual tombs. Friends and loved ones
remind that we are not alone, though it may feel like it, and that when we
fail to see our worth, they see our worth for us, when we see only the
cross, they help us to see the resurrection. These relationships, these
commitments to each other, help change us and help to give us a new
perspective that we can’t see without yet another set of eyes looking for
us. That’s why friendship matters, and love matters—because these
commitments to each other help us to see the world as it really is—they
help us to see through the eyes of God.
And that is why the Christian tradition has said that God has shown three
faces to the universe, but that these three faces are really one face—
really, it is simply one face showing us three different expressions on that
one face. And yet, we’re told by our ancient ancestors in the faith that
these three faces, three expressions of who God is are not actually three
faces, but one face, at the same time—that within this multi-faceted side
of God, there is this divine relationship going on within the one God.
Jesus in the Gospel of John spends much time expressing this on the
night before his death—he talks in long dialogues with his disciples
about this incredible relationship he has with the Father, the divine
Parent, the divine Mother—and yet he talks as if they are one, but not
one, that they are separate but not separate. Its all really complicated
and its odd, because I am not sure Christ really clarifies anything to us or
the disciples about this relationship he has with his divine parent—and
maybe that wasn’t his intention, to clarify things. Maybe he just wanted
to show us a mystery, the mystery of this relationship, the complicated
dance going on within God’s own self. And anyone involved in a
relationship of any sort knows the complicated and difficult dance of a
relationship, a relationship with a parent or a partner, or even a friend.
But one of things that I think Jesus is trying to get at in the Gospel of
John is that relationship changes things—and right before his death, he
knows that his relationship with his Father will change forever when he
experiences the ultimate human experience, the loss of life as we
humans have always known it. And most importantly for us, that
relationship change will forever alter our relationship with God. Jesus
shares his relationship with his Parent with his disciples right before his
death because he wants them to know that the experience he will have
on the cross will not only change him, but will change the Father as well.
We know grief, real profound, gut-wrenching grief wracks God’s own
heart the moment the Son, the Child of God, dies—the heavens turn
black with mourning, the curtain meant to hide the holiest place in the
temple is torn in two as a sign of mourning, and at that moment, a part of
God dies, and God is changed by that experience, so much so that the
world is saved and God sees us humans in new ways that change God
and in fact changes us as well. Relationship changes us, and
relationship even changes God—and that divine relationship, in that
moment on the cross, with the Father and Son, the Parent and Child, the
universe is forever altered for the good because that relationship was
going on. It shows us the effect of a relationship, and that the
commitment to be with each other is bound to change us—and it does—
and that is why Christ sends all of us out into the world in the name of
the ultimate relationship, the ultimate divine relationship—the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit—so that we can help change the world’s mind and to
help it see what God sees—a world in need of relationship with God
again.
One of the things that I have come to learn, I think, about life is that
people’s minds aren’t changed because I have a better argument or am
smarter than the next person. You know, being a gay minister to a
primarily lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender congregation, I am often
asked to participate in debates about the morality of homosexuality with
folks who disagree with us—sometimes its actually a formal request to
speak at a conference, sometimes its an email from a stranger,
sometimes its even amongst folks whom I am barely know, but who see
me as an obvious target to “set straight,” so to speak. But I usually resist
and turn down these invitations, not because I don’t think I have good
intellectual and Biblical argument—in fact, I’ve got that argument down
pat, to an art, after 14 years of being a Christian and a gay man. What I’
ve come to learn is that people have rarely, maybe even never, been
won over by my great arguments—most of the time, they aren’t there to
hear me out, they actually want to debate so that they can convince me
of their argument. And to be honest, I wouldn’t enter into their desire for
a debate to hear their intellectual argument for the millionth time—
believe, I’ve heard it ALL before. The reality is that we’re never going to
convince people we’re right about God loving us as we are because we
have the better intellectual or Biblical argument. We’re going to change
people’s minds by our lives, not our arguments. The truth is that
relationship changes people’s minds and hearts, not arguments. My
friend and mentor Ronnie, a straight man, was not at all happy about me
coming out years ago, and despite my best intellectual arguments, he
wasn’t convinced. What changed his mind and heart about gay people
was an opportunity he had to minister to a gay couple in Texas in the
nineties who were both struggling and dying with AIDS. The love he saw
between these two men said more than any of my best arguments—and
the relationship he had with them as they lived out their love together in
their last days convinced him of a truth that I could never articulate with
words. It is relationship that changes us and shows us what we need to
see and gives us a glimpse of how God sees the world as well.
Now, I know that I probably didn’t explain anything earlier, really, when I
was trying to explain the Trinity a few minutes ago—and like, Christ when
he was talking about his relationship with his heavenly parent, I am not
sure any explanation is helpful, so much as it truthful. Sometimes
relationships are too hard to explain and understand—God knows any
therapist will testify to that. But I do think the point is the same, that
when we choose to be in relationship with each other, with a community
of faith, with our family and friends, and with God—we are going to be
changed that by that choice to be in relationship. And that change is the
place where God can meet us over and over again. I love this passage
from the Gospel of Matthew for a couple of reasons, but one of those
reasons I love it is that it doesn’t offer us any explanation, it doesn’t tell
us exactly what it means to be sent out in the name of this divine
relationship between these three expressions of God, the Trinity, and it
even, it even acknowledges that some doubted, that some wondered
what in the world is going on. Here are the eleven disciples, missing one
because of the traitor Judas, here are the remaining eleven disciples,
who have seen the death and resurrection of Jesus, and STILL some
doubted. But that didn’t stop Jesus from saying, “Go on now, tell
everyone that God loves them and to love each other and to do what I
asked them to do.” His assumption, I think, was that you don’t learn the
truth by listening to explanations, he had certainly tried that in the
Gospel of John—you learn the truth by being in relationship.
And so he sends them out in the name of the divine relationship between
God and the Child and the Spirit and he says, “I’m with you, always, in
relationship with you and that will be enough to get you through the
rough times and the doubting times.” He commission them out into the
world to tell that world the good news of how much it is loved and has
been loved because God has been in relationship with us, with God’s
own self, with all of creation. The whole doctrine of the Trinity, the truth
of the Trinity is not found by teasing out its truth in our minds—that way
won’t work, if we want to understand why the fundamental truth of the
universe, the fundamental truth about God, is relationship. The only way
to know God and to know each other and to know the truth is by
choosing to go out and gamble again that relationship with God, with
others, will be enough to get us through whatever we need to get
through. And the most important thing, the most important thing, is that
the last words in the Gospel of Matthew are not words of explanation,
attempts at trying to explain the mystery of the Trinity, or an explanation
of anything—the last words are the promise of relationship, a
relationship with Christ that will never cease, even when we doubt, even
when we don’t get it. God knows that relationship is the only way to know
anything, really—God certainly found that out as well, when God
experienced human death through Jesus the Christ, and so God gives
us a promise, a promise to be with us, as we are sent out to tell the world
of God’s deep desire to be in relationship with all of creation, with you
and me as well. Amen and amen.
