[Sermon] Drawn into the Dance

Pastor Hector Garfias-Toledo + June 15, 2025

The Holy Trinity

The Trinity isn’t just a doctrine—it’s a divine rhythm of relationship, a dance of love shared between Creator, Christ, and Spirit. This sacred movement reflects the very heartbeat of God’s intention for creation: life in mutuality, belonging, and joy. Rather than something to explain, the Trinity is something to enter. It invites all people into connection and community, not just with God, but with each other. In a world longing for meaning and connection, the Trinity whispers, “You belong here.” This is God’s blueprint for life: love in motion.

Sermon Transcript

From YouTube's automatically generated captions, lightly edited by AI for readability.

Grace to you and peace from Abba—Father, Mother, Creator—and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who we know because of the wind of the Spirit is moving us today. And we say: Amen.

Well, here is the challenge, David. This is another explanation of the Holy Trinity—I just received it now, just right before we started the Young Worshippers' Message—by a young worshipper. And she said, “I made it for you during the week.” That's how the Spirit moves: in colorful, unexpected, personal, intimate ways.

I don't really... I—The Trinity is one of those doctrines in the church that I believe, that with my square mind, I always try to explain. I have been using all kinds of images. Last year, I believe, I was talking about that point in the physical, chemical world where three states can coexist at the same time—vapor, ice, and liquid water. And it's possible, but it needs very specific conditions.

But as I was thinking this year, I said: Well, still—whether I use a pretzel, whether I use whatever other image we use for the Trinity—a triangle... If I use all these images, I'm still trying to explain the Trinity from a human, logical, and intellectual point.

That's why we need to talk, David.

But as I was thinking, and based on what we were reflecting on last Sunday—when I was talking about the Holy Spirit—I think that the Holy Trinity actually is the manifestation, the reflection, the way in which God is helping us to understand the type of relationship that God wants to have with us, and for us—with one another.

Our human nature is always trying to find the explanation of things, right?

My daughter was three years old. I was a mission developer. I was busy trying to develop—or redevelop—a congregation in Illinois. At that time, Jade—my wife—was in Taiwan taking care of her father, who had had an accident. As you know—some of you know—my daughter was with me, and I was busy trying to explain these doctrines of the church, thinking how to explain things to people.

And my daughter came to me and asked me questions. And I gave an answer, as a good father. Fifteen seconds later, the question was: “Why?”

I answered. She seemed to be content with the answer. I said, “Well, I did it. I'm a good father, explaining things.” Fifteen seconds later—what? The question was: “Why?”

And I don't remember how many times we went through that.

Children at the age of three ask many questions. And one of the first—the main—questions is “Why?”

At the age of 18 to 24 months, they ask questions: “What's that?” At the age of two or three is when the first “Why” comes. And we feel so proud because—oh, my child is so inquisitive; he or she wants to learn.

But by three and five years old is when the “Why” explosion comes.

They are deep—looking for a deeper understanding. And the “Why” phase in the life of every human being is crucial—and positive—because in that way, we as human beings develop our cognitive and linguistic capacity. We develop our social interactions. We explore and we experience curiosity. But we also test boundaries.

It is hard for us to live with mystery. We want to know why things are as they are.

And if you notice in the readings today—in the book of Proverbs—it is Wisdom that is telling the many ways that God has been active in creation. And this Wisdom cannot be quantified, but it is about the experience that we have in our interaction with God's creation—the relationship that God has with us.

Wisdom doesn't explain how things happen, but why God gave them to us and entrusted them to us—for us to be and to become what God wants us to be as part of creation.

And in the Gospel—we have been reading these stories for several weeks, where we have been talking about Jesus in the resurrection. Interestingly, we talk about Jesus resurrected—but with words from when he was alive. So it gets a little confusing.

But today, we have this passage in the Gospel where we are reading a time when Jesus was still alive, talking to his disciples about what was going to happen.

So, thinking about this confusing back-and-forth in the timeline of the Gospel, I remember the words of one theologian—a resident theologian who is a resident here in our church. And this theologian is just here to my left—Rachel Tobin—who one day, when we were discussing how to talk and how to have these conversations on the road, said:

“It seems to me that in this passage of the Gospel, what Jesus is saying—telling the disciples—is: ‘I am going to leave you soon. You just need to keep up with what I already started. Good luck.’”

