May 31, 2026 – The First Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. Cal Calhoun

In the Name of the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

There is a seminary legend or myth of sorts that the Trinity Sunday sermon is usually reserved for the least senior clergy on the staff or in the community, because the theology around the Trinity is not easy to explain in a concise, straightforward kind of way. And so anyone who can dodge it, like the person who makes the preaching rotation, usually will.

I had a seminary professor who said to us once, that the older he gets, the less he feels he can say anything about God. That as soon as he says something about God, that statement is flawed by his limited human understanding and by the limits of human language. That most any of our statements about God put God in a box of our own making.  I think his is a very wise position. AND he would lament, that as a seminary professor for 30 years, he is supposed to be an expert on God, and he has nothing to say!

All that is an important perspective to carry with most any sermon, but especially, this topic on the Trinity. I will share with you what I can, but I want to make clear, that my understanding and experience is limited by my feeble mind.

I do think there is absolute and undeniable Good News in the concept of the Trinity. The Trinity is why we can hope and take comfort in a personal, loving God. A God who knows the value of community, of sacred community. A God who loves and cares, because God in and of God’s self, is a communion of love and relationship. God is love and God knows love because God is in relationship at God’s very core.

Now this one God, three-person thing can be hard to make work in our minds. When we refer to the monotheistic religions, we usually list Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In fact, these three all have their origin in the same God, the Jewish God, Yahweh. But it is also fair to say that when we list those three monotheistic religions, the Jews and the Muslims give us a scant eye about whether we are truly monotheistic. From their perspective, they are counting three Gods.

  1. S. Lewis uses the example of one cube being made up of six squares. Pamela Conrad – former NASA scientist and Episcopal priest – said, “if light can be both particle and waveform, then God could probably be Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God, three persons. And, when it comes to God, every sort of model or example ultimately falls short. Because, in truth, our knowledge about God is so very limited, which I have already pointed out.

Scripture doesn’t give us much to go on with the Trinity. Most of the Scriptural references to the Trinity we have in our readings today. Paul clearly has a Trinitarian understanding. His farewell blessing at the end of his Second Letter to the Corinthians: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. There are a few other places Paul lays out the Trinity, but not too much. In our Gospel reading from Matthew we hear Jesus’ farewell words the 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 one of my favorite Jesus’ lines: And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. This is only place in the four Gospels that Jesus makes mention of the Trinity. He certainly mentions God, and the Spirit, the Advocate, but this is the only place Jesus puts them together.

 

In the Old Testament, there are a number of references to the Spirit. In the Psalms in particular. One of the hard things about Hebrew is that the word for Spirit and the word for wind, are the same word. Today, we heard the entirety of the first creation story in Genesis. Why does this show up today? To me, two reasons in particular. In the very first sentence: 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, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. That has also been translated while the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters. The second reason we hear this today is because of what we find in Day Six: Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.” Three times, three times, the plural pronoun is used as God talks about Godself.

Now unfortunately, for those of us who hope and pray for clarity on the inclusiveness of all God’s people, it continues: So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. A couple of things: here the pronouns for God return to singular and male. BUT… in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. I have come to believe that the male pronouns for God are the relic of a patriarchal culture. If we, male and female, are created in the image of God, then God is more than male. God is both male or female or neither or as I related earlier, something we can’t really wrap our minds around. But whatever the case, this bit has convinced me that God should not be referred to as he. I know some of my colleagues who, in certain circumstances have used she, in reference to God or Spirit. That doesn’t bother me in the least, because it points to an inclusiveness that is seldom expressed. But, to be honest, it doesn’t seem to me to be anymore correct than he.

Given this passage from Genesis, I think we might consider another option. A priest friend of mine had this sticker: God: cosmically they/them since before the big bang! In the interest of enhancing our understanding of others and our inclusivity: If God is neither male or female or both, perhaps those who identify as neither male or female might actually be closer to the image of God than those of us who are sure our gender identity is firmly in one camp or the other. If nothing else, it should cause us pause.

Well past my seminary time, my understanding of the Trinity has been helped by three books. The Shack by William Young and two books by Richard Rohr: The Divine Dance and The Universal Christ. These books, over time, have led me, as some of you may have noticed, to end my prayers in the name of the Holy Trinity. Because it is familiar to me, I typically name the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For all the reasons I mentioned, I know this falls short. I have thought that I could use Parent, Child, and Holy Spirit. That solves the gender issue, but it leaves that sense of hierarchy that shouldn’t be there either. Maybe, God, Christ, and Holy Spirit? But the term God, is for all them, so should that be the name for one part as well? And can I get as comfortable with something new as I am with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Maybe it shouldn’t be about my comfort?

The Shack is novel that gives us images of how love might look at the center of the communion of the three persons of the Trinity. Author Jim Palmer described it like this: The beauty of this book is not that supplies easy answers to grueling questions, but that it invites you to come in close to a God of mercy and love, in whom we find hope and healing. That is good news.

I think too often we have an image of God as an old man with a white beard in a far away place. That God is like a great watchmaker who made creation, wound up the spring and then walked away and returned to heaven or wherever. The Divine Dance reminds me that God is much more like three people, arm in arm in arm, in a dance, right here, right now. And the product of that dance is an overflowing of love, which is why God creates. God creates to share the love that God knows as a result of who God is. So you, and you, and you, every one of you, are created out of love. And that love makes you a Child of God. That is good news.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, they laugh at us westerners. They ask, “Why do you keep trying to explain the Trinity? You can’t.” “It is a mystery,” they say. My seminary professor would love that answer.

However you understand the Trinity, or don’t, leave here today with this: The Trinity is Good News! Amen.

Year A  –  The First Sunday After Pentecost  –   May 31, 2026   –   The Rev. Cal Calhoun