Put in Our Place

I have often mentioned how much I value the calendar of the church year. Keeping the calendar of seasons and holy days is not, in and of itself, necessary to salvation. If it were, a lot of very devout and faithful Christians would be left behind. But for those of us who do keep the calendar, it is a powerful tool to help us in our life of faith… in our relationship with God, because it forces us to move on and move around in that life of faith. It encourages us to cycle through many of the different facets of our life with God. Repentance AND renewal. Anticipation AND fulfillment. We are not allowed to stay in our favorite season, whatever that may be. For some people Christmas might be their favorite, for others it is Lent. But if we follow the calendar, we must move on from our favorite time to observe all of the changes and different seasons of the church year.

I doubt that many people would describe Trinity Sunday as their favorite point in the church calendar. Most lay people would probably say they are indifferent or slightly confused by Trinity Sunday. Those of us who are called to preach would probably express quite strong negative feelings about the day. But we all need Trinity Sunday. We all need it as a part of our living through the church year. We all need Trinity Sunday because it puts us in our place. Trinity Sunday puts us human beings in our place with respect to God.

We all need Trinity Sunday, especially after Easter and Pentecost. Think about it. Easter Day and Easter season. In Easter, we celebrate the wondrous gift of life beyond death. We dance and sing with the assurance that the most pernicious failing of human nature—death—has no power over the eternal life given us in Christ Jesus. We are immortal. We rejoice in the second chance we are always offered by an unimaginably loving God, no matter how unimaginably we have messed up our lives. Alleluia. Alleluia. In Easter resurrection, God has shown us that there is no limit to our lives, to our joy.

And then right on the heels of Easter comes Pentecost. The gift of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, given to God’s people. On top of the eternal promise of Easter, Pentecost gives us God as Holy Spirit right here, right now, in the midst of our earthly lives. The disciples discover that they have Christ’s own power to heal… they can heal as Christ healed. They preach, miraculously speaking across the barriers of human language to make God real and known. Thousands are converted. Jesus’ followers become the Body of Christ. By God’s most gracious gift, ordinary people become Christ’s Body. In Easter and Pentecost, we are given God’s own eternal life; we become the very Body of Christ. God with us, in us, through us. God as us.

Then comes Trinity Sunday. It puts us in our place. "You think you bear God’s own presence, God’s power, share God’s life…You think the Holy Spirit makes you the Body of Christ…" So the Triune God might say to Peter or to James or John or to us right after Pentecost. "You think you can be God in your world… If you are so filled with the presence of God, then you should have no trouble understanding and explaining the Trinity. Go on Peter," God as Trinity might say, "be the Trinity for a day."

Trinity Sunday puts us in our place. Reminding us of the mystery, the immensity, the incomprehensibility of God. Our minds, our hearts cannot begin to encompass or contain God. God is so far beyond us and beyond anything we could ever be, we cannot even stammer out a description of God’s being. Any description of God as Trinity that makes sense is heresy. By definition. The words we do use are impossible. God is three. God is one. There is no way that we can sensibly describe the Triune God in human terms. Trinity Sunday puts us humans in our place.

Being put in our place with respect to God means, to use another cliché, being cut down to human size. It reminds us that any way in which we can act on God’s behalf or make God known in our world comes to us only and completely by God’s grace. It is not us, but God working through us, that enables us in any way to be vessels of God’s grace. Trinity Sunday reminds us never to presume with respect to God. Never to presume. Not to presume a sort of chummy friendship with Jesus as some do. Only peers can be friends. We are no peer to the Trinity. And never presume complete understanding or knowledge of God or confidence in God’s purpose. Trinity Sunday warns us from the arrogance of ever predicting or prescribing God’s actions or intentions.

But being put in our place also means we have a place. We have a place and it’s a wonderful place to be. It’s a place where we can witness and experience and even partially share in the glory of God. Did you notice how many times the word "glory" appears in today’s collect and readings? The collect begins: "Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace to acknowledge…" to sense, to know, to acknowledge… "the glory of the eternal Trinity." The six winged seraphs of Isaiah calling out "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth…" our earth… "is full of his glory." Or the psalm: "Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his Name. The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders. In the temple of the Lord, all are crying ‘Glory!’"

Our place is a place where we can see and know and experience God’s glory. And our place is in the temple of the Lord among those who are crying "Glory!"

Have you ever known anyone who used "Glory!" as an exclamation? Glory! Or glory be! I associate the phrase with women… Southern women… Southern Christian women. "Mmm. Mmm. Glory be." Whether the exclamation is "glory" or "glory be" it is shorthand for Glory be to God. It’s a phrase used, my dictionary says, especially to express surprise, elation or wonder. At those times when things break into our lives beyond our understanding, beyond our creating, beyond our control, beyond our expectation. Surprise, elation, wonder. Those times and places when we glimpse God’s glory piercing into our lives. Glory be that a God so magnificent, so mysterious, so awesome, touches our humble lives in so many ways every day. Our place is among those touched by God’s glory. Our place is among those who come to God’s temple crying "Glory!" "Glory be to God."

Try it. In your daily lives. Say glory. Exclamation point. Or if it just isn’t you to say it, think it. Not just Sunday morning here in the house of the Lord, but every time you are surprised, elated, awed by God. Glory! Glory be! Glory be to God for the wondrous mystery of all that God is. Glory be to God for sharing God’s own glory with us.

The stories of Easter and Pentecost are true. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, we are offered participation in the eternal life of God. By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we are guided and empowered to be the Body of Christ in our world. Yet the story of Trinity Sunday is true, too. Before the holy and incomprehensible mystery of the Triune God we are the merest of mortals who can only gasp in awe: "Glory be."