Let your God love you

Matthew 28:16-20

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

Credit: Rev Cécile Schnyder (used with permission)

The phrase "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" can be both a logical puzzle and something we take for granted. We create analogies of increasing complexity to explain how three persons can exist as one divine being, which are inevitably both incomplete and imperfect in many ways, but often get used as sermon illustrations. I can remember being in a primary school assembly in which the priest got three children to hold the flames of lit candles together to make 'one flame': while that analogy sticks in my mind for some reason, I'm not really sure what I learned about the Trinity!

On the other hand, we very often describe God as Trinity during our prayers, without even thinking about it. The Trinity features in the Grace, in the sign of the cross and in the structure of our creeds, or statements of faith - when we're trying to outline who the God that we believe in actually is. Here we might describe God in turn as the Father or Creator of all things, Jesus Christ as the Son or Liberator or Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit as Giver of Life or Sustainer. And that's not an exhaustive list by any means - I wonder whether you have any other images of God in mind, or whether any of the images I've mentioned make you feel uncomfortable.

In saying that God is three persons, I think we highlight not so much the persons themselves as the relationships between them - we put relationship at the very heart of who God is. At the heart of God is three persons looking at each other in love. This is a beautiful model for our common life together, but more than that, these relationships are the ground of our being - the source of the overflowing love of God into our world. It is from this love that we are able to live fully, as our true selves.

So, these relationships of love - which have existed since the beginning of time - have been described in our past in the Scriptures but also form the pattern and source of life in the present, and our hope for the future. This is shown in the words at the end of the Nicene Creed: 

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.

Flowing from the loving relationships of the Trinity is the Church, the community of Christians which is both universal ('catholic') and sent out into the world to proclaim the Good News ('apostolic'). We are united as the Church by a common baptism in the name of the Trinity, as described in our reading today. But we also look expectantly into the future for what will flow from God's love: the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

In these things which flow out from the Trinity, I think there is an important link between the Church, united by baptism, and the future towards which we look and which we long for: the forgiveness of sins. Along with our baptism comes a commitment to changing our ways, a turning away from the sins of our past which are forgiven. The Greek word often used to describe this process is μετάνοια (metanoia), which means 'conversion', a transformative change of heart.

It is sometimes very easy to feel as if, having confessed our belief in God, been baptized and become part of the Church, all that remains is for us to await the future coming of the kingdom of God. But I think that our life in the Church which flows out of the love of God is marked by metanoia, by a continued changing of our mind, a turning of our whole selves back to God. We make this pledge to conversion of life initially at our baptism, but then we regularly renew these promises, often at Easter or when others in our community are baptized. In our lives as Christians, there is therefore a continued ebb and flow of metanoia and forgiveness, from the grace of God in loving relationship as Trinity.

The need for metanoia feels particularly acute in our world today, when protests against racism and police brutality are ongoing in the US and the UK after the brutal murder of George Floyd, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disproportionately affect marginalized groups, including BAME and single parent families, protests continue in Hong Kong against Chinese security laws and continued deforestation of the Amazon rainforest increases the risks of catastrophic global overheating.

The list above is by no means exhaustive, nor is such a complex, toxic interplay of different kinds of injustice unique to our time. However, our alertness to the urgency and magnitude of these issues makes this for me a time of revelation: of both the grim realities of our world, and the need for conversion. Now more than ever before, we know that the world needs to change and that we need to change. We look forward into the future at a time when things seem so uncertain: what will our common life look like even weeks from now?

The mystery of the Trinity gives us courage in the face of this uncertainty, as it reveals to us that our lives in God are dynamic. Life in the Spirit does not depend on the securities of the past continuing into the future, but is a continued metanoia, a process of being called back into the loving relationships of God within which we live and move and have our being. These are the relationships of love into which we have been baptized, in which we celebrate our life together as Church on earth. These are also the relationships from which we are sent out into the world, to bring good news to the poor, to set prisoners free and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour. 

So we are drawn into the love of the Trinity, and we are also sent out from it to live as Christ's disciples. But we must also allow ourselves to remain within the love of the Trinity - to let God love us, to let the Spirit of God fill us and transform both our lives and the lives of others. This time of the liturgical year, between Trinity Sunday and Creationtide (or the first Sunday of Advent) is a time when we often think about the Church and its mission: the importance of going out into the world filled with God's love. But for this to happen, letting ourselves be loved by God is essential. These words of Edwina Gateley capture for me this beautiful experience of allowing God's love in, which is at the heart of the metanoia that we so desperately need, at the heart of our baptism and at the heart of the overflowing love of the Trinity.

Be silent.
Be still.
Alone.
Empty
Before your God.
Say nothing.
Ask nothing.
Be silent.
Be still.
Let your God look upon you.
That is all.
God knows.
God understands.
God loves you
With an enormous love,
And only wants
To look upon you
With that love.
Quiet.
Still.
Be.

Let your God—
Love you.