Holy Trinity Sermon

Water, ice, and steam. Light and its source, brightness, and warmth. Love, the lover, and the beloved. Over the centuries theologians and scholars have wrestled with how to explain and describe one of the most profound mysteries of the Christian faith: the Holy Trinity.

As today’s readings from Scripture attest, no one in the early church had yet fully articulated what this teaching might mean—other than in relation to the love of the ineffable, unapproachable God made intimately manifest in the life and person of Jesus. Later, some theologians, like the early desert teachers, conceived of the three persons as manifestations of light, while others like Augustine emphasized love. More recently, theologians have spoken of God in maternal and feminine terms, or have pointed to the Trinity’s presence in both the beauty of creation and the careful stewardship of it.

Still another way of meditating on God’s love—one in three, and three in one—that I thought we might reflect on today, is through the wonder of music. For many of us, myself included, we may not have a great deal of formal training or technical expertise in music—but there’s something intuitively spiritual about what happens when voices sing together, or strings resound in harmony, or the tones of the organ dance their way into our hearts.

Whatever form it may take, music has the power not just to display beauty, or even elicit wonder, but actually to unite and harmonize what at first seem like unrelated, separate notes into a compelling whole. Martin Luther spoke repeatedly of music’s power in this way, as did another great 16^th-century spiritual teacher, Ignatius of Loyola—who described his experience of the Trinity in prayer as the playing of three keys or strings on a musical instrument.

Even though Ignatius didn’t leave a specific indication of which three notes he meant, one possible candidate is the triadic major chord, formed by the notes doh, mi, and soh on the scale. Our choirmaster, Tim, has graciously agreed to play an example to give us the idea…

Before I invite Tim to play the chord one more time, listen to these words from the contemporary musician and theologian Jeremy Begbie:

“Three distinct, mutually enhancing (not mutually exclusive) sounds, but together occupying the same aural space. The notes ‘sound through one another’ in an equal partnership where no note eclipses or is eclipsed by the other.”

Again, the chord…

What’s amazing about this chord is that it only can exist as three and one at the same time. It can never be one single note or even three individual notes; rather the three are always present as harmonics that resound together. And what’s more, in their range they form a perfect fifth—often considered a musical representation of the divine.

Today we have the privilege of listening to our wonderful choir and other musicians perform a masterful work that embodies this amazing principle of music—voices, instruments, notes, and chords all sounding together for the glory of God. And yet, the music doesn’t stop there. The truly good news we celebrate today is that God has chosen each of us in Christ to be instruments every bit as resonant as those we’ll hear this morning—to be notes every bit as harmonious as those pieced together so artfully in the compositions we’ll hear today.

Whether we actually sing or play an instrument or not, the larger truth we celebrate today is that the music of the Trinity includes us as well. Like sacred musicians, we too can allow the “instruments” God has gifted us with—the time, talents, gifts, abilities, and resources—to resound in harmony with those of others, sending a song of praise and glory to God.

Now, as any musician will tell you, the truth is that this isn’t quite so easy as it sounds. Playing and singing in creative harmony is hard work. It takes discipline, practice, and—crucially—a perceptive, listening ear. In other words, if we’re to fulfill our call to serve the Trinity in our own lives, we too will need to pay careful attention to what’s going on around us. Who are the people who are in need? What groups are being marginalized? Where is justice and peace lacking? How am I, how are we called to respond?

These are just some of many questions we can ask ourselves as we continue together along the sacred journey we celebrate in a special way today—a path that, if we surrender to it, will free us from the illusion of sounding our one note on its own, and engender a more liminal but ultimately far more liberating vocation of harmony and awareness.

The path is challenging, but we’re not on it alone. We’re called together in community and we’re blessed as beloved children, all, of the mystery and wonder of the One in Three, and the Three in One. Amen.