{"id":94,"date":"2026-05-31T21:47:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T21:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caseyclough.com\/?p=94"},"modified":"2026-08-03T22:48:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T22:48:50","slug":"birthright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caseyclough.com\/?p=94","title":{"rendered":"Birthright"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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My Grandmother’s Rosary, \u00a9 Casey Clough<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trinity Sunday
Genesis 1:1-2:4a, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, Matthew 28:16-20, Psalm 8
St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, Austin
May 31, 2026

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. + Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, it is Trinity Sunday. There is a tradition of seminarians preaching on Trinity Sunday, as a kind of a rite of passage, or maybe a gentle hazing ritual. However, a seminarian may end up preaching on Trinity Sunday, it\u2019s a good week to preach: trying to put huge, foundational theological thought into twelve minutes is the best kind of challenge. On Trinity Sunday, we are trying to explain the foundation of the Christian faith: the belief in one God in three Persons, co-equal, co-eternal, and fully divine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to explain the Trinity, because it is something we simply can\u2019t fully comprehend it in order to really put it into words. Evelyn Underhill, an English Anglican writer with a leaning toward mysticism wrote, \u201cIf God were small enough to be understood He would not be big enough to be worshipped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Language cannot adequately contain God, and we reach for analogies and metaphors when trying to explain what this God who is One-in-Three is with our limited words. How do three Persons make one God, anyway? You might have heard a few before, such as the Trinity being like water, which exists in three forms: liquid, ice, and steam. The problem with these comparisons is that it\u2019s really easy to stumble into heretical territory\u2014the water analogy, for instance, is an example of a heresy called Modalism. Since water can only exist in one form in one place at the same time (it can\u2019t be ice while also being liquid, or steam while also being ice, etc.) it can give the idea that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three roles God takes at different times, rather than three Persons of God existing in one Being, acting as all Persons at all times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It gets tricky fast. That\u2019s the problem with trying to explain the Mysteries of divine nature with our  human-sized understanding. But we do our best, because the Trinity is the heart of our belief, and it is at the heart of the Creeds, and we profess the Trinity every Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the Trinity isn\u2019t something explained in the bible. It is a doctrine hammered out by the church over the first few centuries after Christ\u2019s ascension, built from human experiences of God and threads in scripture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The readings this week take us from \u201cIn the beginning,\u201d the very first words in Genesis to the \u201cend of the age,\u201d the last words of the Gospel of Matthew. The ancient Israelites were strictly monotheistic\u2014it was one of the key differences between those who worshiped YHWH and other religions in the ancient Near East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christians reading the bible over the past two thousand years have found passages in the old testament that can be read through a trinitarian lens, seeing hints of the future life of Jesus in the Hebrew scriptures. In this reading from Genesis, Christian theologians see God the Father creating the heavens and the earth, Jesus as the Word through which creation happens, and the Spirit blowing over the face of the water, bringing order to chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hebrew word for \u201cwind\u201d in verse two is ruach<\/em>, which also means spirit or breath, and we speak often of the Holy Spirit blowing where it wishes, whenever it wishes. We heard this last week at Pentecost, when the Spirit arrived with a sound like a violent, rushing wind that filled the house where the disciples were gathered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this lens, the Trinity is present from the very first words of the bible, ever present, ever holy, ever at work in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little farther into the reading, in verses 26 and 27, God says \u201clet us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness,\u201d and thus \u201cin the image of God he created them.\u201d What did God mean when God said \u201clet us <\/em>create them?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are different interpretations of the plurality in this passage. One is that God was speaking to a divine council, present while God was doing the work of creation. A reading of these verses through a Christian lens sees the Trinity in these verses, and that we were created in a Trinitarian likeness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What both of these passages in Genesis share is the visibility of the love God has for this creation and all of the creatures within it, and the special love God has for us, those who he made in his own image, after his own likeness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This immense love God has for us shows us something about the nature of God\u2014that God contains and is<\/em> this incomprehensible love that so carefully made the world, and made us, and joyfully called it all very good. Love flows between the three Persons of the Trinity in a relationship that is often described as a dance; a loving relationship that we are modeled after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psalm 8 follows the Genesis passage, and it shows\u2014beautifully and evocatively\u2014the gift and the responsibility of being created in Gods image. This psalm is sometimes called \u201cthe stargazers psalm,\u201d because the mood of it feels like someone standing outside on a dark night, staring up at the magnificence of the stars in the sky, suddenly feeling how small they are in the scheme of creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat is man that you should be mindful of him?\u201d the psalmist asks, why is humanity so valuable to God? Because we are; we alone among God\u2019s creatures have been given stewardship over the creation that God made and declared very good. This psalm begins and ends with the same phrase; \u201cO Lord our governor, how exalted is your Name in all the world!