Imago Trinitate - Made in the Image of the Triune God - a Sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday 2026

I suggested a teaser question last week,

appropriate for Holy Trinity Sunday,

and here it is:

What does it mean to be created in the image of the Triune God?

Do we know what we are saying when we say

we are made in the image of God?

Last week, Pentecost Sunday,

we highlighted what it means to be created in the image

of God the Holy Spirit,

and I’ll refresh some of those insights shortly.

To help us understand being made in God’s image,

we turn to a book we don’t often turn to - Proverbs.

Proverbs does not have one singular author;

it is most likely a collection of sayings and wisdom teaching

gathered and curated over centuries.

Authorship is often attributed to King Solomon,

the wise king,

and some of the sayings may very well be his,

or be even older than King Solomon.

The wisdom in this book is not all Hebrew;

wisdom from other cultures is present here.

It is generally accepted that Proverbs was written

in the 4th century BCE,

so around 300 years before the birth of Christ.

Proverbs is a relatively secular book,

no mention of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,

God is named YHWH, the Lord,

which makes this accessible for any.

You can think of Proverbs kind of like a self-help book.

It would have been used in educational settings,

particularly for young boys.

Part of the problem of Proverbs is the gendered language,

and images geared to young men in particular.

Any and all people are invited into Wisdom,

not just the men.

In Proverbs, the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord,

fear of the Lord leads to a good life.

Now, fear might not be the best English word,

but a reverence, an awe, for God

is the beginning of wisdom.

But there’s a little play on words here with wisdom in Proverbs,

because Wisdom is used as a proper name

for the third person of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit.

Now, to be fair to our Jewish neighbours,

they might not understand it the same way.

For the Christian,

it is apparent that Wisdom is the Holy Spirit,

in the beginning with God the Creator.

Wind, breath, fire, Ruah.

We will hear selected verses from chapter 8,

but important to know a little about chapter 7.

Keep my commandments, keep my words and live - is the invitation.

Say to Wisdom “You are my sister.”

It is a metaphor - Wisdom is personified,

and have a close, sibling like relationship with Wisdom,

with the Holy Spirit.

Wisdom is contrasted with the loose woman,

the strange woman,

an adulteress - arriving in the cover of darkness -

again, a little problem with gendered language here.

Think of it like temptation,

“with much seductive speech,

the strange woman persuades him;

with her smooth talk, she compels him,

Right away, he follows her

and goes like an ox to the slaughter…”

Put another way - to love the strange woman is to love death,

her house is the way to Sheol,

all going down to the chambers of death.

to love Wisdom is to choose life.

Invite scripture reader forward.

As we turn to God’s Word,

let us listen for Wisdom,

to hear her voice,

and in it,

to hear the Word of God,

by the Spirit,

and we might learn

what it means to be made in the image of the Triune God.

First Reading: Proverbs 8 (Selected Verses) (The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation)

A reading from Proverbs.

Doesn't Wisdom call?

Doesn't Understanding raise her voice!

On the hills along the road, at the crossroads, she takes her stand;

beside the city gates of the town, in the gates themselves, she cries out,  "Women and men, people everywhere,

I'm calling out to you!

I cry out to all of humankind!

You who are simple,

learn how to make sound judgments!
To the foolish among you,

use your common sense!

Listen closely, for what I say is worth hearing,

and I will tell you what is right;

for my mouth will speak the truth,

and my lips hate to lie.

Everything I say is right; none of it is twisted or crooked.

All of it is plain-spoken to those who understand,

clear to those seeking knowledge.

Accept my lessons in place of silver,

and knowledge in place of gold;

for Wisdom out-sparkles jewelry;

anything you desire cannot compare to her.

I, Wisdom, am the habitat of sound judgment,

the source of clear thinking.

To revere YAHWEH is to abhor evil.

I despise pride and arrogance,

corrupt behaviour and deceptive words.

I have good counsel and sound judgment;

I have understanding and power as well.

I love those who love me;

and those who seek me out zealously find me.

The gifts I distribute are better than gold, even fine gold.

I walk the upright way, the path of justice,

and my profits are better than fire-tried silver.

YAHWEH gave birth to me at the beginning,

before the first acts of creation.

I have been from everlasting,

in the beginning, before the world began.

I was there when the Almighty created the heavens,

and set the horizon just above the ocean,

set the clouds in the sky,

and established the springs of the deep,

gave the seas their boundaries

and set their limits at the shoreline.

When the foundation of the earth was laid out,

I was the skilled artisan standing next to the Almighty.

I was God's delight day after day,

rejoicing at being in God's presence continually,

rejoicing in the whole world and delighting in humankind.

And so, my daughters and sons, hear me well:

happy are you when you keep my ways!

Take my instruction seriously and grow wise;

don't neglect my lessons.

Happy are you who listen to me,

and keep watch at my door for me, waiting at my gates.

For you who find me find life,

and earn the favour of YAHWEH;

but you who lose me lose your own souls,

for all who hate me love death."

Word of God, word of life.

Thanks be to God.

Sermon

The assembly is seated.

You, dearly beloved children of God,

you are made in the image of God.

This is true for Ivy, on her baptism,

and it is true for any and all humanity.

You, dear Church, bear the image of the triune God.

Unfortunately, As Dr. Kayko Driedger-Hesslein puts it,

we are far better at at making God in our image,

than living in God’s image.

When we seek understanding of God’s diversity,

we will have a better sense of ourselves, too.

