John 16:12-15
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
In the Name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, Amen
Some of you may have noticed by now, that I prefer to use Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer when I invoke the Trinity rather than Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
There’s something about naming God who is each and all of these things for us - Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.
All of these things gathered up together, each indistinguishable from the other, but, together signalling all that we might need or desire. God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.
Trinity Sunday is one of those days that provokes fierce debate on social media about how many heresies will be preached as preachers of all hues try to explain the Trinity.
Hopefully, I’m not going to get into that today - though who knows?
This week, I want to share something I heard recently on Ru Paul’s Drag Race - “ we are all born naked - all the rest is drag.”
Although I’ve heard that a few times - Ru Paul’s Drag Race is my go-to for some light relief - that phrase hit me between the eyes this week as I’ve been focusing on how we might celebrate the Trinity.
Because one of the things I am drawn to again and again, is the messiness of God.
God, who from the dawn of creation refused to go for either or, refused to conform to the binaries in which we often try to confine things - instead, creating a spectrum, a rainbow, if you will, of multiple possibilities.
In creation, light doesn’t suddenly become dark, there is a whole spectrum in between.
When we look out at the loch here, land merges into sea that merges into the horizon - with no firm lines where one ends and the other begins.
I don’t believe God subscribes much to the either/or, or the in/out that we humans are so fond of.
God smudges the lines that we so carefully draw - again and again, sweeping all of creation up into love.
“We are all born naked - all the rest is drag”.
As creations of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, God has already decreed us beloved.
God delights in us, however we choose to display or to mask our identities.
God delights in all the diversity and colour that we add to the palette of creation.
And God delights when we colour outside of the lines that some use to try and restrict or confine the wonderful spectrum of Creation.
No wonder Jesus said “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now”.
Making sense of the machinations of God - who, among other things, is Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer is beyond our binary logic.
And so, rather than try and explain the mystery of the Trinity today, I want to invite you to allow yourself to be caught up in it.
To be caught up in the swirl of God’s love.
Love that does not exclude.
Love that is not withheld from any because of who or what they are, or of how they self identify.
Love that encompasses the whole spectrum of life.
Love that is God’s invitation to you and to me to know ourselves perfectly created whoever we are, however we identify.
Perfectly created to be Co-creators with God, contributing to the messy and wonderful canvas that God continues to paint, everyday revealing new ways of understanding the depths and the mysteries of love.
Every day helping us come closer to knowing that WE are God’s delight.
May we find our identity in the love of God and knowing that God loves and accepts us, may we love and accept others.
In the name of that messy technicolour God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer
Amen
