The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:

First Reading: Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 29:1-11
Second Reading: Romans 8:12-17
Gospel Reading: John 3:1-17

The liturgical color for the day is: White

With the Day of Pentecost last Sunday, we now encounter another liturgical fest day—Trinity Sunday.  It is the last festival day prior to Christ the King Sunday in November.  Trinity is a way of opening up the consideration and conversation about God.  God is always beyond.  God is way more—well more beyond our considerations, imaginations, boundaries, more…

It is why Nicodemus is such a wonderful story for Trinity Sunday.  Here is the struggle for Nicodemus: Could he get out of his rut of seeing the world, faith, and God the way he had always seen it?  Could he get out of the rut of conceiving of faith and the church in the way he had learned, in the way he had in the past valued?  Could he step out of the comfort zone of the rut in order to get on a path where the “wind would blow where the wind would blow?”  The Spirit could carry him.

And—the Spirit can carry us!  But we have to be open to getting out of the accustomed rut.  Where are those ruts for us as the church and as disciples?  It is that rut of trying to “go back” to how things were back then…  Those old familiar places feel safe and secure, yet I know the Spirit moves our compass to go forward. 

Being pushed or pulled out of our rut, God has a will and a way.  We have been given each other and this opportunity to be together in the majesty and mystery that is the Triune God of all holiness.

The Church is that great body where there are others in the same ruts.  The Church is that very place where we proclaim the mysterious truth that God comes to us.  God comes to us in Jesus.  God comes to us the Spirit.  It does not always make sense, but it makes for truth.  Here is the truth: God so loved…

God so loved…  God so loved…you.  Imagine that, because it is the truth.

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Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk