Sermon: "Trinity's Call"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

Last weekend I returned to the town where I grew up - Fayetteville, North Carolina. And I helped dedicate a new building at the church in which I was baptized and confirmed many years ago. On this visit, I experienced once again - as I always do - a variety of identities by which people know me in my hometown. That is, there are some of my parents' contemporaries, who knew me as Sunday School student, or an acolyte, or a boy who sometimes needed correction or, at least, direction. Then, there are old friends and classmates of mine, who shared experiences of childhood and teenage years and other things of which I will not speak this morning. Finally, there are those who have known me only as an adult - a former member of St. John's who left and became a priest and, now, a bishop. Thus, in the reception following the church service on Sunday, I stood there as a kind of collection of identities … in a sense, several different people - but, at the same time, all me.

This is not an experience unique to me. Indeed, each one of us is known differently by different people, at different times, in different places. For instance, as a student or a family member or a co-worker, we are known somewhat differently because of various expectations or requirements of the roles we fulfill. We are - each one of us - several different people, and somehow or another, the sum total of those different people defines who we really are.

So also it is with God. We know God as three persons … and yet, as one God. That's the doctrine of the Trinity on which we focus today - three in one, trinity of persons but unity of substance.

In particular, we read today of God the Father - the Creator - in our first lesson. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1:1). Thus opens the story of creation, which was accomplished by the action of God.

We also read today of Jesus, God the Son, who lived and died and rose again. This person of God showed by his life the pattern for all human life, lived in relationship to God.

Finally, we read on this Trinity Sunday of the Holy Spirit, the third person of God. This Spirit is the power of God in our midst, even now, even after Jesus' ascension. As our Lord said, "Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age"(Matt 28:20). It is in and through the Holy Spirit of God that Jesus continues to be with us.

Therefore, the focus of Trinity Sunday appropriately is on God - the three persons of God … the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Those persons provide us with ways to know God. As we look at God, though, invariably we discover new perspectives on ourselves and on our own lives. Our relationship with God does indeed call us to reconsider ourselves and the ways we live relative to God.

For instance, accepting responsibility for our words and actions is a primary issue in our world today. And, it seems to me, this is an issue that never goes away, whether we are young children or older adults. As parts of the created order of things, we need to be mindful of our place in God's creation and of appropriate ways to live within that order. Thus, for our lives, the issue of responsibility surely takes a prominent place.

Leaders of nations, Christians who are baptized and confirmed, citizens of communities, members of families - all of us deal regularly with the fact that what we say and what we do has consequences. Therefore, surely, our accepting responsibility for our own lives is central for us as human beings and as ones who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.

Further, as members of the Church, we are parts of a larger whole - what St. Paul called the Body of Christ. Our responsibility is to perform functions that can benefit the entire body, using our gifts and talents for the good of the whole. Such an understanding is fundamental to a healthy and responsible Christian life lived in relation to God. We do have responsibilities for the body by virtue of membership within the body. Our lives - our actions, our words and deeds - do have consequences for which we do have responsibility.

Therefore, today - on Trinity Sunday, on this day of Confirmation and renewal of our Baptismal Covenant with God - today, I challenge you to find your place of responsibility - at St. Thaddeus, in the larger church, in the world. Claim that responsibility. Listen to the promises we will make in a few minutes as we renew our Covenant with God, and claim your response to that Covenant.

Any body functions best when all its members are in working order and when each accomplishes the responsibility with which it is entrusted. That is true also in the Body of Christ, the Church. As baptized Christians, as confirmed Episcopalians, as the community of St. Thaddeus, as members of the larger Church, we do have responsibilities. Our Lord Jesus Christ commissions us to accomplish great things in his name. "Go and make disciples of all nations" (Matt 28:19), he says. May we therefore accept our responsibilities as people created by God the Father, guided by God the Son, and empowered by God the Holy Spirit, now and always!

Copyright © 2002 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee