There is a Story in Genesis Chapter 18 where three angels appear to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre - three figures and yet later in the Story they are voice of the One God. Christians later took this as an Old Testament Image of the Trinity. The famous Russian artist Rublev painted an icon of the Trinity based on this Story.
Each of the figures represents a person of the Trinity. They are each robed in blue - a heavenly colour. But they are each robed differently. The face of each angel is identical to indicate the unity of God. But the rest of their clothing is distinct to represent the 3 persons.
On the left we have God the Father. On top of his blue robe is a slightly shimmery robe. He is in a sense hidden from us. We know him through Jesus and the Spirit. Their eyes point to him. This is God in his transcendence. God who flung stars into space. As we heard in our reading from Isaiah -
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure,
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?(Isaiah 40:12)
There is a video you may have seen that shows how tiny we are in the universe that God created
[picture starts with a woman’s face and gradually zooms out to show her park, her city, her country, the world, the solar system, the nearby stars, the galaxy, the other local galaxies and the whole universe - before zooming back in through all of these to the woman, to her cells to the structure of the cells to the atoms to the amazing complexity of the subatomic structure]
Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as dust on the scales;
see, he takes up the isles like fine dust.
The forests of Lebanon would not provide fuel enough,
nor are its animals enough for a burnt-offering.
All the nations are as nothing before him;
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness…. (Isaiah 40:15-17)
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure,
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?(Isaiah 40:12)
Flick back to picture of icon - This is God who created everything - He sits in front of the house - God on his throne in heaven - yet one day he promises to welcome us home.
Because through Jesus you and I- little old you and I - can have a relationship with the creator of the universe.
Looking towards God the Father is the middle figure. As well as the blue robes representing divinity he wears a robe of earthy brown - he God became a human being. He sits under a tree. In the story in Genesis the angels met Abraham at the Oak of Mamre. So in one sense this is that Oak. But in another sense it is the tree of life.
You remember how in church we turn our Christmas tree into a bare cross for Lent and then at Easter we cover it in flower - the tree of new life. This is not just our symbolism. The tree of life in Genesis becomes the cross - both the tree of death on which Jesus hangs but also the tree of new life through which you and I are given eternal life.
If our Isaiah reading focuses on creation, our reading from Matthew focuses on the new creation that begins with the resurrection of Jesus.
The disciples meet the risen Jesus -
"Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’" Matthew 28:16-20
So the middle figure in the icon sits beneath the tree of life. Over his shoulder you see he wears a stole like I do and Mother Patty does in church. Jesus is as the book of Hebrews puts it - our great high priest.
Hebrews 4:14-16 - "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin. "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.…
Jesus is the priest who has taken away our sins by his sacrifice on the tree of life. But the stole also represents a towel. On the night before he died, Jesus washed his disciples feet.
Many people picture God as the great Sultan in the sky - a distant mighty figure. How can God allow suffering? How can God allow tens of thousands of people around the world to have their lives cut short by Corona Virus? How can God let this happen with loved ones not even having the chance to say goodbye? How could God let a black man in America be murdered by a Police Officer and do nothing about it?
What is God’s answer to these difficult questions?
This is God’s answer to those questions -
[Flick to a picture of Jesus on the cross.]
Yes God allows us free will.
Yes we live in a world broken by the fall where there is sickness and disease.
Yes we have free will where people - even people given great trust like police officers can sometimes do terrible things.
Yes even we ourselves are not as innocent in our hearts as we like to pretend.
But what does God do about it?
Does he take away our freedom by stepping in? Or does he sit back and do nothing like someone who doesn’t care?
No - God becomes a human being and takes the consequences of our sin on himself on the cross.
And then the third person of the Trinity The Holy Spirit. He sits beneath a mountain - representing spiritual ascent - the Spirit lifts us into the presence of God. He wears blue the colour of divinity. He also wears green, the colour of plants, the colour of life. He is - as the creed puts it “the Lord the Giver of life”.
That’s the next amazing thing about the Trinity. God is not the distant Sultan in the sky. FIrst came as a human being living among us, dying for us. Now God comes and lives in our hearts bringing us new life.
And the three angels sit around a table with a cup in the centre. Well the angels did share food with Abraham at the Oak of Mamre. But it is more than that.
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
The Trinity is God in community. In human beings our love is never perfect. Sinfulness always creates barriers that divide. But in the godhead the love is so perfect that all the barriers crumble and the three persons are totally united as one.
And they sit around a table which if you notice has space for one more. The person looking at the icon is drawn into the fourth side of the table. We are drawn into community with God.
“Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace;”
We are called into community with God and through that into community with one another.
As Jesus prayed at the last supper - “May they all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us…” John 17.21
The Trinity is the model of how we are meant to live as Christians. If we are argue or squabble as Christians. If we fail to be loving to one another. If we fail to be there for one another. If we fail to support one another. Then we fail to model the Trinity.
Being a Christian is not about an individual relationship with God. It is about a personal relationship with God, an intimate relationship with God. But not an individual individualistic one . We are called to community.
One of the sad things about Corona Virus is we can’t share the peace one another. That’s not just a fuzzy wuzzy thing for hippy dippy Christians. And traditionally it is not a handshake either - “the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.”
In the middle ages - somehow it became something only priests and servers did. At the reformation the Reformers didn’t like things only the priests did - so it got cut from worship. Only in the 20th century - in India initially - did it get restored to Christian worship. But it was there in the earliest worship. “the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.”
Why - not just because hugs and kisses are nice - because community is at the heart of Christianity - “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
The table around which the angels sit is designed to look like an altar. That’s deliberate. Because in the mass, we are drawn into table fellowship with God and we are drawn into table fellowship with one another.
And finally - just God the Trinity overflows into love for us, so we are called to overflow into love for others.
To finish that prayer of Jesus at the last supper -
“May they all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
John 17:21-23
After his resurrection Jesus gathered his disciples on the mountain - “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”
We go - and yet we are not left on our own, because Jesus goes with us. And as Jesus came to earth to call us into community with God, so we cannot help but share that love with others.
The great commandment and the great commission. If we love our neighbour we can’t help but share God’s love with others.
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