Trinity Sunday

We worship a God who is, at their very core, a community of love who shares power in deference and delight, who listens and exalts rather than dominates. As followers of Jesus, we, too, are welcomed into this deep, collaborative communion. 

I’d like to contrast the loving flow of deferential respect and communion within the power of the Trinity—Creator, Christ, and Spirit—with what has unfolded this week in our world. 

We have experienced the moral injury of witnessing horrible things: Israeli soldiers opened fire on people at feeding stations, Israeli and Iran exchanged missile strikes, ICE agents took foster children from their parents, the marines were sent into LA, and a man disguised as a police officer assassinated political leaders in Minnesota. All acts of unilateral power without respect for the dignity of human beings.

If we believe that human beings are made in the image of a Triune God, then any act that tears apart families, silences the vulnerable, militarizes power or distorts truth is not just a political mistake—it is a violation of the Trinity itself. 

Sunday, we gathered to worship the Trinity. Worship is an alignment of our lives with the relational dynamic of Love within the Trinity.

These are acts of worship: sharing power collaboratively, honouring the dignity of each person’s voice, listening to one another, sharing knowledge and resources with one another, making space at our table for newcomers and immigrants, refusing to engage in online platforms that profiteer from the sexual exploitation of women and children, standing up on behalf of immigrant families, writing letters on behalf of the land next door to A Rocha, questioning when violence is used to control behaviour, and  holding our leaders accountable to a vision of power modelled on collaboration.

The Trinity shows us what power can be: not a wall, but a table; not a fist, but an outstretched hand; not a empire to build, but a beloved community to serve.

On Trinity Sunday, we are not called to explain the mystery, we are called to live it—and in doing so, to challenge every form of power that does not look like love.

Deep peace and blessing,
Anne

Rev. Anne Baxter Smith
Pastor, Southpoint Church