Date: May 26, 2024 

Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-8

Sermon Title: “The Trinitarian God for Us”

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Bob Jon

You can also listen on Podcast from iTunes and Spotify. Search for “Podcasting from Rev. Bob Jon.”

We just celebrated Pentecost Sunday last week. I felt privileged to walk the confirmation journey with our four young people and have our bishop confirm them. Over the last four months, we met for 8 sessions. We talked about the themes of creation, sin & grace, baptism, and communion. We also talked about what it meant to be a Methodist. How about you? How can you distinguish a Methodist from other Christians? Here are some hilarious answers I found on internet. 

• You know you are a Methodist when it takes at least ten minutes to say goodbye. 
• You know you are a Methodist when doughnuts are a line item in the church budget. 
• Methodists feel guilty if they don’t stay to clean up after their own wedding reception in the Fellowship Hall.
• Methodists think that the Bible forbids them from crossing the aisle while passing the peace.
• Methodists believe their pastors will visit them in the hospital, even if they don’t notify them that they are there.^[1]

In studying Wesley’s theology, I came to learn that many Christians historically did not take Wesley as a serious theologian. Paul Johnson, a scholar in church history, criticized the Methodist Church as “almost totally devoid of intellectual content.” Methodism is ethical and emotional but does not contain doctrinal insights.” For this, Randy Maddox, a Wesleyan scholar at Duke Divinity School, argues that Wesley’s main concern was to shape the “worldview that frames the temperament and practice of believer’s lives in the world.”^[2]

As we celebrate Trinity Sunday, I want to address what it means for us to believe in God as the Trinitarian God. But I do not do so to engage in some speculative theology merely. Instead, as a Methodist myself, I want to reflect on the meaning of God in Trinity as a way that impacts our individual and communal lives as a church. Our belief in the Trinitarian God is not just satisfying our intellectual curiosity. It also affects the way we think about how we live in relationships with others, how we define our relationship with others, and how we respond to God, who sends us out to the world. 

First of all, Trinitarian God is relational in God’s nature, as God exists as God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The very first clue to God as a Trinitarian God is found in the story of the beginning. On the sixth day, God created all the living creatures of every kind on the earth. God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness.” God did not say, “I am going to make some human beings in my image. Instead, God said, “Let’s make human beings in our image.” This indicates the communal nature of God. 

Although the Bible does not declare God as the Trinitarian God, we get the clues as to why God exists in the Trinity. For example, it is said in John 1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God … And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Jesus also promised to his disciples that God would send the Holy Spirit to them as their advocate, who would teach them everything, convince the world of its sins, and empower the followers of Christ. There is one God, but God exists as three persons. This is why Paul gives the words of benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:14, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 

Because God exists in relation, God also wants us to be relational with God and with one another. Again, Genesis tells us that God created human beings in God’s image. For Wesley, the image of God primarily meant our capability to love God and love our neighbors. In other words, we are created to be relational by loving God and loving our neighbors. This means that we will get to know more about God when we are grounded in a community where we learn to welcome one another, embrace one another, forgive one another, and love one another, as God loves us. 

Secondly, the Trinitarian God obeys and serves one another in love and humility. In our world today, there are many forms of relationships to govern and regulate their family, community, and nation. If you are the parents, you are given the privilege to raise your children. And some parents will exercise their authority over children as adults. Not long after I came to the U.S., I was invited to a family dinner. As one of the daughters said something rude, the father spoke sternly and said, “You can put down the fork and spoon. You can go to your room now.” The daughter expressed her anger through her face. 

As a member of the community and country, it is our civic duty to follow the laws, serve on a jury, pay taxes, vote in elections, and get involved in our community. While some of these duties are benign, some duties could lead to a more severe consequence if violated. I became a U.S. citizen in 2018. The final step in being a U.S. citizen was the ceremony of oath. And one of the oaths we made before the judge was this. “I promise I will use a weapon if the U.S. government asks me to.” “I promise to serve in the military performing duties other than combat if the U.S. government asks me.” If you say no, you cannot be a citizen of the U.S. 

