Trinity Sunday

A young woman went to her first show at an art gallery. She studied the paintings carefully. One was a huge black canvas with yellow blobs of paint splattered all over it. The next painting was a murky gray color that had drips of purple paint streaked across it. She walked over to the artist and said, “I don’t understand your paintings.”

“I paint what I feel inside me,” explained the artist.

She looked at the paintings once more and asked, “Have you ever tried Alka-Seltzer?”

Some of us may not understand modern art. Some of us may not understand some kinds of music. Opera, for example. Or some forms of rock music.

I understand that termites eat through wood two times faster when listening to rock music. I don’t know any particular significance to that. I just thought it was an interesting fact.

Yes, there are many things in life we do not understand. Today is Trinity Sunday, the day we celebrate a doctrine that none of us is capable of truly comprehending. “God in three persons, blessed Trinity . . .”

I believe it, but do I understand it? Not really.

Still, it’s important that we acknowledge this declaration of the church about God. God comes to us in three Persons. God is the Creator of all that lives and moves and has its being. God came to us in the person of Jesus Christ to redeem us from our sins. And God is present with us in the form of the Holy Spirit to comfort us, to encourage us, and to give us strength.

The Trinity reveals that God does not exist in some kind of individual isolation, but in a loving network of relationships. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Spirit, the Spirit loves the Father, and all are mutually supportive and interdependent. Within the family of God, there is always love and direction and meaning and purpose.

The same is true for us, once we are part of God’s family. When we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit, we become children of God, and this means that we can experience the deep love and strong connections constantly being experienced by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

It is that third part of God’s nature, the Holy Spirit, which is important in our Epistle today from Romans. And particularly how God’s Spirit delivers us from one of life’s most vexing problems, the problem of fear.

Paul writes, beginning with the fifteenth verse, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children . . .”

What is it that you are afraid of?

There was an article in the news sometime back about a young truck driver whose route takes him across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge every day. The thought entered this trucker’s mind that one day he just might feel compelled to stop his truck, climb out, and leap from the bridge to his death. There was no rational reason to hold such a belief, but that very fear took complete hold of him. He finally asked his wife to hand­cuff him to the steering wheel so he could be fully assured that his deepest fear would not come true.

We cannot know how many people allow secret fears to torment them or at least to keep them from being the fully productive persons they might be.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter wrote a book titled, Men and Women of the Corporation. Kanter tells a revealing story of a fabric company that made complicated woven materials. Yarn breakage during production was a long‑standing problem, adding to the cost and causing a competitive disadvantage. A new executive, who believed in opening the search for ideas and innovation to all employees, held a meeting to discuss the need for change. A veteran worker, who had joined the company as a young immigrant, tentatively suggested an idea for ending the breakage and it worked. When asked how long he had had that idea, the worker replied, “Thirty‑two years.”

Thirty-two years he sat on an idea that could save his employer money! Nobody had asked for his input before. More distressing, he had not had the courage before then to speak up.

Fear. How it drains us. How it defeats us.

Some people are afraid of loss of control. Others are afraid of failure. Some are haunted by the fear of being deserted. Some are worried about money. Some are concerned about their health. Everyone is afraid of something. What matters is how we deal with those fears. St. Paul writes, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear . . .” God’s desire is to relieve us of our fears. Now how is that done?

We defeat fear when we acknowledge our fear and seek to confront it. We cure no fear by constantly avoiding it.

Dr. Rachel Remen tells the story of her uncle, who was in World War II. He was a physician who was following the troops one day. Acting on false information, the soldiers pressed forward, believing the ridge on which they were advancing had been cleared of enemy fire. As they moved out of cover, the hidden enemy opened fire and within seconds the field was covered with wounded and dying men.

The enemy continued to blanket the area with live fire. No one could stand upright. It was more than twelve hours before an air strike could cripple the enemy position. Her uncle, crawling on his belly with supplies strapped to his back, placed tourniquets, stopped bleeding, took messages sometimes written on the back of worn photographs, and gave last rites. When the enemy finally pulled back it was clear that he had saved dozens of lives. He was decorated for this action and his picture was on the front page of the New York Daily Mir­ror.

Dr. Remen was seven years old when all this occurred, and she was frankly surprised that her uncle was so brave. Her uncle was short, balding, and wore glasses. He even had a little potbelly. Always a shy man, he seemed uncomfortable with all the fuss and uneasy as neigh­bor after neighbor came by to shake his hand.

Finally, young Rachel found her moment. Climbing into his lap, she told him how brave she thought he was and that she was sure he was never afraid of anything. Smil­ing, he told her that this was far from the case, that he had been more frightened than ever before in his life.

Severely disap­pointed, she blurted out, “But then why did they give you a medal?”

He gently explained to her that anyone who wasn’t afraid in situations like war was a fool, and they don’t give medals to people for being fools. Being brave does not mean being unafraid. It means being afraid and doing it anyway.

Her uncle was very wise. We never solve our fears by running away from them. If you’re afraid of speaking up in a group, if you’re afraid of trusting your instincts, if you’re afraid of taking a risk of any kind it won’t help to give into those fears. We deal with fear when we acknowledge and confront that fear.

That is where our faith is so important to us. We are not alone as we face up to our fears. God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is with us. Paul writes, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” It is so important that we know who we are. We are God’s children. We are brothers and sisters of Christ. We don’t go into any situation alone. That is the practical implication of the Holy Trinity. God created us. Christ saved us. The Holy Spirit is with us.

On a logical basis, why would anyone who truly believes in the resurrection of Christ fear anything? Death has been defeated. The worst that the world can throw at us, cannot destroy us. Christ is alive. Just as important, through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is with us, encouraging us, telling us that we matter to God, helping us confront every obstacle. The most complete victory that we can win over fear is to walk hand in hand with Jesus.

Jesus wants us to trust him. As you sit by the bedside of someone you love, you’re not alone. He is there. When you’re called to deal with the pressures of the workplace and you doubt your ability to cope, there is an Encourager there beside you who wants you to know you matter.

So fear not. And walk with confidence.