By: Reverend Marjorie Bevans
Trinity Sunday 2025
Texts: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15
Last week on the Day of Pentecost we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit to establish the Church.
Today is Trinity Sunday, the only day on the church calendar that celebrates the nature of God. In contrast to the excitement of Pentecost, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit has been quietly and steadily at work since the very beginning of Creation.
Through time we humans have experienced the power of God in three persons. It would be tempting to say God the Father acted in creating everything, God the Son acted to redeem it, and God the Holy Spirit animates it. But that would be simplistic and almost heretical. The early Christians wrestled with what they could say with confidence about God, but also with what is incomprehensible about God. With great faith and even more humility, we do too.
I think it was Thomas Jefferson who once said about politics, “There are many things I believe that I cannot say, but I will never say what I do not believe.” This was the approach of the early Christians.
In the lesson from the Book of Proverbs the Holy Spirit is with us as Lady Wisdom. Wisdom has a divine origin, present with God the Creator at the time of Creation. In this text from Proverbs Wisdom is a person speaking in first person. She claims to delight in God’s presence, rejoicing always, enjoying the world, and delighted with humans. What a thought—that the Holy Spirit could enjoy the world and be delighted with humans.
As a virtue wisdom, with a small ‘w’, gives us the ability to discern the truth about God. The virtue is imparted tus by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It leads all of us toward unity in faith. Most of what we Christians disagree about is not about the nature of God, the Trinity. Most of what we tend to disagree about has to do with morality and the structure of the Church itself, and how to respond to the challenges of evil.
We do tend to experience more unity in the essentials. For example, the Nicene Creed is shared by most Christians around the world, and it sets forth what is essential for us to believe about the nature of God. It is structured in three parts, about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The virtue of wisdom leads us to wrestle with and come to some understanding of this universal confession of faith. That’s why we have come to call the confirmation class, “Faith Seeking Understanding.”
If you ever want to contemplate the details of how God can be three in One, or just torture yourself intellectually, trying reading The Creed of Saint Athanasius on page 864 in the Book of Common Prayer.
There are many gifts of the Holy Spirit, of which wisdom is just one. In his letter to the Romans Paul describes the effect of the Holy Spirit dwelling in a believer-we have peace with God, the hope of sharing his glory, our sufferings are not pointless, we are able to endure them, which builds character in us, which leads to continued hope. When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in a believer God’s own love has been poured into our hearts. We are able to rejoice always with such love.
And finally, in the Gospel text from John, Jesus is imparting his last teachings to the disciples before his crucifixion. He says there are many more things for them to learn, but they are not able to hear them now. He says the spirit of truth will come, and they will understand all truth through that spirit. We are living in that promise right now, the time of the Holy Spirit leading us to the full truth about God.
Today we are challenged to let the Holy Spirit flourish within us. The world presents us with many, many distractions-war, political violence, and crime. Many people are confused and worried. This coincides with many of us being less reflective, less quiet, less prayerful. Many people don’t read or understand the Bible. The flame of the Holy Spirit cannot flourish within us without prayer and listening to God speaking to us in his Holy Word.
For what Jesus told the disciples to happen in each generation, we do need to slow down, get off the computer or
I-device, and just pick up the Bible, pray, and be quiet. This is not to say that the internet and wireless technologies are not helpful, but we should not let them become the only way we communicate with each other and learn about our world. Listen to God, feel that gift of the Holy Spirit within us, comforting us.
God the Holy Trinity is above all and redeeming it.
The ancient understanding of the virtue of wisdom is ‘applying knowledge toward the good’. We might have more knowledge about all manner of things—physical and psychological, but if we do not apply that knowledge toward the good, that is, toward what gives life and love, we are no more advanced than the Barbarians.
A people who have knowledge, but lack wisdom, are less interested in understanding the nature of God. This day becomes just another day rather than an opportunity to grow spiritually.
So, we must each come to use our time more wisely, spending more of it in the presence of God, discerning God working in us and among us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is our calling as Christians in this time, this is what we have to offer the world-not entertainment, or quick and easy answers, or a philosophy by which to live—but the presence of the living God in us and among us, as He is here, right now.
Amen.