However, the relationship that binds the Trinitarian God is love. Jesus says in John 15, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” It is because of love that Jesus obeys the will of God and because of love that the Holy Spirit obeys Christ in coming to the world. It is because of love for his Father that Christ prays on the Mount of Olives, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done.” Even unto death, Jesus obeys the will of God not because of his obligation to God, but out of his love for God. 

And this is the way Christ showed his love for us. He took the basin, had a towel around his waist, and washed the feet of his disciples. He did this out of his love for his disciples and his humility. He also said to his disciples, “The rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you, but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant” (Matthew 20:25-26). Paul also described the way of Christ this way, “In humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.” 

Thirdly, the Trinitarian God sends one another on a mission, therefore sending us also out to the world. After Jesus was resurrected from death, he appeared to his disciples and said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). God is the One who sent Christ to the world. Jesus also said at his last supper with his disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever.” The Trinitarian God sends one another, and likewise, God also sends us to the world. 

In our reading from the Book of Isaiah, Prophet Isaiah saw a vision of God sitting on a throne, surrounded by Seraphs flying with wings. They even covered their faces with their wings because no one could face the holiness of God. As Isaiah saw the glory of God, he fell to the ground saying, “I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips.” He thought that he was going to die. But one of the seraphs came with a burning coal and sanctified him. The immediate encounter with God turned Isaiah around for the mission. God asked, “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah answered, “Here am I; please send me.” 

Recently, some women in the church visited Laura Brown’s new clinic in Westford, MA. The name of her clinic is Sapphire Women’s Healthcare, which specializes in care for women with menopause. As you know, menopause can happen with aging around at age of 50. But it can also happen to women in their early 40s. According to the website of Sapphire Women’s Healthcare, menopause can also occur due to medical or surgical conditions, such as the removal of your ovaries with or without the removal of your uterus due to chemotherapy or pelvic radiation. Some of the symptoms include depression, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, and memory concerns. 

Led by Pastor Maylis, the group of women had a brief prayer service at the clinic, blessing Laura’s work and the patients she will treat in the future. I was curious about how she decided to open her own clinic, so I asked her by email. She was gracious in responding to me in detail. She graduated with a master’s in nursing in 2016 and became board-certified as a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner. However, she initially had difficulty finding a job as an NP and wound up working in Internal Medicine, which was not where she wanted to be. She wanted to care for patients at OBGYN. She remembered one of her teachers in NP school was a certified menopause provider and felt drawn to the course. She took the test, passed it, and was immediately offered a job in an OGBYN office.

Laura was the only certified menopause specialist at the large clinic where she worked. However, she realized that she could not fully treat the patients with menopause because of the hierarchy of doctors and the hospital system. Last October, she attended a conference in Arizona and came to learn that the practice at her workplace was not up to date for patients. She felt like God was calling her to serve women in general and especially give special attention to women with menopause. So, on her return flight home, she turned to her husband and said, “I think I have to do this.” Her vision is to find a way to make her service available to lower-income patients and serve a wider public. You will get to hear more about this when she gives a talk at the Wonder Women next month and at Chelmsford Library. 

Today, God who poured the Holy Spirit on the people who gathered to pray and worship two thousand years ago, continues to meet with us, calls us to gather as the church, serve one another in love and humility, and sends us out to the world so that others may believe that there is God who deeply loves this world and who never gives up on what God has created. Will we listen to the voice of God who calls us? Will we boldly say “Yes” to such a call even sacrificing our comfort, our privilege, or even our lives? Psalmist sings, “May the Lord give strength to his people!” To which, we gladly respond, “Amen.” 

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^[1] http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2007/02/garrison-keillor-on-those-people-called.html

^[2] Randy Maddox, Responsible Grace, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), 17.