WEBVTT

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Speak to you in the name of one God, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Please be seated.

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Today is a unique feast, a day of the church.
We don't celebrate an event like we did last

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week at Pentecost. We don't get to hear the
events of the life of a particularly holy

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saint today. We don't even really get a special
event of Jesus's life, or a parable, or some

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of his teaching or healing. No, today we're
celebrating something entirely different.

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And in a way, the beauty of Trinity Sunday
is that we just get to marvel at God. And

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particularly this day, to marvel at the relationship
that is active within God. Because it's hard

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to talk about the idea of the Trinity as anything
but relationship. It sort of needs to be part

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of our conversation today. And though you
won't find that word as you open your Bible,

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Trinity is not there. We are heavily leaning
on the witness of Scripture with how God is

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revealed in so many places, in the stories
of prayers that have come to life across centuries

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of our tradition, in the many hymns that we
will sing today, even in your life and mine.

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For centuries, we have come to a place in
Christian theology where it is almost impossible

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to talk about the one God of Israel without
mentioning the Father, the Son, and the Holy

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Spirit. And it's something that every year
it makes us consider, because friends, the

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Trinity is not some heady side quest in our
personal devotion. No, it is something we

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have to take joyfully and seriously in all
of our life of prayer, because the Trinity

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is the basis of God's very identity. And anything
that you can see and touch and feel has its

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root in the heart of who God is, which means
that the language we use around God is exceptionally

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important. Much has and will continue to be
said about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

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but when we speak of them, we often have to
speak of them together, working as one, instead

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of the way that we often speak of them, which
is like different departments of a big company

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that are found on different floors, that somewhere
near the top of the building is

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the creation floor, so the Creator lives up
there somewhere, and then maybe in middle

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management is the Redeemer, and you might
find Him there, and then in like storage room

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7B on the basement is the poor Holy Spirit.
Nowhere to be found, but somehow sustaining

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all of this. Friends, that's not how it works.
And if you have heard an analogy about the

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Trinity this week, or if you have heard it
anywhere else, it's probably not quite getting

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the job done. It's hard to say concrete things
about ineffable divine things, and so instead

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we rely heavily on the things we can claim,
the things we can say with confidence and

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with faith, things that have been revealed
to us, and the things that we claim in our

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language today, like in the closing hymn that
we'll sing all seven verses of, you're welcome,

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that it is the whole Trinity of whom we speak,
the whole Trinity of whom all nature hath

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creation, not just one of them. It's in the
things that we will pray today that there

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is unity in the glory of God as revealed in
the Trinity. It's things that we have to remember

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today, of all days and all days, that this
God is co-eternal, present before and beyond

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all things. These truths, these things that
have been revealed will confound and gladden

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the hearts of any who approach them, and have
done for centuries. This is heavy sledding

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theologically, but again, we then rely on
the things we can say for sure. That the love

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of God that exists within and through and
because of the Holy Trinity isn't just good,

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or isn't just deep, or isn't just meaningful,
it is perfect. Excellent. What a cue, on
cue

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just that the angels started singing from
a cell phone. It is perfect, it is fearless,

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it is full, and as has been revealed in other
places, St. Paul among them, it hopes and

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endures all things, it never fails. All of
this is only possible because this God is

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of one being, with one another in their divinity.
They are not each other, but if we remember

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anything today, we might remember they are
of one another. And it is in that image, that

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complex and muddy and beautiful image, that
you and I have been made. Which means at some

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point all of these things that we've just
said have sort of been downloaded into us,

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have been imprinted in the people that we
are, made in this complex image. Many of those

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same things, if we were to shift from God
to people, could also be said about humanity,

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could they not? Are we not of one another
in our humanity? Are we not the same in nature?

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Do we not have the same essence that we share,
dwelling within us? Do we not look across

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our pews or our families, or even much wider
than that? Do we not look across cultures

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that are different, people that believe different
things, proclaim different things, or know

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things at all, and still see that person made
in the image of God? Do we not then say, bone

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of my bone and flesh of my flesh? Like, yes,
sometimes. Sometimes we actually do. Sometimes

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we look and have those wonderfully human moments,
where we might not even share the same language,

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but we share the same idiosyncrasies. The
weird little things that we notice, smiles

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and glances and things we do with our eyebrows.
If you've had the privilege of traveling
far

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away from the place where you grow up, you
know this is true. I've had that privilege.

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And from Guatemala to Greenwich, people are
people. From Kansas to Pennsylvania to Idaho,

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people are people. There is something about
them that remains the same, especially when

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we see the image of God in each of them. But
I said sometimes. Sometimes we see this,

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and sometimes we actively don't want to. Sometimes
our willingness to see the image of God that

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other people are also made in falters. So
instead of seeing God, we might only be looking

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for the things that we recognize in ourselves,
in other people, and find them wanting. It's

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then our tendency only to look for our own
traits. Only to look for the things that we

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like. And very quickly we can reject the humanity
of someone else, and our love won't be full.

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Our love won't be perfect. Sometimes it will
fail to endure. When it does, the thing that

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we have to do is return to this language of
the Holy Trinity. To come back in prayer,

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to repent of the times we haven't seen the
full humanity in someone else's life. Because

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there is no circumstance in which the relationship
with the Trinity will ever do the same thing.

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Can you imagine the Son of God insisting that
the Spirit be more like Him? Can you imagine

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God the Father being envious of the Holy Spirit?
No. It's like squaring a circle. It doesn't

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make sense. That's the thing we have to rely
on. When we look to our own relationships

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and see where they are either strong or less
so, we might then quickly decide, well what

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does the relationship of God look like within
itself? Can I live in such a way that mimics

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that? I trust that we can, but I also trust
it's our inclination not to. Because God has

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made us each unique, truly. But like all things
that we might find to be true in our lives,

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there's like a little bit of vice and a little
bit of virtue to that. Yes, we have all been

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given unique spiritual gifts, but if it's
the only thing we remember, we'll never be

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able to see the image of something different
in our neighbor. We'll only look for ourselves.

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We'll only pray for the people that we recognize.
We might only try to love the people that

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we find agreeable. We might reject the humanity
of those we simply do not understand. Now

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on a day like today we might admit very quickly
that our humanity falls apart when we strive

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to be so unlike any other human being. But
thanks be to God that our humanity, our very

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selves, the things in which we base in God
can thrive when we do the hard work, the faithful

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work of recognizing that image in everyone
we encounter, friend or stranger alike. There

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will be many of those encounters. Today our
encounters are with God and one another and

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that is true of every day. As we are especially
called today into this deeper love of God

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and into this proximity of God's Holy Trinity,
may the claims we make today, like being
bound

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to the strong name of the Trinity, help us
take on the characteristics of God, the relationship

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of God within the Trinity, the love of God
that indeed hopes and endures all things.

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May we also be bound to others with that same
tenacity, with that same fire, with that same

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strength. May the feast day today remind us
that things on earth can be as things in heaven

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are and bonds between people can be as they
are within God.