Welcome to Springfield United Methodist Church! This is an inclusive, multicultural church that loves God and one another.
The concept of the Holy may seem like an obscure, esoteric theological construct that is primarily of interest to those who are afflicted with a seminary education. But thinking of one God in three Persons actually gives us some important insights into how to live as followers of Jesus. This morning I would like to talk about three of them . . . which only seems fitting.
First, thinking of God in Persons should discourage us from so-called binary thinking, that is, framing things in two rigid categories . . . thinking in terms of either/or.
I think of an old curmudgeon I knew when I was growing up in Southwestern Ohio. He told me there are two kinds of people in the world, and that he didn’t like either of them.
Second, thinking of the mutual flow of love among the of the Trinity should help us understand God as a verb, rather than a noun. Discipleship is action, not a .
Third, we are not only invited to participate in the love that flows among the Persons of the Trinity, we are called to share that love with all creation.
Creation itself is an expression of God’s love, and it should come as no surprise that a Triune God—God in three Persons—would find expression in such a complex, diverse creation. And yet some Christians in the west have a tendency to reduce creation to a series of binaries—thinking of everything as either/or—good or bad, right or wrong, sacred or profane, physical or spiritual.
If you think of the Trinity as the giving and receiving of love among the , and when Jesus was baptized, he experienced the outpouring of the Father’s love, in the Spirit. Which is whatwe experience when we are baptized. Because the Divine Dance—this endless circle of love—is not limited to the Trinity.
In “being born in human likeness,” in entering the waters of , in witnessing to God’s love for all creation, in willingly surrendering his life on a cross, and in conquering death in the resurrection, Jesus invites us to join in the Divine Dance.
At the end of his public ministry, just before he ascended to the heavens, Jesus commissioned his followers—and that includes us—to invite all nations—everyone—to join in the Divine Dance. To baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Even though we are careful to use the language, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” in the sacrament of baptism, it may be helpful to think of the Persons of the Trinity as , Redeemer, and Sustainer. Or Source, Word, and Spirit. Or God above us, God us, and God us.