Sermon for June 4, 2023 – Trinity Sunday

Genesis 1:1-2:4a; Psalm 8; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20

Icons of the Triune God

You likely know the old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” We have before us today on the cover of today’s bulletin an icon depicting God, the Holy Trinity, whose description is beyond words. Iconographers “write” icons – they don’t “paint” icons – they “write” icons because icons tell a story.  This particular icon is in the school of Andrei Rublev, the great 15th century Russian iconographer.

I first encountered this icon on my visit to the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, during my summer studying Russian in Moscow and Petersburg. I fell in love with this icon because of the way it invited me into this shared moment, as if this gathering was for me. I felt like I was part of the story. As I walked by the many different icons in the gallery, I was continually struck by the invitation to enter into and view the stories they depicted differently.

Some of you may come from a tradition where icons – these windows to God – were very much a part of your religious formation. For some of us, icons may offer new and welcoming ways to gaze on God and God’s company. For others of us, icons may seem to skirt the Old Testament prohibition against creating of “graven images.” You’ll recall in the 10 Commandments, “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

I did not come upon icons in my parish church. As a pretty low American Episcopal Church, icons were not a part of my parish’s spirituals practices. My education on praying with icons came through my neighbor who was from an Eastern Catholic Church that utilizes iconography in their worship and through the Episcopal monastic community the SSJE. Spending time on retreat with the lingering smells of incense and icons around every corner of the monastery chapel and guest house, immersed me in scripture and prayer in ways I had never experienced before. By the time I arrived in Russia, I was well acquainted with iconography and thoroughly enjoyed the many monasteries and cathedrals I visited that were adorned with icons of all shapes and sizes. Even now, a corner of our apartment is covered in icons that we have gathered during our travels, including a copy of Rublev’s Trinity that purchased from a small shop in East Jerusalem.

If we read the Scriptures backwards, that is, to take our experience of Jesus, the Christ, and then look backwards, we have a new reading of the old.  There’s this “iconic” phrase in the Letter to the Colossians: “He is the image of the invisible God.” The actual Greek is, “He is the icon of the invisible God.”  Jesus puts a face, a body, a name, a heart to the “invisible God.”  Jesus, the icon of God.  Here in this beautiful icon before us, we see the God as a Trinity, three persons in a circle of adoring love.

The description or doctrine of God as a “Trinity of Persons” is not explicitly found in the Scriptures.  We can infer a doctrine of the Trinity based on the biblical writings, but how you organize those thoughts, make sense of them, justify their rela­tive importance is a matter of incredibly diverse opinion. It’s not unlike the old story of lining five people up on a street corner, asking them to watch an event, then listening to them as describe in their own words what happened and why. So the story goes, you’ll get five different accounts from the five different people.

If we were to look back two thousand or so years and take the long view on Christianity, we (obvi­ously) get a great diversity of opinion on what has happened, and what is happening, with God known to be the Creator: the envisioning, bespeaking, demanding, unwavering, untouchable, faceless, nameless God whom Jesus comes to call abba, “papa.”  God, the Father.  Yet, Jesus says he is “at one with” this God. “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father,” he says. This is Jesus, the surprising, sometimes disap­pointing, long-awaited Messiah who is created in the very image of the God whose image was not to be created: Jesus the innocent, af­flic­ted, salving, saving, all-so-human incarnation of this One God. Jesus, the Son, embodies God with us, God Emmanuel. 

And then he leaves us.  At least he leaves the earth in bodily form. In his leaving, he prom­ises not to leave us “comfortless.” He says we shall experience more of what we’ve seen in him through God the Spirit, who will come to us. This is God the Spirit, whom we experience as unifying, sus­taining, empowering, reminding, interrupting Spirit who comes on Pentecost, and who keeps coming to us day by day. 

All of these experiences of God are summed up in the doctrine of God as a Trinity of Persons, which is the church’s trying to make sense of our ongoing experience of God with us, past and present and future.

I return us to this beautiful icon of the Trinity we have before us today. Take a look at it. What details do you notice? Icons are typically written in reverse perspective. We, who gaze on the icon, are drawn into the icon. The invitation with this icon is to see our own place at the table. There are the three persons… and then, a space for the fourth. You are the fourth guest at this table of fellowship. God gives us all an invitation to the table, to share in the life of God. 

For some of us, that invitation may be wonderful and immediate, like someone who loves us saying to us, “Welcome home.” For others of us, we may find some resistance within ourselves. The resistance may have to do with a sense of our “worthiness” to receive God welcome, to know God’s love. You might think you’ve got too much stuff in your past, too many screw-ups in life, too much brokenness, too much inconsistency for God to love you. But God knows better, and God knows you better. 

God really does love you. And God’s love for you is not ultimately because of you. God’s love for you is because of God. God loves whom God. And if there’s any question about your “worthiness” in God’s eye, not to worry. Jesus covers for you. Jesus puts in the good word for you, intercedes for you, saves you. You actually are the apple of God’s eye. And God adores you, just the way you are. Accept God’s invitation to be loved by God, and forever.

We as Christians believe in one God: the God of Gods who was in the beginning, the alpha; the God of all eternity, the omega, and in the mean time – sometimes in the toughest of times; the God who meets us along the Way, “the way, and the truth, and the life,” to use the language of Jesus. This is God, our God, whom the Church reverences as the holy and undivided Trinity.  Blessed be God, for ever and for ever.  Amen.