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What other response can we have to the magnificence of creation, and the size and importance of the role we have been given within it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul in 2 Corinthians and the writer of the gospel of Matthew both include language that is very familiar to those of us who grew up in the doctrine of the Trinity. Paul ends his letter to the troubled church in Corinth by exhorting the people to live in peace with God and with one another, and blesses them, hoping that \u201cthe grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit\u201d is with the people of Corinth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The communion of the Holy Spirit Paul is talking about here is that of the life of the Church; the Spirit\u2019s presence with the gathered people of Christ in the name of God, the communion that gives us the strength to become Christ\u2019s hands and feet in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the author of Matthew ends his gospel with Jesus\u2019s instruction to his disciples to go out and baptize \u201cin the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,\u201d and to follow the commandments he has given us to do. Nowhere else in the New Testament does this specific wording appear, and it is likely that this language reflects the language used in baptismal liturgy in the first century, as this gospel is generally dated to the 80 or 90 CE. What I like best about this reading on Trinity Sunday is the very last sentence \u2013 \u201cremember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God is with us, to the end of the age. The Father is with us, the Son is with us, and the Spirit is with us. Always has been, and always will be. This God of love, who made us in the divine image and redeemed us through Christ just because he loves us, is still walking with us. We can\u2019t scare God off, or make God so angry he abandons us, or do a single thing to make God love us less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God loves us, because God IS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what does it mean for us, to be made in the image of our triune God? What does it mean to reflect back to God the love that flows within and from the Trinity? God exists in loving relationship, and we are invited by our very makeup to do the same. The exhortations to love one another abound in scripture, and this capacity to love is given to us in our creation. The Holy Spirit swoops down onto us and into us at the Pentecost, wrapping us into the life of the Trinity. God dwells in us, and we in God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s mind-blowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world is a lot right now. Just a lot. It\u2019s easy to feel lost, scared, angry, alienated, and so busy that we barely have time to stop and be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to ask you to take two things from this today with you this week: That all of God is with you, within you, all of the time. That God truly is closer to you than your next breath. I would also like you to take the wonder that is God\u2019s loving relationship within God and between God and all of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feel the way God reaches for each of us, inviting us to reach back, yearning<\/em> for us to reach back.

This is our source. This is our one foundation. It can\u2019t be taken from you, it is always yours, by birthright. Let it comfort you, strengthen you, and hold you fast\u2014and let it give you strength to love as we are loved, and let us love you. It\u2019s rough out there, and yet we are the hands and feet of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One step in front of the other, always bathed in God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trinity SundayGenesis 1:1-2:4a, 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, Matthew 28:16-20, Psalm 8St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, AustinMay 31, 2026 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. + Amen. So, it is Trinity Sunday. There is a tradition of seminarians preaching on Trinity Sunday, as a kind of a rite of passage, or maybe a gentle hazing ritual. However, a seminarian may end up preaching on Trinity Sunday, it\u2019s a good week to preach: trying to put huge, foundational theological thought into twelve minutes is the best kind of challenge. On Trinity Sunday, we are trying to explain the foundation of the Christian faith: the belief in one God in three Persons, co-equal, co-eternal, and fully divine. It\u2019s hard to explain the Trinity, because it is something we simply can\u2019t fully comprehend it in order to really put it into words. Evelyn Underhill, an English Anglican writer with a leaning toward mysticism wrote, \u201cIf God were small enough to be understood He would not be big enough to be worshipped.\u201d Language cannot adequately contain God, and we reach for analogies and metaphors when trying to explain what this God who is One-in-Three is with our limited words. How do three Persons make one God, anyway? You might have heard a few before, such as the Trinity being like water, which exists in three forms: liquid, ice, and steam. The problem with these comparisons is that it\u2019s really easy to stumble into heretical territory\u2014the water analogy, for instance, is an example of a heresy called Modalism. Since water can only exist in one form in one place at the same time (it can\u2019t be ice while also being liquid, or steam while also being ice, etc.) it can give the idea that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three roles God takes at different times, rather than three Persons of God existing in one Being, acting as all Persons at all times. It gets tricky fast. That\u2019s the problem with trying to explain the Mysteries of divine nature with our  human-sized understanding. But we do our best, because the Trinity is the heart of our belief, and it is at the heart of the Creeds, and we profess the Trinity every Sunday. Yet the Trinity isn\u2019t something explained in the bible. It is a doctrine hammered out by the church over the first few centuries after Christ\u2019s ascension, built from human experiences of God and threads in scripture. The readings this week take us from \u201cIn the beginning,\u201d the very first words in Genesis to the \u201cend of the age,\u201d the last words of the Gospel of Matthew. The ancient Israelites were strictly monotheistic\u2014it was one of the key differences between those who worshiped YHWH and other religions in the ancient Near East. Christians reading the bible over the past two thousand years have