Brad Sullivan
Trinity Sunday, Year A
Sunday, May 18th, 2008
Emmanuel, Houston
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Canticle 13
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20
In the story of creation which we heard this morning, we obviously heard an account of how God created the world and everything that is, but we also we heard a good deal about who God is. We heard about God speaking the world into existence. God speaks, his Word acts, and his Spirit moves over creation. We see, then, even in the first chapter of Genesis, an understanding of God as Trinity, three persons and yet one God. Now, the first chapter in Genesis was in no way trying to describe God as Trinity, that understanding of God did not yet exist, but through God speaking, we can still see the idea of God being three and yet one.
If we consider human speech, by way of analogy, there are three parts: the speaker, the word spoken, and the breath which carries the word. In speaking creation into existence, we can also see God as Speaker, Word spoken, and Breath or Spirit which carries the word. I wish I could say describing the Trinity in this way was my idea, but I actually read about it from Gregory of Nyssa, an early Father of the church and bishop in the late 300s, and I’m going to spend a few minutes describing God as Trinity using Gregory’s analogy to human speech.
So, first we have God as the speaker. Like humans, God can speak. God’s speech, however, is better than ours, elevated above ours. For other examples, as humans, we have power, and life, and wisdom. God too has power, and life, and wisdom, but perfect power, perfect life, perfect wisdom. God’s life doesn’t end; his wisdom and power are not limited and can’t be corrupted.
God’s speech then, is also unending and incorruptible. We speak, and our words are heard, but then they are no more; they cease to exist. God’s speech, however, is eternal and substantial. God’s Word has life in and of itself, or would God’s Word be lifeless? Would God create the world with a lifeless word? No. God’s Word is living and active with wisdom, power, and a will to act. “This Word, however, is different from Him whose it is.” (Nyssa, An Address on Religious Instruction, 1:6)
If there is a word spoken, there must also be a speaker. So, while seeing a difference between the speaker and the word, Gregory does not draw a distinction between the two. Our words come from our minds and as such our words are not totally different from us nor are they totally identical to us. We think the words, they come from us, and so our words are a part of us, and yet our words are distinct from us as we speak them. For God too, then, God’s Word is not something other than or alien to God, and yet we see a distinction between God as word and God as speaker. The Word both is the speaker and is different from the speaker.
Looking now at the Holy Spirit, we see from our own speech that breath or a spirit accompanies our speech. We draw breath into ourselves before we speak, and that breath accompanies our speech. God’s word, too, is accompanied by God’s spirit, or would we say God’s speech lacks a spirit, when our speech has one. Is our speech better than God’s? Of course it isn’t, so God has a spirit which accompanies his speech. This is not to say, however that God draws in breath in order to speak. Unlike with human speech, God’s spirit is not something external to God. God doesn’t use something other than himself in order to speak. Rather, God’s spirit “is not able to be separated from God in whom it exists, or from God’s Word which it accompanies.” (Nyssa, An Address on Religious Instruction, 2:3)
So, God’s Spirit, while distinct from the speaker, is not separate from God. Like the Word, God’s spirit is not totally different nor totally identical to God as speaker. Like God’s Word, God’s Spirit is living and active with wisdom, power, and a will to act.
Further, God’s Spirit works in unity and harmony with God’s Word and with God as speaker. The three are not in competition nor do they divide up tasks among each other. They always work as one. God is one, the three persons of the Trinity always in perfect unity. Whatever the Speaker did, the Word and Spirit did also. God didn’t say “Let there be light”, and there was water. The Spirit didn’t go off and make water while the Speaker and the Word were making light. They worked together. Speaker, Word, and Spirit are one, in perfect unity.
So, from the creation story, we see several things about who God is. God is a communion of persons working together in perfect unity. The persons of the trinity listen to and are at peace with one another so much so that they are one. Further, from the story of creation, we see that God is creative, bringing order out of chaos. What did we hear in first verse of Genesis? “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep…” (Genesis 1:1) The earth was a formless void, chaos, and out of the chaos, God made the earth an ordered planet full of light and life. God created the earth and created order out of chaos.
So we see God is a communion of persons who work together in perfect unity, listening to one another and at peace with one another. We see God is creative, making order out of chaos. We also see that God is fruitful. God’s efforts and work are not in vain. When God speaks, his words happen. As we hear from Isaiah:
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth,making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty,but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10-11)
God does not fail, his Word does not return to him empty, but it accomplishes his purpose. God has a plan and an order for his creation, and God’s plan will succeed. God’s purpose will bear fruit. So again, we see God is a communion of persons who work together in perfect unity, listening to one another and at peace with one another. We see that God is creative, making order out of chaos, and we see that God is fruitful, accomplishing his purpose. We further see that we were made in the image of God.
God said, “‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…’…So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26a, 27) We were all made in God’s image to be people in communion with one another. We were made to live together in unity, listening to and at peace with one another. We were not made to be alone, but to find our true humanity in our relationships with one another, God living in our relationships, giving us life as we live into his image as a communion of persons. We were also made to be creative and fruitful as God is. We were made with a purpose.
We are not here merely to exist, but to live lives of relationship and communion, bearing fruit in our lives according to God’s purpose for us. We often have to search to find our purpose, but we were all made with a purpose. We are not here accidentally, but are made according to God’s Word which accomplishes God’s purpose. God meant for each one of us to be made, to live in unity and harmony with one another, to be fruitful and creative according to God’s purpose for us.
Thinking then of the image of God in which we were made, listen again to Paul’s final appeal to the Corinthians. “Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” (2 Corinthians 13:11) What is Paul saying? Live in the image of God in which you were created, and Paul reminds us that God will be with us always. The God who made each of us in his image, the God who made each of us out of love with always be with us.
Finally, then, look at Jesus’ appeal to his disciples. “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 28:19-20)
Go, Jesus says. Let people know about God in whose image they were made. Whether you call that God Speaker, Word, and Breath, or Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, let people know about a God who is a communion of persons, a God who is loving, creative, fruitful, and purposeful. Let people know about a God who made each of us to be in communion and harmony with one another, a God who made us to be creative and fruitful, and purposeful. Let people know about a God who has a plan and a purpose for all of creation. Let people know about a God who will succeed in that plan, Jesus says, and let people know about a God who will be with us always. Amen.