It's a deep theological reflection, Rachel, and I appreciate that because it helps me understand that this is a mystery. It is a mystery that cannot be explained—they would not understand, even if the Lord Jesus had spent the time trying to.

We read in chapter 16, the first verse of the chapter that we read today: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear to hear it now.” You will be overwhelmed—and probably you will be confused.

The work of the Spirit—as the passage is titled in the version that we use for the Bible—says: “A friend will come.” Jesus’ words before he died are the words that are in for us during this season, when we talk about the Spirit.

After he died—last Sunday—the disciples and the people who experienced the coming of the Spirit, when Peter was trying to explain to them and trying to tell them what was happening there—their first question was: “What should we do?” And Peter responds: “Repent,” which was an exhortation to acquire—or to take—a new posture of openness, vulnerability.

So the question for us is: Now that we know that the gift of the Spirit—the Friend, the Spirit—has come to us, the question may be: What would that mean in a world that is conflicted and filled with... and filled with despair?

And I don't need to expand on this, because I believe that you had a dose of what it means to live in a world in despair—just in the past few days, here in our country and around the world.

It is in this world of despair that many people are looking to faith communities for guidance, for support, for affirmation.

But it is unfortunate that many times, the communities of faith—and the congregations—what they offer are dogmas, doctrines, and expectations.

Just a few days ago, I heard someone saying that in congregations that are open, they are saying: “Come. Yes, we want to grow, we want to be a congregation that is powerful—just come and become one like us.”

Or, there are other times when congregations, in their desire to be relevant, are eager to probe and to present solutions—rushing to restore order, and to fix people, and to fix social situations or social challenges.

That, at the same time—when we start taking this position—we actually start to create our own little religion and kingdom within congregations or within the Church, forgetting that the Church is not about something that you and I do, but it's something that we are.

In the power of this—called Holy Trinity—Pentecost is a mandate to listen to God's breath.

The Trinity, its identity, is to reflect the nature of God's reign—a dynamic reality, to participate in a blueprint of the new order.

The Trinity conveys a way of life: being in a relationship. And it is not something to do.

As I said earlier, as I reflect on the many ways that I have been talking about Trinity, I think that I have been just going around this idea—that I need to explain from a human position what the Trinity is—rather than how to live in the dance of Trinity.

In the Gospel according to John, chapter 16:13, Jesus says: “The Spirit will guide you. The Spirit will speak. The Spirit will announce.” What is the Spirit going to announce?

The revelation of God’s innermost nature—with a profound implication for how we live and how we relate to God and to one another.

The picture that we have on the cover page of our bulletin—and many other pictures that we have used through the past few years—reflects that relationship, that community, that coming together at the table, where we are sharing and extending and opening our hearts and our lives to one another.

To be able to reflect the very nature of a God who has come to us in creation—to remind us that nothing can separate us from God—and that God, in Jesus Christ (as David was telling us), we are connected with one another. We are connected in Jesus. We are connected with God—and moved by the power of the Spirit.

While our human nature seeks the mathematical precision of certainty over the freedom in the mystery of God’s reckless, never-ending love, the Trinity today challenges us to participate in this blueprint of God’s new order: of life, love, diversity, unity, and mutual service—which is in the very heart of our God.

It calls us beyond divisions, selfishness, and despair, toward a community that mirrors the divine life in itself.

Trinity, my siblings in Christ, is a posture—to embrace this mystery and other possibilities in the midst of what seems to be impossible.

Life in the midst of despair. Restoration in the midst of chaos.

The Trinity is the assurance that we belong, that we are known, and that we are part of a mystery that makes us whole—and that you and I have the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

We are invited, through grace, to participate in this eternal dance of love between Abba, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So the Trinity, my siblings in Christ, is how we live this life of who we are—and how we join this party that has started in the gift of the Spirit.

Let’s party—for all that green part in our banner—there is a lot of party to do.

Let’s do it.

Thanks be to God.