found passages in the old testament that can be read through a trinitarian lens, seeing hints of the future life of Jesus in the Hebrew scriptures. In this reading from Genesis, Christian theologians see God the Father creating the heavens and the earth, Jesus as the Word through which creation happens, and the Spirit blowing over the face of the water, bringing order to chaos. The Hebrew word for \u201cwind\u201d in verse two is ruach, which also means spirit or breath, and we speak often of the Holy Spirit blowing where it wishes, whenever it wishes. We heard this last week at Pentecost, when the Spirit arrived with a sound like a violent, rushing wind that filled the house where the disciples were gathered. Through this lens, the Trinity is present from the very first words of the bible, ever present, ever holy, ever at work in the world. A little farther into the reading, in verses 26 and 27, God says \u201clet us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness,\u201d and thus \u201cin the image of God he created them.\u201d What did God mean when God said \u201clet us create them?\u201d There are different interpretations of the plurality in this passage. One is that God was speaking to a divine council, present while God was doing the work of creation. A reading of these verses through a Christian lens sees the Trinity in these verses, and that we were created in a Trinitarian likeness. What both of these passages in Genesis share is the visibility of the love God has for this creation and all of the creatures within it, and the special love God has for us, those who he made in his own image, after his own likeness. This immense love God has for us shows us something about the nature of God\u2014that God contains and is this incomprehensible love that so carefully made the world, and made us, and joyfully called it all very good. Love flows between the three Persons of the Trinity in a relationship that is often described as a dance; a loving relationship that we are modeled after. Psalm 8 follows the Genesis passage, and it shows\u2014beautifully and evocatively\u2014the gift and the responsibility of being created in Gods image. This psalm is sometimes called \u201cthe stargazers psalm,\u201d because the mood of it feels like someone standing outside on a dark night, staring up at the magnificence of the stars in the sky, suddenly feeling how small they are in the scheme of creation. \u201cWhat is man that you should be mindful of him?\u201d the psalmist asks, why is humanity so valuable to God? Because we are; we alone among God\u2019s creatures have been given stewardship over the creation that God made and declared very good. This psalm begins and ends with the same phrase; \u201cO Lord our governor, how exalted is your Name in all the world!\u201d What other response can we have to the magnificence of creation, and the size and importance of the role we have been given within it? Paul in 2 Corinthians and the writer of the gospel of Matthew both include language that is very familiar to those of us who grew up in the doctrine of the Trinity. Paul ends his letter to the troubled church in Corinth by exhorting the people to live in peace with God and with one another, and blesses them, hoping that \u201cthe grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit\u201d is with the people of Corinth. The communion of the Holy Spirit Paul is talking about here is that of the life of the Church; the Spirit\u2019s presence with the gathered people of Christ in the name of God, the communion that gives us the strength to become Christ\u2019s hands and feet in the world. Finally, the author of Matthew ends his gospel with Jesus\u2019s instruction to his disciples to go out and baptize \u201cin the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,\u201d and to follow the commandments he has given us to do. Nowhere else in the New Testament does this specific wording appear, and it is likely that this language reflects the language used in baptismal liturgy in the first century, as this gospel is generally dated to the 80 or 90 CE. What I like best about this reading on Trinity Sunday is the very last sentence \u2013 \u201cremember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.\u201d God is with us, to the end of the age. The Father is with us, the Son is with us, and the Spirit is with us. Always has been, and always will be. This God of love, who made us in the divine image and redeemed us through Christ just because he loves us, is still walking with us. We can\u2019t scare God off, or make God so angry he abandons us, or do a single thing to make God love us less. God loves us, because God IS. But what does it mean for us, to be made in the image of our triune God? What does it mean to reflect back to God the love that flows within and from the Trinity? God exists in loving relationship, and we are invited by our very makeup to do the same. The exhortations to love one another abound in scripture, and this capacity to love is given to us in our creation. The Holy Spirit swoops down onto us and into us at the Pentecost, wrapping us into the life of the Trinity. God dwells in us, and we in God. It\u2019s mind-blowing. The world is a lot right now. Just a lot. It\u2019s easy to feel lost, scared, angry, alienated, and so busy that we barely have time to stop and be. I want to ask you to take two things from this today with you this week: That all of God is with you, within you, all of the time. That God truly is closer to you than your next breath. I would also like you to take the wonder that is God\u2019s loving relationship within God and between God and all of us. Feel the way God reaches for each of us, inviting us to reach back, yearning for us to reach back. This is our source. This is our one foundation. It can\u2019t be taken from you, it is always yours, by birthright. Let it comfort you, strengthen you, and hold you fast\u2014and let it give you strength to love as we are loved, and let us love you. It\u2019s rough out there, and yet we are the hands and feet of Christ. One step in front of the other, always bathed in God\u2019s love. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caseyclough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caseyclough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caseyclough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caseyclough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caseyclough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/caseyclough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137,"href":"https:\/\/caseyclough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caseyclough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caseyclough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caseyclough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}