Year A Trinity Sunday 20206 The Dance Divine

Year A Trinity Sunday, 31 May 2026

St George’s Episcopal, Fredericksburg, VA

Celtic Service: “The Dance Divine”

Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Matthew 28:16-20

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped 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.”

It has been said that if you do not want to commit heresy when preaching on the Trinity say nothing and show pictures of kittens instead. The best thing I have seen to describe these heresies is a very popular YouTube video called “St Patrick’s Bad Analogies.” If you have not seen it, look it up. Accurate, and HILARIOUS. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQLfgaUoQCw)

Our discussions, and arguments, about the nature of God go back to our foundings. If you look at the three great monotheisms, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, much of our differences come back to that, who is God, and what is God’s nature, and the stories to back up said views.

Of all the liturgical dates and seasons of the Church, this is the only one which is around a doctrine. And while I could come up here and say the Trinity is a metaphor to give us a handle on our understanding and teachings on God. But if I did that, it would be heretical. The Trinity is more than a literary device.

In our creed, we name many of these heresies, but you may never have looked at them that way. 

God from God, 

Light from Light,

true God from true God, 

begotten, not made,

of one Being with the Father;

through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation

he came down from heaven,

was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary

and became truly human.

These all come from the second stanza on the nature of Jesus. But the implications resonate to the Father and the Son.

And because it can be the third rail of Christian theology, let me tell you what I know.

Jesus said to baptize in this way, “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Jesus would not have said it if it were not something very important. And I do not believe that the Gospels would have recorded it if he had not said it that way. It would have been much easier to do it other than that.

So we have these three persons, God, the Son, and the Spirit. 

𝅘𝅥𝅮 God in the persons, blessed Trinity! 𝅘𝅥𝅮

And for me, I cannot get my head around it, admittedly. I just cannot comprehend it. Maybe that is why they call it a mystery. But deep down, deep in my gut I feel it. I feel the truth of it. It is a rhythm more than a statement. It is the unending dance of creation with the one who created it. It is the waltz of the redeemed with their Redeemer. It is the tango of the Church with the one who empowers and sustains. Friends, I have slipped back into metaphor, apologies. But it is something I can see only with my eyes shut, something I can hear only in absolute stillness. It is something I can know only with the faith of a child.

I pray you wrestle with that. That is what the name Israel means, those who wrestle with God. And may our wrestling turn to dancing, and may our dancing be our joy, and maybe put a smile on the Father’s and on the Son’s and on the Spirit’s faces! Amen