"The preacher is a proclaimer of God’s word to each gathered community, not a curator of ancient records of once glorious days".

As I stumbled along on my third attempt to write a sermon this week, I came across that sentence. I was struggling to find the "hook" in the Scriptures that spoke to me, something that could turn into a sermon. I read a number of resources and they all gave me different ideas, which I tried to expand on, but it just wasn’t working. This is Trinity Sunday. The Scriptures all tell of different aspects of God’s love for us and yet, here I was, with nothing to say and Sunday getting closer all the time.

I think that phrase, "not a curator of ancient records of once glorious days" struck me because I once was just that – a museum curator. It was a school museum and I enjoyed stepping into the past to relive the days gone by with the old books, old photos and old lessons.

As we age, I find we tend to look with longing at those earlier days in our lives – days of simpler times that have been romantically enhanced in our memory.

But our Scriptures are not just a "walk down memory lane" or a record of past triumphs and trials. They are just as alive and as relevant to us today as they were when they were written thousands of years ago.

And the Scriptures on this Trinity Sunday speak to us of the majesty and awe of our God. One God in Three Persons.

The Trinity is not easy thing for us to understand. How can one be three? How can three be one? Why is it necessary for our God to have three faces? These, and many more, questions have been asked and will be asked again and again and human beings are unlikely to ever be able to solve the puzzle.

Barbara Brown Taylor, a gifted preacher, speaks of our human attempts to understand the Trinity as "like a bunch of oysters trying to describe a ballerina". She goes on, "We simply do not have the equipment to understand something so utterly beyond us, but that has never stopped us from trying."

We keep on trying, I think, because we really do want to understand the mystery that is God, even if it is beyond our ability to do so.

And so, in faith we trust. We trust that God is Three in One and One in Three. In wisdom we were created by God, and with wisdom – the wisdom of faith – we have been infused. God the Creator has made it so.

And God, the Son, our teacher and our redeemer came to the world after creation, when people were stumbling along and lost, to teach a new way to live. God, the Son, gave up his earthly life that we might know and love God as we are loved. And in wisdom and great love, when his time on earth was ending, Jesus, the Son, asked of God, the Creator, that an Advocate be sent to the world to help us and guide us after he has gone. And the God the Creator, responded to God, the Son and sent the Holy Spirit, God, the Advocate, to be our constant companion and guide through life.

I’m not sure that makes any kind of sense. I know it certainly doesn’t do justice to our God. Rather, it limits God, by placing God in human-designed categories.

I wonder why we even try to define the Trinity. Jesus said, "Believe in me". That should be enough for us.

To believe, we trust and trust comes through faith.

That is why our Scriptures are so much more than "ancient records of once glorious days". They are our record of faith, the record of God’s promises and God’s relationship to humankind.

Life today is not simple or easy – for us as individuals or for our church as an institution intent on being the body of Christ in the world. But we have Jesus’ promise of the Spirit. The Spirit is that aspect of God that spans the millennia, guiding us as it guided our ancestors and will guide our descendants.

"When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come."

The Spirit will not speak or act independently, but rather will glorify Christ and will reveal only that which comes from Christ and from God. We can always trust the Spirit.

It is a sad thing, but there is much in the world we cannot trust. There was a time when we could believe everything we read in the newspaper. Last week, however, I was waiting in line in the grocery story and read the following newspaper headline: "Human Baby Found on Mars" – with an accompanying photograph! Amazing, isn’t it! I wonder who took the photo.

We are bombarded on TV and in the print media with promises of:

• Lasting beauty
• Healthy and trim bodies
• Sure-fire methods to becoming a millionaire
• To say nothing of political promises that are unlikely to survive much beyond Election Day.

We can laugh at these things, cynically voicing our lack of trust in those who promise so much and deliver so little.

Yet, we mourn our loss – a loss almost of innocence – in this world of disinformation. And we know that many will be lured into believing the promises.

Those false promises are directed at encouraging a "me first" mentality. That’s not what God asks of us. Jesus taught us a different way – a way that seeks equality for all. There was no me-first, pushing-to-the-head-of-the-line in Christ’s teachings.

It is usually easy for us to weed out the blatantly false promises, but there are other, more subtle, untruths that can catch us unawares.
We think we just can’t live without the newest, the shiniest, the greatest …….. whatever….. even if we have to go into debt for it. We can find ourselves thinking more about what WE want than what God wants for us, partly because that is what advertising and the media tell us we should be doing, and partly because at some level we’ve come to believe that we are entitled to the biggest and the best. But possessions, power or prominence rarely satisfy us. We just seek more and more, and find ourselves less and less happy as a result.

And so we turn to Scripture seeking hope, and we are not disappointed. We find there Jesus’ promise that the Holy Spirit will guide and comfort us, lead us to truth. God’s truth.

It is up to us, though. The Spirit can only guide us if we ask for guidance. It can only comfort us when we turn to the Spirit for comfort. It is always with us, but it does not enter our lives until invited.

When we are tempted to cheat or tell untruths or abuse our positions of trust; when we make idols of wealth, power or celebrity; when that little voice tells us "Go ahead. No one will ever know", we can confront that false voice with God’s truth, the gift of the Spirit.

But the Spirit is so much more than our guide. It holds us accountable to God. It brings the presence of Christ into the community and guides us so that Christ’s way becomes our way.

This is what God requires of us – that Christ’s way is our way. And we are not left to our own devices. We have the Spirit to help us - ever and always.

It is an awesome mystery! We, humble, imperfect, stumbling humans have the gift and the guidance of God’s Spirit in our lives. With the help of the Spirit we CAN change our world. We – the church and its people – can bring hope to those who have none, food to the hungry, justice to the oppressed, faith to the lost and uninformed.

God’s spirit, working through us, can be a most powerful instrument of change.

Just imagine the possibilities of what could happen if we opened ourselves completely to the leading of the Spirit.

Awesome!

Let us pray:

Holy God, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, open our hearts and minds that we might be your instruments of faith, trust and justice in the world. Teach us discernment and humility, that we might always be your faithful servants ever true to Your Word and Your Guidance Amen