One

Rublev's "Troista" an icon of the hospitality of Abraham and an image of the Trinity.

This sermon was preached at St. John's Church in Decatur, AL and was inspired by the following passages:

Acts 11:19–26
John 10:22–30

The Church provides us with many prayers featuring the words “One God.” In this Public Service of Healing our opening collect utilized those words: “Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” Christians are monotheists—duh—but, for people who believe in a singular God we seem to have to remind ourselves of this quite often. Why is that?

In John’s Gospel account, Jesus points to an answer quite often. Jesus claims over and over again that he and the Father are one. Abba, God the Father, and Jesus are one. The early Church struggled to articulate this mysterious relationship further. How are Jesus and the Father one? In what ways can this fully human Jesus be united fully with his divine Father? There is not an easy answer, right?

Recently on the Second Sunday of Easter we heard of Jesus breathing the Holy Spirit upon his followers. This can be confusing as Luke dates this story fifty days after Easter and John gives that event an Easter evening setting. Regardless of when it happened—and honestly with something as mysterious as the Spirit, is there only one moment?—this gifting of the Spirit provides a crucial missing piece. Through the Spirit we catch a bit more understanding as to why Jesus asserts that the Father and he are one.

Through the unification and sanctification of the Spirit Jesus eternally connects with the Father. The Father and the Son are united in Spirit. Beautiful. Great. But, what about us? I know perhaps this is a self-centered question. With God reigning as a unified community of three-in-one are we not superfluous? Well, Jesus seems to think not.

Jesus is the Shepherd. We are the sheep. A shepherd is not a shepherd without sheep.
Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. A vine does not produce fruit without the branches.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We are the ones who walk, believe, and live that out. The way, the truth, and the life calls others into treading, abiding, and existing.

I know, I know. This could verge into heresy. God does not need us. God exists eternally. God in the community of the Trinity persists forever. Even long after we have died out as a species, God will be. We are not needed. We are extra in this whole thing. And yet, God yearns to draw us into community, into life, into salvation. We become complete when we are one with God, just as Jesus and the Father are one.

There is no good analogy for the life of the Trinity. Always our words fall short of fully articulating who God is. This may be seen as a deficit; however, I believe it is gift. At some point we cannot articulate our God and the part we play in the life of God.

Is it lover, beloved, and love shared? Is it Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer? Is it Father, Son, and Spirit? Is it a dance? Is it love? Is it life itself? I do not know how to articulate it. Rather, I believe our call is to live it out.

When I was in seminary I used to go over to my friend C.J.’s house. He and his wife Becca were exceedingly kind to me. Often cooking me dinner, while we watched soccer or football together. It was a healing balm especially in a challenging time. One thing I often remembered the two of them saying was “One flesh,” which is a line from the Blessing of a Marriage. They were pointing to their belief that something had happened in their marriage and they were now one flesh, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, until they are parted by death.

I had a hard time understanding this concept of one flesh as a single man. Like I have a hard time understanding what it is like for Jesus to be one with the Father. And, like I do not get how we are called to be unified with Christ as his sheep, as his branches, as the ones walking, believing, and living the way, the truth, and the life. When I got married and started living as one mystically unified through the sacramental rite of marriage I began to understand the phrase one flesh better. And, I think that is what we are called to do to understand the life of our One God.

The inner life of God who is Father, Son, and Spirit gets revealed to us humans rarely, if ever at all. Still, God does beckon us to be part of the Divine Life. More than understanding this, we are called to live it—to dwell in Christ, to live life in Christ.

So as we hear of being God’s sheep, being the branches of Jesus’ vine, may our minds not get in the way of ourselves, souls, and bodies living the Divine Life.