This sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday was inspired by a beautiful blessing in Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie and draws on the following lectionary texts for this day:
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
1Does not wisdom call,
and does not understanding raise her voice?
2On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
4“To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all that live.
22The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of long ago.
23Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
25Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth—
26when he had not yet made earth and fields,
or the world’s first bits of soil.
27When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
29when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
31rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race.”
Psalm 8
1O Lord our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!—
2you whose glory is chanted above the heavens out of the mouths of infants and children;
you have set up a fortress against your enemies, to silence the foe and avenger.
3When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,
4what are mere mortals that you should be mindful of them,
human beings that you should care for them?
5Yet you have made them little less than divine;
with glory and honor you crown them.
6You have made them rule over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet:
7all flocks and cattle,
even the wild beasts of the field,
8the birds of the air, the fish of the sea,
and whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
9O Lord our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
John 16:12-15
[Jesus said,] 12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
Beloved of God, grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Blessed are we who turn our gaze to seek the One who truly see us and knows us, like newborns whose bleary sight focuses to find adoring eyes beaming down, delighting and filling, mirroring and multiplying.
“A Blessing for When You’re Weary” comes from Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie’s book, “Good Enough.” It’s a blessing that leapt off the page when I read it this week, in part because it calls to mind our first reading for this day, from Proverbs, and in part because I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one feeling weary in these days.
Too many are weighed down by grief, wrecked by loss—parents in Uvalde, civilians in Ukraine, worshipers in Nigeria. Too many fear for their very lives in a culture that dehumanizes and demeans, legislating contempt. Too many are excluded even from the church—a church that professes God is love.
Scenes from daily life feel almost surreal. Live, primetime January 6th committee hearings with video of the United States Capitol being breached, the final frame an insurrectionist waving a Christian flag? Signs outside gas stations reading $5 a gallon? Is this real life?
The question asked of God by the psalmist, may be a question we too are asking: What are human beings that you should care for them?
What are human beings? Who are we? What are we to make of ourselves when we read the headlines and listen to the morning news, each day waiting—expecting—to be destroyed again by the inhumanity of humanity?
Blessed are we, the weary and weak and sore, with only the merest ember left burning, but who still say: Breathe on me, God. Breathe life into my tired body, my heavy limbs…Breathe comfort into my sad heart.
Just last week we celebrated Pentecost, the breath of God filling God’s people, the fire of the Holy Spirit arriving to burn within us, awakening us, enlivening us, empowering us for life.
Breathe on us, God.
Today, we celebrate the Holy Trinity revealed by that outpouring of the Holy Spirit. From the very beginning, the God we worship—the one God—has existed as community, three-in-one. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God, who creates, redeems, and sanctifies all of creation. One God, author of life, word made flesh, power of the most high.
What are human beings? Who are we? We are creatures created in the image of this three-in-one God, whose very essence is relationship, mutuality, and unity in diversity. This is who we are.
And God, who created us, delights in us and will not abandon us.
In that first reading from Proverbs, Wisdom is described as a woman who stands beside the way, at the crossroads, and calls out—cries out—to all that live.
Wisdom is here with us, every time we come to the crossroads, to a moment of decision, to that place where there is no turning back because the stakes are too high. Wisdom is for you and for all creation. She cries out to all that live so that we may have abundant life. She has been here from the beginning, working alongside the Creator, rejoicing in this created, inhabited world, and delighting in us.
The author of the gospel of John draws a line between Wisdom—described here in Proverbs—and the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him. What has come into being in him was life…And the Word became flesh and lived among us.
Jesus is the Word made flesh, divine Wisdom who delights in us, and who in our gospel reading today promises his followers the Spirit of truth who will guide them into all the truth.
God does not abandon us to the forces of evil that seek to lead us ever deeper into lies—the lie that this is just the way things are, the lie that nothing can be done, the lie that there is not enough and we must compete for scarce resources, the lie that we are made for ourselves and can’t afford to look out for anyone but ourselves, the lie that we are ultimately alone and unlovable.
We are made for each other, created in the image of our triune God—created for life in community, created to care for one another, created to break down divisions and be of one mind in Christ Jesus.
The Wisdom who delights in us is the Word that becomes us, taking on our frailties, experiencing our pain and grief, going to the cross out of love for all the world and then defeating—once and for all—the power of sin and death.
This is the truth the Spirit leads us into day by day—we are already saved. We are made of love and held in love. We have all we need to use our lives to make a difference, right where we are. We have as a gift from God, as we will soon sing, sun and moon, stars of light, friends on earth and friends above, love which over and around us lies, Wisdom & Word made flesh, Jesus the Christ, best gift divine, who looks on us with love.
Are you weary?
Blessed are we who turn our gaze to seek the One who truly sees us and knows us, like newborns whose bleary sight focuses to find adoring eyes beaming down, delighting and filling, mirroring and multiplying.
Blessed are we who discover we are loved and held in arms that are strong enough to hold that which we cannot.
Blessed are we.
Amen.