These Three Are One - John 16: 12-15

Have you ever noticed that Jesus seemed to be really good at relationships? He seemed to constantly be attentive to other people’s needs, helping them grow, and pointing towards God. Why was Jesus so good at relationships? Because he himself was in a deep relationship with the Holy Spirit and God. 

Today is a special day in the life of the church, designated as Trinity Sunday. It is our time to uplift the doctrine of the Trinity - that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Honestly, this belief is hard to explain, so many times we avoid discussing it. The word Trinity never appears in the Scriptures, yet we declare that we believe that God is three in one and one in three each Sunday when we recite a creed. I believe in God the Father, creator of Heaven and Earth..., I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord..., I believe in the Holy Spirit. Each person is unique and helps us define who we are as Christians, yet they share the same holy substance and are in relationship with one another.  Its not just in creeds that we express this tenant of the faith. When we pray, we do so to God, through Christ, and in the Spirit. When we are dismissed each week, we are to go forth to spread the good news in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We repeat this belief each and every Sunday, yet it is hard for something so complex to sink into our minds and hearts and change us.

Jesus understands that the disciples whom he cared for deeply are confused, not only about who God is, or why Christ is leaving them, but about this Spirit of Truth that he says he will send to them.  In fact, Jesus is leaving them while he still has more to say. With so much more that needs to be said, and more direction and wisdom to be given, the Spirit of Truth is needed to speak to the disciples hearts and guide them. They will know it is the Spirit because it will glorify Jesus and will only declare the things that are of God. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is not trying to explain to the disciples who each person in the Trinity exactly is or how one is different then the other. In fact, he is trying to comfort the disciples as he bids them farewell by explaining to them how the persons of God are related to one another. 

Our human views of community and relationship are often marred. Even in the relationships we hold most dear things aren’t always perfect. We disagree or fight. We neglect one another or go after our own desires. We don’t always communicate clearly or act in the most loving ways. But our human relationships are a starting point for an understanding of the Divine relationship. John is trying to express that the community that is shared amongst God is to be shared amongst the disciples. Amongst the Father, Son, and Spirit there is a mutual giving and taking. For all that the Father has is in Jesus. And the Spirit will take all that Jesus has and declare it to the disciples. The Father, Son, and Spirit, share and give everything, nothing is held back from the others. Everything is pointed towards the other in unselfish ways. Jesus speaks about God. The Holy Spirit communicates in a way that points people towards Christ. 

Today is also another special day in the life of the church - Peace with Justice Sunday. Half of all of the money collected around the annual conference today in special offering envelopes stays here in the annual conference for justice related ministries. One of the best parts for me as the coordinator of peace and justice grants is to go and visit the sites that received money. This year I saw this community relationship come alive in the recipients. At a transitional living center for woman who are struggling, the women who come to stay at the house give back by teaching classes to other women, supporting each other, and fixing up the house together. It truly is mutual giving and taking. At Sojourner Truth Ministries, people unselfishly give to the ministry, so the ministry can unselfishly give to others. In return, people who have so little give what they can, even if it is a bag of sugar, back to the ministry, because they feel so blessed. These communities of human relationships teach those within them something about the relationship of the Godhead with each other, and God’s relationship to us. They aren’t perfect, but they are a reflection of Divine love, where each person is invited to be authentically themselves and more fully who they are by being in relationship with one another. 

The disciples are invited to be part of this Divine relationship, for Jesus wants to share what he has with them through the Spirit. Last week we discussed how at Pentecost, the Spirit brought life to the Kingdom of God, and how we share in expanding that Kingdom. Sometimes being invited into that type of intimate relationship with God seems daunting. For just as their are sacrifices made by each person in the Trinity, so are we too asked to sacrifice. To have the Spirit bring us Truth is not just about us believing facts, its about the Truth leading us to live a certain way. The two aspects of Truth go hand in hand. When we are in relationship, we are never passive. There is always give and take, and action required. As this is true in our human relationships, so it is true with our intimate relationship with God. We cannot simply just get what we desire from God without giving anything in return, if this is a true relationship.

Further, the disciples are invited into this divine relationship with God together. Note that Jesus does not specify that each individual disciple would receive the Spirit of Truth, rather it would emerge and bless the entire community. This is hard to come to terms with in our “me and Jesus” society. The Spirit is coming, yes, to bring wisdom to individuals, but as we mentioned last week, the Holy Spirit does so much more than that. It also draws together Christian community to go out into the world. And the community is to point others to the ultimate truth in Jesus Christ. We do not need to have all of the right facts or fully understand the revelation of Christ ourselves before we go. In fact, no community has ever known everything about Jesus teachings, life, death, and resurrection. We are simply equipped and led by the Spirit to minister out of the Truth that Christ holds in our own lives. Faith is not so much about knowing everything, rather about acting on what we do know. 

And in this sense of acting upon what we do know, Truth itself is relational. What we believe and act upon flows out of our relationship with God and other people. We cannot walk the Christian life alone. We need other people to help guide us. We need to be mentoring other people. And we need to be looking to Jesus in all we do and say. Our relationship within this community and beyond should bring glory to Christ and should be lead by the Spirit of Truth. It is not always about what we have to say about Christ, but how we live out our faith in authentic way. One of my parents favorite lines while my brothers and I were growing up was its not so much about what you have to say as how you say it. How are we communicating the Truth of a relational God who invites us to be part of something bigger than ourselves? 

The Trinity is hard to understand. Relationships are hard to understand. The truth is hard to grasp. So why do we even try to talk about it? Because even if we don’t fully understand it all, it informs how we live our faith and who we are as believers. Just as each important relationship we have shapes who we are, so does our relationship with the Holy God, Three in One and One in Three. And the relationship within the Godhead is just glimpsed at through our human community relationships, that deeply impact us. We need those very human, messy relationships, including the Church, to help us more fully realize who God is as the Truth of Christ is revealed among us. We don’t have to fully get it to be transformed. Like the early disciples, we just need to seek to grow in relationship to God and one another. Amen.