Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Trinity Sunday)

Today is Trinity Sunday. We are one in Christ as God is one as creator, redeemer, and sustainer. God created the world and it is good because he gave us rational brains to live within it and sustain it.

“The first person of the Trinity is God the Father, creator, the unoriginated origin, source, Father of the only begotten Son, breathing out the Holy Spirit. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father, receives the divine nature, essence and substance from the Father, consubstantial with the Father, the Word, image and sacrament. Holy Spirit, proceeds, consubstantial with the Father and the Son, breathed out.”

The concept that we are all one in Christ in this community is demonstrated by the relation in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are a family because we are one as the Trinity is one. Unfortunately, in our country right now, many folks are frustrated by the deaths of African Americans at the hands of the police. If everyone could just see one another as being related through our creator, we would not have the problems with White Supremacy and Racism that are so prevalent in our country today. When are we going to move towards racial reconciliation? When will police stop pulling over African Americans and treating them as something less than they were created to be? When will the police weed out the bad apples among themselves? How can officers of the police watch someone murder a suspect without stopping him? People are frustrated and they are tired of the same things happening again and again.

Saint Patrick is said to have explained the Trinity to the Celts by using a shamrock, three individual leaves, yet still one plant. Three people one black, one white, and one brown, yet all created out of the same elements by God.

Augustine said the Trinity was best understood as the Lover, the Beloved, and the love which exists between them. Why can’t we love one another as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Tertullian used the metaphor of the Trinity as a plant, with the Father as the deep root, the Son as the shoot that breaks forth into the world, and the Spirit as the force which spreads beauty and fragrance on the earth. We all come from the same tree. Why are we so aware of the color of other’s skin and why do some white Europeans see themselves as better?

God calls St. John’s to racial reconciliation by loving God and our neighbor. I give thanks to all those in our Sacred Ground racial reconciliation program and I challenge our vestry to make racial reconciliation our top priority.

In our day, contemporary Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff helps us understand the Trinity by describing it as a primal community, "just and equal within the reality that is God...and, therefore, a model for human society." 

Creator God, bring us into a new life of beauty and goodness in your creation. Jesus, Redeemer, renew us through your Gospel by teaching us how to be in relation with others. Holy Spirit, Sustainer, strengthen and guide us in unity.

In Christ's Love,
Fr. Duncan