{"id":245,"date":"2025-06-09T13:19:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T13:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/?p=245"},"modified":"2025-06-09T13:19:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T13:19:01","slug":"summer-rfs-and-the-holy-trinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/2025\/06\/09\/summer-rfs-and-the-holy-trinity\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer RFS and the Holy Trinity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two big things are happening this week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, <\/strong>we welcome our students to campus for the Summer Residential Focus Session (RFS). Prayers for safe travel on Friday and a fruitful time of learning in community on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. We will have a simple chapel service of prayer and welcome on Saturday. Students are encouraged to attend local congregations for worship on Sunday morning. Then we will conclude with a service of Holy Communion on Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second,<\/strong> it is Holy Trinity Sunday<\/strong>! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of the most challenging Sundays for preachers. It is further complicated by the fact that it is Father’s Day<\/strong> in the USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three temptations this week:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Offer modalistic metaphors like an apple, a clover leaf, or water.\u00a0Note:<\/em><\/strong> modalism presents God as shifting from one “mode” of being to another, but not actually being one-in-three simultaneously.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Reduce God to masculine terms, especially on Father’s Day.\u00a0Note:<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0God is neither male nor female. The first creation story says that God created humanity in the image of God, male AND female, therefore, both and neither are God’s image.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Avoid the topic altogether and focus on the lectionary readings, ignoring the Trinitarian implications.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    What is the preacher to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I love talking about the Trinity so much that I devoted my PhD Dissertation to it, as it relates to Spiritual Formation. I’ve put together The Art Pastor’s Guide to the Trinity<\/em><\/strong> that is chock full of images, animation, PowerPoints, and an extensive bibliography. Perhaps something in there might be helpful to you this week. CLICK HERE<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>to explore the resource. Reach out with questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

    Two big things are happening this week. First, we welcome our students to campus for the Summer Residential Focus Session (RFS). Prayers for safe travel on Friday and a fruitful time of learning in community on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. We will have a simple chapel service of prayer and welcome on Saturday. Students are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}