Settling into the Holy Trinity

Over the last several weeks at Mt. Calvary, you might have felt like there has been one celebration after another. First there was ascension, then confirmation, Pentecost, and now Holy Trinity Sunday. Throw in the end of the year picnic for the Early Childhood center, and graduation for our association school (CCLS), and other end of the school year stuff, and you have party, party, party. This is the stuff my life is full of this time of year. One day I realized I had something going on every night. Mindy and I finally get to take a breath at the end of May. You may not have kids in school, but May probably is still busy for you with various events and invitations. As June approaches, the church calendar will settle into a rhythm – the weeks following Pentecost.  (Hopefully your personal calendars will settle down too.) This Sunday, Holy Trinity Sunday, is our one last push before we settle in for the summer.

In the message last week, I prepped you for this week as I talked about the Trinity. This week we hear two key readings: one from Acts 2 when Peter is literally on fire talking about Jesus in his sermon to the people; secondly, one of my favorites from John where Nicodemus is digging deeper trying to understand Jesus. Thinking about the Holy Trinity can give us the same overwhelmed feeling as a world wind of events going on in our lives.  We wonder how it will all fit together and get done, yet as happens every year, we get through it and stand on the other side amazed that we survived. Thus it is studying the Holy Trinity again. How do all these pieces fit together – wondering like Nicodemus what it means having to be born again without being able to re-enter our mother’s womb, or like Peter realizing that the power of Jesus is his and that he will not be abandoned because Christ has already won the victory for him? Then add the other mysteries of the Trinity – one God but three persons.  How does it all fit?  Will I ever understand? It can all be overwhelming. Then we settle in.

Okay well, we never really settle into the Holy Trinity, rather we fall into a routine. Just like a graduation or other pinnacle moment of life, after the emotion of the big day fades, we embrace what this means for our life now. Holy Trinity Sunday is, once again, acknowledging the amazing things the Trinity does in our lives – the pinnacle moment if you will. The Sundays after Pentecost we will settle into the idea that this is our reality – Jesus will not abandon us, the Holy Spirit will guide us, and the devil is real, but the victory has been won. Hard to believe I can say all those things in one sentence! They are huge pieces of our lives! Yet, the summer will put us in that routine of living life with the Holy Trinity.

A week or so ago I went to Jacob’s kindergarten graduation. As Jacob stood up and proudly proclaimed that he wanted to be a video game inventor, I realized my son was growing up. He’s no longer the little baby I brought home in that unfamiliar state of California during my first call. He has been on this journey with Mindy and I, and now is really showing signs of growth. Sometimes life is so busy I miss the moments of awe. Honestly, if I recognized them all the time, it would be overwhelming. Instead, I have to settle in.  The Christian life is like that too.  Everyday I could be filled with awe for what God does for me, but it would be overwhelming, and eventually I would need to settle in and start living.

Over the next few weeks Mindy and I will plan out our summer. We will put together a calendar of the day-to-day stuff. There will be days that Mindy takes the kids to the Zoo, the Magic House, or to the pool.  Other days they will just relax at home. There will be Cardinal day games, and now night games too. There will be $0.50 drink days when the Cardinals score six runs or more, and occasionally Papa John’s pizza nights when the Cardinals win (you can get 50% off your order). I can’t do it every time or I would go broke, but trust me, I am not complaining about Cardinal wins. As summer goes on, we will settle into the summertime routine with our kids. There will still be those surprising awe-filled moments, like last night as Mindy and I could hear the boys still up talking way past their bedtime. As we wrestled with whether to tell them to go sleep or keep listening to them enjoy each other, Mindy and I remembered our favorite times of summer were when we could talk with our siblings with that little bit of sunlight still coming through the window. I think as we settle into the Holy Trinity we have those sunlight streaming moments, perhaps when we read scripture, hear a Christian song, or see the way God made this world.  It’s those moments when we realize just how amazing our God is, and that we get to live in this beautiful world He created. That is when we’ve settle into the Holy Trinity.