The Most Holy Trinity
Communion
Rev. James A. Wickersham

A week ago, the Church celebrated the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Today, eight days later, the Church celebrates the fullness of God himself: the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

When priests preach on Trinity Sunday, I think there is often a temptation to try to explain the Trinity. And certainly the Church has spent centuries reflecting on this great mystery. One of the most beautiful explanations comes from the Athanasian Creed. Listen to how the Church speaks and thinks about God:

"We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity; neither confusing the Persons nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; and yet there are not three Gods, but one God."

The Church says that beautifully. And if after hearing it, we find ourselves saying, "I believe it, but I do not fully understand it," that should not surprise us. Because God is eternal. We are not. God is infinite. We are not. But today, rather than trying to solve the mystery of the Trinity, I want to ask you a different question. What does the Trinity reveal about the human heart?

Think about your life. Everything important in your life involves a relationship: your parents, your spouse, your children, your friends, the people who have hurt you, and the people who have loved you. The Church teaches that we were made for communion.

Honestly, we usually notice communion most when it's missing. We know what it feels like when a friendship is strained. We know what it feels like when a marriage is struggling. We know what it feels like when we have hurt someone or they have hurt us.

Why does that hurt? Why does it hurt so much? Because we were made for communion, and communion has been ruptured.

And our faith teaches that God himself is a communion of Persons. Our relationships are rooted in the very life of God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit exist in an eternal communion of love.

This is why the Church says that God is love. Because before the universe existed, love already existed within God himself. The deepest truth about reality is communion.

Yet if communion is the deepest truth about reality, why do we experience so much loneliness, division, and shame? Scripture tells us, and I think our own experience confirms it, that sin fractures communion.

Think about Adam and Eve. After they sinned, what did they do? They hid. They hid from God. They hid from one another. They covered themselves. Shame entered their world.

And we know that experience ourselves. When we are ashamed, we often avoid difficult conversations. We stop returning phone calls. We give the silent treatment. We withdraw from family members. And perhaps the most dangerous thing is that we become experts at seeing everyone else's failures while forgetting our own.

Sin wrecks everything. It wounds our relationship with God. It wounds our relationship with one another. It wounds our very selves. The first thing Adam and Eve did was hide from God. And yet God does not abandon us in our isolation and shame. He desires communion. That is exactly what we hear in today's readings.

In our first reading, Israel has already broken the covenant. The people have worshipped the Golden Calf. Yet Moses stands before God and asks him to remain with his people. And how does God reveal himself? As merciful. Gracious. Slow to anger. Rich in kindness and fidelity.

Then in the Gospel we hear some of the most famous words in all of Scripture: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son."

Notice that Jesus does not say God loved the world once it got its act together. He says God loved the world. And because he loved the world, he sent his Son. Communion begins not with our search for God, but with God's love for us.

"God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."

And so the Lord Jesus enters our isolation and shame. He enters our brokenness and even death itself. He comes because the Father loves the world. And wherever Christ is received, healing begins.

That's what the Church is: men and women being drawn into the life of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. That is why we call this sacrament Holy Communion. In Holy Communion we are not merely receiving something. We are being drawn into someone. We are being drawn into the very life of God.

Where have I withdrawn from communion? Where am I hiding? Whose phone call am I avoiding? What relationship needs healing? What grudge am I carrying?

The Trinity is not a mystery to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.