R 815 … you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. 16… that very Spirit [bears] witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Paul’s saying we’re adopted into God’s family as God’s children!
We’re more complete as human beings when we belong in community—when we belong in a family or a group of friends. I know that when I’m home alone, and trying to summon up interest in cooking something. I like cooking, but there seems no point if it’s not for sharing. I’m comfortable with my own company, but it doesn’t hold a candle to belonging.
Of course I know that, compared with someone who’s lost their partner or close family member or friend, these moments when I’m at a loose end are nothing. But these times are enough to tell me that belonging in community is at the heart of my being fully a person. Why might that be so? I think it might be something to do with the way we’re made: we’re meant to be like God.
Back in Genesis 1.26, we read: 26a …God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. Well, what’s God’s image and likeness like? What are we really meant to be like? Today, on Trinity Sunday, we think about this very question. Our focus is on God the Most Holy Trinity—three persons, yet one God—God in community.
It’s a baffling and complex mystery, this three-in-one and one-in-three character of God. But at its most straightforward level, we can say that God whom we worship—God, in whose image and likeness we are made—God is a community.
The community that is our God is a one of beautiful harmony. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have been revealed to us as completely one in their love—loving each other and loving all creatures.
That love is why Theology teachers won’t let us replace the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with alternatives like Creator, Redeemer & Sanctifier or Creator, Liberator & Sustainer because that’s not a loving community—there’s no relationship. Calling God Creator, Redeemer & Sanctifier or Creator, Liberator & Sustainer is like saying God the Trinity is three engines, each for different jobs, that just happen to co-operate.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; a community of love who co-operate so closely that we can’t say who does what. Their love is so close that we can only comprehend what comes from God as coming from loving community. cf the key of C being hidden in each note, C E G, and while present in each note, yet only revealed in the chord.
But what does all this have to do with us? God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness. And Paul wrote that we have received a spirit of adoption. … that very Spirit [bears] witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And here we are; a community of people who are mostly not related to each other, who probably wouldn’t know each other if it weren’t that God has adopted us all into this family. And somehow we are the image and likeness of God. Our pilgrimage—our journey of faith—is to discover what that means, both who we are, and why we’ve been called.
So let’s start from the basics. We are different from a social club or a special interest club. The reason for this community is God’s love; God has called us together. And the purpose of this community is the same love we see at work in the community of love we call God whose Name is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The clearest picture we have of the community of love that is God is given to us by Jesus—who is himself God reaching out to people. Jesus gathers people around him. He creates community. And he doesn’t let this community stay indoors and keep all the love to itself. … The community of love that Jesus establishes is shown how to be outgoing—active—to notice where they’re needed, and to jump in and help supply the need.
Jesus’ community of love is shown how to see broken hearts, see broken relationships, see broken people and to respond with loving respect and compassion. A community of God’s love is creative—Spirit-filled. A community of God’s love offers new ways, new connections, new freedoms. A community of love is a wonderful networker; always going for connections; always going for hope.
Of course there are good and bad ways to be community. We can belong in a family or a group like a church or a class at school and be perfectly comfortable and fulfilled ourselves. But at the same time, we can also be completely oblivious to other people who might feel on the outer. Our needs are being met; we’re fine. But theirs aren’t. And while that’s the case, our community won’t be in the image and likeness of God. Whole church communities can be like that too; whole denominations have been hostile to each other for generations. We can’t receive communion at each other’s churches. That’s not God’s image and likeness either.
We are in many ways a broken community; but that’s not the end of the story. Because we’re on the way—we are a pilgrim community following our Lord; we’re being created anew, each day, more nearly into the image and likeness of the lovely community that is our God. We’re sent help—prophetic voices like that of Grant Hay; gifts of the Spirit like our healing ministry; compassionate hearts; hospitality. We’re being created as a community every day, and we can risk being bold and join in that community-building venture. We should feel free to join with people of all Church traditions and make the community stronger.
Our Triune God is a loving community: we are told that God has made us to be in that image and likeness. Jesus has shown us how, and the Spirit gives us the gifts to do it. A final word from Jesus: a prayer he offered for his disciples, including us. John 17.20-21 ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may 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. Amen