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“And just as he was coming up out of the water, he
saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove
on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the
Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” vv. 10-11 (NRSV)
There is no style of music that is more
characteristically American than Jazz music and musician Miles
Davis is arguably the best Jazz musician that has ever performed.
One of the main reasons that Miles is one of the best can be
summed up in his philosophy about music: “There were no bad notes
to be played, only unusual notes to be played around with.”
Simply put: Miles turned the bad notes into good music. He
wouldn’t get angry with band members about the mistakes they
might have made. He was tolerant of their mistakes because he was
confident of his own abilities to bring harmony to the
performance. This allowed his fellow band members to feel more
confident in their own abilities in experimenting with the music.
For this reason, when his band performed, they sounded better than
the sum of their parts and The Miles Davis Quintet dominated the
music scene for nearly 2 decades.
You may be wondering how this illustration ties
into today’s theme? Well, in the same way that Miles Davis
worked in harmony to compliment and strengthen his band members,
we see a similarity in how each part of the Holy Trinity works in
harmony to complement the sum total of the Trinity. Let us
briefly look at three points when it comes to the Trinity &
community.
God Is Community
We see the triune nature of God in the very first
chapter of the Bible, Genesis 1:26. Notice that God says,
"Let us make humankind in our image.” This “us” implies that
a communion between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit took
place about the creation of humankind. Also, it makes sense when
1 John 4:8 tells us that “God is love” – He “is” eternally love,
the LORD God did not become love when he created us to love, the
love of the LORD God has always existed in God as the three love
each other perfectly. The manifested evidence of this Trinity
community is made even clearer at baptism of Jesus Christ (Mark
1:10-11).
God Created Community
Again in Genesis 1:27, we see immediately after
God created us in His image, He created us male and female. We
see He creates us in community, with the ability to expand the
community. A large part of being created in the image of God is
being created in community, as God himself is in community. In
fact, we could take it a step further as we can see evidence of
the characteristics of community in the Holy Sacraments that God
implemented for the Church. God has created us to be relational
in every aspect of our lives with Him and ourselves.
God Calls Us To Community
The God we worship lives in community, and as
such, we cannot be a solitary Christian. The LORD God, who is
community, must have a community worshiping Him; to be “godly”
people, we must live in community. John 13:34 strengthens this
understanding even more. To live and worship in community is to
join in the very character of God. To live in a right
relationship with those around us and our environment is to be
Godly!
In conclusion, as much as we are created to
commune with our LORD God; we are called to commune with His’
people and with His’ creation. We need to work out the
sin/discord in our life; learn to practice grace, forgiveness and
love with others; live as confident Christians (Philippians 4:13)
that strengthen each other to create a better world for all His
people and to bring glory to His Kingdom.
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