Gospel: John 3: 16-18
Ancient religions were dominated by a collection of deities often set within some family structure, though these beings were always at war with one another, beset by jealousies and power. Their interaction with humans was equally worse, using humans for their own internal feuds or their own pleasures. Socrates, in defending himself against the charge of being an atheist in ancient Greece, argued that he believed in the gods; he just did not believe in the stories we tell about them. He argued that if we are to have stories about the gods that they be ones that inspire humans to virtue and nobility.
In the Trinity we have an entirely new story about God. Here we have a family of persons so united in love of one another that they form one single deity. Each person is one in mind and heart with the others, and each exists for love. This love extends outward to human beings and all creation: the Father creating, the Son redeeming, the Spirit inspiring and making holy. Here is a God that is solely and completely love both inward and outward facing.
Finally, we have a God worth believing in, a God who inspires the best in human beings. The greatest blasphemy against this God is using this God for hateful, violent purposes to serve our own power and pleasures - in making this God no better than the ancient deities we set aside for their lack of virtue and respect for humans. Today is a day to recommit to the God of love and strive again to be in communion of thought and action to this love.
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