Trinity Sunday, Year C
Sermon for Trinity Sunday, Year C
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
The Rev. Andrew McLarty
The Unfathomable Yet Intimate Trinity
We preachers often joke that Trinity Sunday is the day when clergy suddenly remember they have a vacation scheduled. How do you explain the unexplainable? St. Patrick’s clover, the triple-point water’s three states (0.1° C at 0.006 atm), even the analogy of a three-corded braid—none of these quite capture the mystery of the Triune God. And perhaps that’s the point.
The Trinity is not a puzzle to be solved but a relationship to be entered. In our readings today, Paul speaks of being "at peace with God," and Jesus tells his disciples that the Spirit will "guide them into all truth." These are not abstract theological concepts—they are invitations into the very life of God.
Love That Comes First
Why does the Trinity matter? Because it reveals the deepest truth about God: God is love, and love requires relationship. Before creation, before time, there was the Father loving the Son, the Son loving the Father, and the Spirit binding them in perfect unity. Love is not something God does—it is who God is.
This changes everything. We are not accidental creations in a cold universe. We are wanted. The Incarnation was not Plan B after the Fall—it was always the intention. As the medieval theologian Duns Scotus argued, Christ came not merely to fix what was broken but because Love desires to be shared.
That’s why Paul can say we "boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us." The Trinity is not a distant doctrine—it is the assurance that we are held in a love that will not let us go.
The Spirit’s Whisper
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." The Spirit will come to guide them—and us—into truth.
This is the great comfort of the Trinity: God meets us where we are. The Father creates, the Son redeems, and the Spirit sustains. Some days, we need the boldness of the Father’s call. Other days, we need the tenderness of Christ’s presence. And still others, we need the quiet whisper of the Spirit, leading us when words fail.
The Trinity is not a static idea but a dynamic triune:
- Creation/ Redemption/ and Presence
- Author/ Word/ and Translator
- Belonging/ Purpose/ and Promise
- Sovereign/ Savior/ and Shelter
- Creator/ Redeemer/ Sustainer
- Parent/ Partner/ and Friend
Living the Trinity
So what do we do with this mystery? We live it.
- We love because we are loved. The Trinity shows us that God is community, and so we are called to live in holy kinship with one another.
- We hope because we are held. Even in suffering, we trust that the God who is Three-in-One will not abandon us.
- We listen because God still speaks. The Spirit is here, in Scripture, in sacrament, in the quiet and the chaos, guiding us deeper into truth.
The Trinity is not a problem to wrestle with once a year. It is the heartbeat of our faith—the love that made us, the love that saves us, and the love that will never let us go.
Thanks be to God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
