"Trinitarian Freedom" - Sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday

Trinitarian Freedom
Holy Trinity Sunday
May 26, 2013
Galatians 5.1, 13-25

For freedom, Christ has set us free. … [O]nly do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. … Live by the Spirit ….

Today is Trinity Sunday, the official kick-off to the long, green season of Pentecost, a time when we focus on what it means to live the Christian life. Trinity Sunday is also only festival devoted to a doctrine rather than a person or event. No, this will not be “one of those” sermons, but it’s important to acknowledge that the Trinity is one way that we have tried to understand who God is and what God is up to in our world. In this case, we have long wrestled with how one God can be three persons or conversely how three persons can be one God.

Those approaching from the former aspect understand that our God is a sending God. God the Father sends Jesus the Son and both send the Holy Spirit, the sending action meant to heal the broken relationship between God and creation. The triune God calls and sends us to participate in this restoration process, which brings us to those who think about how three can be one. They understand that our God is also a social God. The three persons act with unity of purpose even as they retain their distinctiveness, and God is at heart a relational God who is intimately involved in creation, who invites us to participate in the work to love the world. God is both a sending God and a social God.

In his letter to the churches of Galatia (modern day Turkey), Paul reminds them about the saving work of the triune God, that they have been set free through the work of Jesus Christ sent by God the Father. It is not necessary that the Galatians submit to the marks of the Jewish faith or requirements of the law. Having made his point, Paul now reminds the Galatians that liberty doesn’t mean license. In our freedom we are given a choice of two different ways to live: we can live focused on our self at the expense of others, or we can live by the Spirit in love and service to others.

Paul addresses head on what we know all too well: we don’t always handle our freedom very well, like a dog finally let off its leash, running around in circles, not knowing what to do first, then getting in trouble. In the 1960s there were some (in)famous experiments at Yale by psychologist Stanley Milgram. In the wake of the Nazi war trials, he wanted to see how people responded to authority. In the experiment, the experimenter would give the subjects permission to shock another subject with increasing voltage. Although no shocks were actually given, experimenters found that the subjects would do so at alarming levels, even though many were uncomfortable doing so.

Freedom lived in the works of the flesh is illusory because it is really another form of slavery. By the way, if you don’t see your vice of choice on the list you aren’t off the hook. The list is not exhaustive, it is representative. In any case, true freedom is lived by willingly serving others through love. It is a life that God not only calls us to live but also makes possible through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. There may be situations where we don’t know exactly what love demands of us, but there is never a situation where love is to be set aside. God invites us to be led by the Spirit in all we do.

As we think about the triune God’s call to loving service, I can’t help but think about those that answered our country’s call to give themselves away so that we might be free to give ourselves away. I also think about those who, in Oklahoma offered up their lives by using their bodies as a shield to save those under their care. For freedom Christ has set us free, sending us into a world that is full of brokenness and despair, to participate in its healing and to proclaim a word of hope. Thank you, my sisters and brothers in Christ, for answering that call. May God produce abundant fruit in you as you are led by the Spirit. Amen.