A Place at the Table

June 15, 2025

John 16:12-15

The Holy Trinity, the center of this Sunday’s celebration, is, I believe, one of the most counter-cultural Christian beliefs. To live in the information age is to be inundated with photos, stories, data, headlines, and so many words and claims, sometimes true and often not. If you resent how much effort it takes to be an informed citizen of this planet, you have the company of your bishop. But what’s more, there is very little room for either the supernatural or the unexplainable. And the Holy Trinity truly is both supernatural and unexplainable. It is mystery—perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of our faith.  

Somehow this mystery has not deterred Christians from naming institutions after the Trinity for years—colleges, seminaries, nursing homes, hospitals, and of course churches. I have never looked up the statistics, but I am quite sure that if we catalogued names of Lutheran congregations in this country, Trinity would come out on top or be a close second to Good Shepherd. 

Today’s celebration is counter cultural for another reason—it is about mutuality and interdependence—more traits that have little stature in the age of AI. Physician and author Gabor Mate speaks about the “toxic culture of materialism.” In the toxic culture of materialism, materials, and especially the possession of material things, is far more important than connection, love, or spiritual values. Chat GP may be able to help you generate a document or even start problem solving, but that output does not equal a relationship.

Mate reminds us that human beings, all of us, need relationships, all different kinds of relationships: relationships with the natural world, relationships with other human beings, relationships with meaningful and creative work that contributes to the good of the cosmos, and life-giving relationship with our own selves. We are naturally wired for empathy, compassion and connection but there are many barriers to us practicing those things today.

We, gathered in this space and time, have a clear mandate to love one another as Jesus loves us. And we worship a God who exemplifies community, mutual relationships, and a loving symbiosis. The community within the Trinity speaks to our lives here and now.  

Think how radical it was to those early Christians and also new followers of Jesus today. The God we worship is not a pantheon of gods like those we read about it Greek and Roman mythology—a roster of gods who are in a power struggle, who often use humans as pawns for their own benefit—Zeus, Athena, Helena, Apollo. 

One writer put it this way: Then, along came the Christians. “Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” What’s this? Still a Unity of Being, but also a Trinity of Persons? The concept was…confusing to those who had dispensed with multiple deities, who had fully embraced the notion of one God (monotheists), who wanted to keep things plain and simple. Why complicate things? And what does it mean anyway? 

The truth of it all originates in the language of Jesus. In our passage from John’s gospel today, Jesus is talking with his followers about their futures, when he will no longer walk beside them on earth: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. For all that the Father has is mine.” In another place Jesus declares, “Do you not know that the Father is in me and I in the Father?” Still elsewhere he prays that his disciples may be one “even as the Father and I are one.” This is the language of relationship, the language of mutual devotion. 

A twelfth-century scholar, [Richard of St. Vincent], spoke of God in terms of shared love, a community in which that love is expansive and generous. It is love that cannot be self-contained. It overflows from Parent to Child to Spirit and back again. This is captured not only in our passage from John, but in the creeds we pray as Lutheran Christians.

Seventeen hundred years ago, the first ecumenical council was convened in Nicaea to discern matters central to the Christian faith, namely: How do we understand Jesus Christ? The council sought to end disputes about the divine nature of Jesus

and his relationship to God. It was an attempt to unify all of Christendom. Naturally, debates arose, and different schools of thought emerged. In the end, near-consensus was reached — and later expanded in 381 — which resulted in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. Ever since, Christians have articulated the complexity of the faith in clear and simple terms.

So, this year we celebrate the God-given gift of our visible unity. We also celebrate the 1,700-year-old ecumenical movement that began with a common affirmation of our faith. Here in the Northwest Intermountain Synod, including Ellensburg, that ecumenism is lived out weekly through Lent and Advent shared evening prayer, community Vacation Bible Schools, ecumenical food ministries and so much more. 

This anniversary of Nicea also invites reflection and self-critique. A later addition to the creed called the “filioque” (“and the Son”) was made by the Latin [Western] Church in an attempt to resolve yet another dispute. The filioque has contributed to division between the Eastern Orthodox and Western churches for almost a millennium. But this enduring issue has been meaningfully addressed in a joint statement issued last year by a team of Lutheran and Orthodox Christians. As Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton wrote, “This fruit of 40-plus years of dialogue presents us with the opportunity to move toward healing age-old divisions within Christ’s church, both globally and in our own context.”

The joint Lutheran Orthodox statement explains: As part of the Latin tradition, the [16^th century] reformers inherited the Nicene Creed with the Filioque and did not consider it problematic. Valuing this old and most venerable ecumenical Christian text, we now suggest that the translation of the Greek original (without the Filioque) be used in the hope that this will contribute to the healing of age-old divisions between our communities and enable us to confess together the faith of the Ecumenical Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381).

Furthermore, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is a doctrinal statement used in the liturgy. The people of God pray the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and in that prayer their faith is shaped by the Triune God. Renewed focus on the original wording of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed may encourage renewed theological reflection on the Trinity and the role of the Holy Spirit.

Is the Creed still relevant?  Words matter. Just ask a parent whose kid repeats a swear word the parent hoped they had not overheard. Or ask a parent whose kid sings a camp song or piece of the liturgy over and over. We confess and worship a God who is not a pantheon, not a binary either or, not a hierarchical god, but a loving God whose relationality is intrinsic. 

Yes, for people who trust this Triune God, who choose to be followers of this God, there are real life implications. You are invited into the Trinity itself; sometimes called the dance of the Trinity. In the waters of baptism, at the table of bread and wine, in our singing and prayers, you encounter the Triune God. The same love that flows within the Trinity is received by you. Abundant love and life are yours. The Triune God says no to that toxic culture of materialism and yes to mutuality and interdependence and most of all to the love that only God can give. And you simply receive them. In the dance of the Trinity, you are ultimately free, free to love and free to be loved.