The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY (Retired)
Trinity Sunday is special in many ways. It is, for one thing, the "hinge" of
the Church year. From the beginning of Advent until now, we have focused, one by
one, on the work and the characteristics of the three members of the Trinity:
during Advent, on God the Father, Creator, All-Powerful, All-Knowing and
All-Merciful; God the Son, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Redeemer, who is,
at the same time, the Human Who Walked with Us; and God the Holy Spirit, the
Advocate, the Comforter (and remember, that word comforter doesn't
mean "warm fuzzies," but Giver of Strength, from the Latin cum,
meaning "with", and fortis, strength), who is our Empowerer and
our Guide. But now, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity, acknowledging
that while the Three are each individual Persons in their own right, they are
all so indivisibly part of one another that they cannot be separated. Where one
of the Trinity's Persons is, the other two Persons are also. You cannot divide
the Trinity. It simply cannot be done. And we humans simply cannot understand
that concept, that is both so incredibly simple and so incredibly complex. And,
since Trinity Sunday is the "hinge" of the Church Year, we are given the rest of
the year, as Ordinary Time, to think on these things.
So. today, Trinity Sunday, I am not going to try to explain
that concept. Trinity Sunday is the Sunday when we expect our preachers and
clergy to explain the unexplainable in simple words that anyone can understand,
and do it in ten minutes or less. I see no point in attempting to do the
impossible. I think it would be more profitable to do some reflecting on the
idea of Trinity itself, the Three-in-One-ness and the One-Who-is-Three-ness of
our God, and what it may mean for us ordinary human types.
I am blessed to be one of what the author Studs Terkel called The
Greatest Generation, the generation that lived through and struggled
with the Great Depression and World War II. I was born near the end of the Great
Depression. My Mom once told me that my baby carriage cost all of ten dollars,
and she and my Dad, who at that time was an engineer for GE in Schenectady, had
to scrimp and save for several months to accumulate that sum. Does that give you
a rough idea of the times? My Dad was the son of a well-known doctor in Oregon,
the head of a hospital there. Dad's mother was the daughter of a U.S. Senator.
My own Mother was the daughter of country people: a carpenter who had entered
his apprenticeship immediately after completing eighth grade (but he read
everything he could get his hands on, and was one of the most intelligent and
best-self-educated people I have ever met) and a country schoolteacher, who got
her job by taking the Teacher's Examination when she finished high school up in
Ticonderoga, and was licensed as an elementary school teacher when she passed
the exam. Two more different parents would be hard to find...a rich doctor's
son, accustomed to knowing famous and powerful people, and the daughter of a
country couple who farmed on the side to keep food on the table.
And yet, as Studs Terkel tells us in his book, "The Greatest Generation" was
made up of people just like my parents, who from diverse and often conflicting
backgrounds and beliefs, joined together with one purpose: to get America on its
feet again, after the Depression; and later, to win the war. Many books and
movies have told the stories of that generation: how immigrant Jewish boys from
the Bronx fought side by side with sons of Congressmen and even the President;
how farm girls and socialite debutantes joined together to become
Rosies-the-Riveters and roll bandages or work in the USO or even join the
new-fangled women's service organizations that the military formed, freeing men
to go and fight. Even the civilians were part of the efforts: we all suffered
from food, gas and tire rationing, we all put our cars up on blocks and took the
bus so that the military could have the gas it needed, we all planted victory
gardens and worked as volunteer airline spotters or in defense factories, or
gave blood, and even my kindergarten class went out each Tuesday afternoon with
our little wagons to collect metal scrap and milkweed pods for life jackets.
In short, we were many people with a single purpose. Like the Trinity, we had
many different faces...and opinions, and beliefs... but worked together for one
goal, one objective. We put aside whatever differences we had and worked
together to achieve that goal.
I wonder if one reason God choose to be a Trinity is simply to give us a good
example?
A good marriage has a taste of Trinity-ness about it. Man and woman...some
scientists have claimed that we are not just separate genders but separate
races!...come together for one purpose: to share love, love so deep that it
reproduces itself, love so deep that it teaches its offspring also to love. Any
other kind of love is not worthy to be called a marriage, a meeting of minds.
Note that I said "a meeting of minds," not "of the same mind." Married people do
not always share the same opinions, but they do work together for the common
good, putting aside their differences...like the Greatest Generation, like the
Trinity.
The same is true of successful organizations.
And now look at our country today.
I am sure that it pains God the Holy Trinity to see, here in America, how we
are becoming ever more divisive, ever more pushing the idea of "us versus
them." Even our Congress, sworn solemnly to work together to uphold the
Constitution, find themselves doing much more to uphold their own political
parties than to work for the good of all the people. It's not only congress...we
are seeing more and more violence on our streets, as people stab or shoot one
another "because I didn't like the way he looked at me." Where is the common
purpose of creating a safe society where everyone is entitled to an opinion, as
long as they realize that when the crunch comes, we must join together for the
common good? And look at the greater society of the whole globe. Never have all
the nations worked together for the common good. It is always an effort to get
more for oneself, to make one's own views prevail: we need more land, we need to
capture all the oil wells, we need to have all the ports and shipping for
ourselves. How God the Holy Trinity must feel the anguish that threatens us all.
And so: it seems to me that this feast of the Most Holy Trinity should be
seen as a wake-up call for us...a call to make our Ordinary Time, that is, the
rest of our lives, and all the future of our world, a time of learning to work
together, whatever our opinions may be. We need not kill one another over a look
that we don't like, or gang colors, or greed. We need not divide the country
along party lines; we need rather to unite it in a common effort, while still
acknowledging that we may have different opinions about how to do it. We need to
lead an effort to get nations working together for the common good: the wide
wheat plains of Canada, Russia and America could easily feed the starving third
world countries, if we quit quibbling and just shared.
On this feast day of the Most Holy Trinity, I ask you to think about God's
giving himself as an example for all of us on how to live, successfully, while
we are all so different. Think about it, pray about it, and see what God is
prompting you to do about it. That is perhaps the best way to celebrate the
Feast of the Most holy Trinity, not just today but every day, everywhere.
Amen.
