Sermon Notes: 06.15.25 The Holy Trinity Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

Sun. Light. Heat.

To whom do you pray?

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Last week was Pentecost and we talked about the three major church holidays: Christmas-God with us; Easter-God for us; and Pentecost-God in us. I also mentioned that we could look at those holy days in three ways: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We explored the three P’s of Pentecost: Promise, Presence, and Power.

Last week’s message flows beautifully into this week, which is The Holy Trinity Sunday. So, I thought that this week I’d add another P word to our list. That word is Purpose.

One purpose to explore is how this triune God impacts us directly. In Proverbs 8, wisdom is crying out for us to hear. Wisdom is portrayed as a woman -- as God’s creation and as God’s helper. (God the Father)

In Romans, we find God’s love being poured into our hearts, thanks to God in Christ. (God the Son)

Then in today’s gospel from John 16, there is the promise of the Spirit who will guide us. The Trinity (while it may seem like an abstract concept) is living and acting and interacting with us on a daily basis.

And that takes us back to the word Purpose. The purpose of celebrating The Holy Trinity isn’t just to confuse us.

Jesus promises that the Spirit will come and guide the disciples into truth. That there are some things that they have more to learn. That the disciples – those who have spent so much time with Jesus – do not have all the answers. All of that means that the Christian community then – and now! – continues to be dependent, dependent on the Spirit and dependent on each other, because the Spirit so often speaks to us through the person and words of those around us. Purpose - helps us understand that we need each other!

And perhaps another purpose for being part of a Trinitarian community is understanding that we don’t have easy answers…we must continue to learn, and grow, and have conversations.

Another purpose (in the passage from Romans) is to remind us that thanks to the Trinity, we can endure anything. And not just endure but grow stronger and find hope.

It’s a reminder that God accepts us as we are — not because of who we are or what we’ve done. God accepts us because that’s who God is and what God does.

When we understand this, we can extend that same grace, mercy, and acceptance to those around us.

Perhaps the main purpose in being a community of faith who claims the Trinity is to be a community that looks outward rather than inward or even upward.

Outward…not inward — we are not called to survive, but to be examples of the peace of God in Christ that responds to the needs of our neighbors.

Outward…not upward — God doesn’t need our good works, our neighbor does. In a sense, God in Christ takes care of the “vertical” dimension of our life – our relationship with God – so that we can concentrate on the “horizontal” dimensions of our life with those around us.

When we turn our eyes outward (with the help of the Holy Spirit) and extend the peace of God that allows us to transform suffering – ours and that of others – into endurance, character, and hope, the Spirit of Christ is surely present.

Promise, Presence, Power, and now Purpose. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One in three. Three in one. Working together in each of us so that we can share that Promise, Presence, Power, and Purpose with others.

Amen.