Sermons (Page 119)

Contrary to popular belief, the word of the day is not “summer.” Rather, today’s word is “Trinity,” for Holy Trinity Sunday. What do we mean by Trinity? The most common Trinitarian formula is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One of my favorite Trinitarian formulas from St. Augustine is the lover, the beloved, and the love. Yet, as one colleague puts it, “The Trinity is not a doctrine to which we subscribe because it describes God … The Trinity is, instead, a description of the experience of the church.”…

This is one of my favorite Sundays of the year. It’s Pentecost! Today we get to use big words like pneumatology, and we’re decked out in red. We also hear a variety of images to help us understand the Holy Spirit, including water, wind, and fire. That combination reminds me of when the planeteers summoned Captain Planet. If you’re not familiar with the show Captain Planet, it focuses on five children, one from each continent, who were given rings that harnessed the power of earth, fire, wind, water, and heart. These rings were given to them by Gaia, the spirit of the planet. When they needed help fighting eco-villians, they’d combine their powers and then Captain Planet would help…