Today is Trinity Sunday--which, as I enjoy pointing out in sermons on this day, is the only Sunday in the church year that is devoted to the celebration of a theological doctrine. Every other day in the church calendar is devoted to an event in the life of Jesus--like Christmas or Easter--or to a moment in the history of the church--like Pentecost--or to a symbol of faith--like Good Shepherd Sunday or Christ the King Sunday. But today is the only day in the entire church year that is devoted to the celebration of a doctrine, a teaching, a theological idea--and for those who enjoy theology (and there are a few of us around!) that makes today a very special day indeed.

But of course the Trinity is more than just an idea. It is more than an abstract intellectual formulation, with which we can play logic games or quibble about nuances of definition. It is an idea which is meant to name an experience; it is a teaching which is meant to help guide us into deeper and fuller and richer spiritual communion with God.

That aspect of the doctrine of the Trinity runs all through today's Gospel reading from John. Jesus says to his disciples: I am leaving you, to go into heaven in eternal glory; but I will not leave you without strength and comfort; I will send you the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, who will take everything that is true about me and will make it true about you, too. There is much truth that I still want to share with you, Jesus says, but your minds and your hearts and your spirits aren't yet big enough, you haven't yet grown enough, to comprehend the fullness of God I want you to experience. When the Spirit comes, Jesus says, the Spirit will grow your minds and hearts and spirits, the Spirit will empower you to comprehend more of God, the Spirit will guide you into all the truth that is the fullness of God's Word for you. Everything that is true of God is true of me, Jesus says, and everything that is true of me, the Spirit will make true of you, also.

That is the dynamic work of the Trinity in our lives; that is the three-part relationship of love and creativity into which we are invited by grace: the Spirit forms in us the living Word of Christ, and the Word of Christ is the self-expression of the Creator God. The Spirit whom Jesus sends to dwell in us draws us into the heart of the Trinity, into the triple exchange of love that is the source of everything. That's what makes the Trinity so much more than just an abstract theological doctrine--that's why the Trinity is a transformational truth that changes us, and opens our lives up to sharing a divine life that is higher and deeper and broader and more alive than any life we would know simply on our own. As the Spirit grows us to comprehend more of God's truth, so we become alive with more of God's life.

That's exactly what Paul is talking about in our passage from Romans today. Because Jesus has come to us, because Jesus has brought together in his person both the human and the divine, and because we now stand with Jesus, therefore, Paul says, we have peace with God and access to grace--therefore we are open to living in the larger life of God. And because Jesus has opened that way, the Spirit now pours into our hearts the love of God, and in the power of that love, in the power of that inspiration, we grow. By the Spirit's inspiration we can see, we can know, we can respond to the new possibilities that God creates for our lives, new possibilities that are there for us in all kinds of our experiences--even our difficult and challenging experiences--even our sufferings. That's what Paul means when he says "suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us"--even our sufferings, even our difficulties, even our challenges, contain the promise of new possibilities which can lead us to grow in endurance and character and hope, new possibilities which can lead us to grow into the very life of God. The Spirit draws us closer to Jesus, who opens the way for us to God--that is the dynamic work of the Trinity, transforming our lives in divine life.

But if the dynamic work of the Trinity transforms us in divine life, it also works through us to reveal divine life in our world. The dynamic work of the Trinity in us releases creativity, and helps us to become co-creators with God of God's preferred and promised world.

And we see that in today's reading from Proverbs. In this passage, Lady Wisdom speaks out, she calls to people--all people, everywhere--and invites them to come to her and be wise. She explains that her wisdom participates in the very nature of God, that she herself is of God, that she has always been with God, and she has been God's primary agency, God's "master craftsman," in creating the entire universe. God's creativity is expressed and made concrete through God's Wisdom, so Wisdom is written into everything that exists. But Wisdom does not just belong to God, and Wisdom is not just writ large in the cosmos; Wisdom also shares herself with human beings. To learn from Lady Wisdom is to learn the nature of God. In another passage, from the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, it even says that in every generation, Wisdom enters into holy souls and makes them friends of God. And when Wisdom enters into holy souls, when Wisdom teaches us the ways of God, when Wisdom delights in us inhabitants of the world, then Wisdom makes us partners in creation, co-creators with God of the way God wants the world to be.

And of course it is hard for us Christians to read this passage from Jewish scripture and not see in it clear connections to what the New Testament says about Jesus. In fact, over the last couple of decades several Bible scholars have suggested that the figure of Lady Wisdom was very much in John's mind when he wrote the prologue to his gospel--that when John used the Greek word "logos"or "word" he was thinking the Hebrew word "hokmah" or "wisdom." Some have suggested we would not be too far off the mark if we were to reread the opening of John's Gospel like this: "In the beginning was Wisdom, and Wisdom was with God, and Wisdom was God. All things were made with Wisdom, and without Wisdom, not a single thing was made. And Wisdom became flesh and dwelt among us. And all who received Wisdom were given power to become children of God." I know to many of us it may seem very radical to reread John in this way; but I think we can learn a lot by thinking of Jesus as the Wisdom of God incarnate for us.

And if we think of Jesus in that way, and then go back and read the Proverbs passage with that in mind, I think what it says to us is that when we come to Jesus, when God calls us to Jesus, when the Holy Spirit forms in us the mind of Jesus--then we are filled with Holy Wisdom, then we become agents of God's creativity, then we become co-creators with God, just as Jesus is, working with God to create in the world new possibilities for justice and peace and compassion and love and reconciliation and joy. In 2 Corinthians Paul even puts it this way: "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation"--and Holy Wisdom, incarnate in Christ, poured into our hearts by the Spirit, makes us a new creation and empowers us to share God's new creativity with the world all around us. And that too is the dynamic work of the Trinity in us.

And how we reveal the dynamic work of the Trinity is our mission as a church. Our belief in the Trinity and our work in the world are not two separate things--but we proclaim Good News and seek and serve Christ in all persons and strive for justice and peace precisely because the Trinity is at work in us, precisely because the Spirit fills us with Wisdom to be partners with the Creator. We here at St George's live our mission as we listen, proclaim, serve, and celebrate; we gather for worship, and watch over each other in pastoral care, and give of our resources for outreach in the community; we have Vestry meetings, and prayer groups, and Theology and a Pint sessions, and Sunday School for children and grownups; we get involved with community issues, and wrestle with ethical questions, and ask ourselves "How will this help us grow?", and build up shared leadership that allows all of us to bring our creativity to church--we at St George's do all these things to live out our mission, and we do them precisely because the Trinity is at work in us, precisely because the Spirit pours into our hearts the love of God that has been revealed and embodied in Jesus.

And that is what makes the Trinity more than just an abstract idea, more than just an obscure doctrine. That is why the Good News about the Trinity is something we live, something we act out of, something that empowers us and makes our lives more lively. The Good News for us this Trinity Sunday is that the Spirit gives us Wisdom to be partners with the Creator, for ourselves and for our church and for our world. And for that Good News, for that Trinitarian gift, let us today give God the Trinity all our thanks and all our praise. Amen.