So let’s talk about it. Imago Dei - made in God’s image:

It is humanity, the neighbourhood, the community,

that is made in God’s image.

To understand this,

allow a brief refresher from last week,

what it means to be made in the image of God,

the Holy Spirit.

To know the work of the Spirit,

I suggest you can simply remember the cross and the creeds.

The Word of God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

was prepared for the cross,

driven to the cross,

and raised from the dead.

The Holy Spirit

always points to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.

The Spirit is in the resurrection business.

The Spirit is about the creeds,

particularly the Apostles and Nicene creeds.

The Spirit is the giver of life - new life, abundant life.

The Spirit spoke through the prophets.

The Prophets called God’s people into repentance,

to care for the outcast, the orphan, the widow,

into right relationship with God and people.

The prophets call the people into justice and equity.

The Spirit’s work is justice and equity.

God’s very self is justice.

The Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy

the One, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

The Spirit is about unity found in diversity.

We look for the resurrection of the dead,

The Spirit raises us from death to life.

Looking at the Apostle’s creed,

the Spirit is the one who gathers the communion of saints.

The fellowship of the faithful here in this life,

and the feast to come in life everlasting

is the work of the Spirit.

Martin Luther teaches us that it is only by the Holy Spirit,

called through the Gospel,

that we can believe in God in the first place.

The Spirit gives us faith in the Son.

The Spirit, continuing the work of Jesus the Son,

is forgiveness.

Forgiveness was breathed into the disciples by the risen Lord,

This breath is the same Holy Spirit,

the Wisdom of God,

that was in the beginning,

Ruah, wind, breath - hovering over the waters,

the skilled artisan who created with the Creator.

This same Holy Spirit is in you,

in the very breath you breath,

in your hearts,

by your baptism into Christ.

You are filled with the presence of the third person,

the disruptive person of the Trinity.

So, then, to be made in the image of the Triune God

is to have God’s very community in you,

in each,

in any.

The technical, theological term for the Trinity is perichoresis:

an ancient term meaning God in three persons,

Father, Son, Spirit,

exist completely within one another,

sharing the same divine essence

but maintaining their distinct identities.

Jesus is not the Creator,

Jesus is not the Spirit,

The Spirit is not the Creator,

but in union,

this is God. Diversity found in unity.

As our sending song puts the invitation,

come join the dance of Trinity!

God is about movement, mutuality, and uplifting,

interrelation and rejoicing.

God’s very being is a way of making space or making room

for community,

making room for the other.

To be made in the image of the Triune God

is to make space,

to make room for the other in our own lives.

The Spirit points to the Son,

The Spirit points to the Creator,

The Son points to the Spirit,

the Son points to the Creator.

The Spirit doesn’t say - hey, hey, look at me!!

The Spirit uplifts the Son,

the Creator,

and creation.

God in Godself is a dynamic community of love.

Where one person of the Trinity is found,

so will the other two.

When it comes to Christ, the Son, the second person of the Trinity,

We confess Jesus is fully God and fully human,

and this union is not confused,

it is reciprocal.

Jesus isn’t one day human and the next Divine,

but always both.

A helpful word is intersectionality.

I often say that you can discern God’s call

at the intersection of where your

skills, talents, abilities, passions

intersect with the needs of the world.

God has multiple intersections.

Creator, Sustainer,

Redeemer, Sanctifyer,

Parent, Child.

Jesus has multiple intersections:

Rabbi and refugee,

Jewish and Moabite,

powerful and vulnerable,

God in Godself is diversity in unity.

We are intersectional people.

I am not just a pastor,

I am a parent and child,

uncle and nephew,

spouse and friend,

centre for the hockey team

and a fan in the stands.

You can think of your own various intersections.

Some people’s intersections are found on the margins,

and that’s where Jesus is.

Change. I’m changing. I’m not static

I am not the same person I was 5 years ago, let alone 15.

It is a fallacy to think we are unchanging.

We too often make God in our own image,

and we might think of God as unchanging.

God’s character doesn’t change,

but God changes God’s mind from time to time.

Historically, humans have been considered the apple of God’s eye,

God’s favoured creation,

and what distinguished humans from other animals

is our cognitive self, our mind,

our ability to think rationally.

But it is not just our minds

that are made in the image of God.

Jesus was not just mind,

but body, muscle, tissue,

wounds and scars.

It is not just our minds that are made in Gods image,

but our whole selves, our whole bodies

heart, soul, mind, body, strength - together.

We are created for community,

togetherness with one another,

and togetherness - integration - with ourselves.

Maybe you heard it in Proverbs,

God rejoices in the presence of Wisdom,

The Sprit was God’s delight, day after day.

To be made in God’s image

is to find delight in others, and in yourself,

for you are God’s handiwork,

you are fearfully and wonderfully made,

knit together in your mother’s womb,

and continued to be knit together,

throughout your life.

It is not just the Jews or Christians fearfully and wonderfully made,

it is all of humanity.

I encourage you -

Find delight in your whole selves.

God sure does.

I wonder if in fact it is all of creation

that is made in the image of God.

I see God in my puppies,

I wonder if they’re made in God’s image too.

I can see God in my raspberry bushes,

maybe they are made in Gods’ image too.

Greek thought tends to be one or the other.

For the Greeks, human characteristics are compartmentalized:

a separation of heart, soul, mind, body, and strength,

like a separation and distance between two poles.

Hebrew thinking is more encompassing, more integration.

In Hebrew thinking there’s a spectrum:

For example, in Hebrew to say “black and white”

includes the shades of grey in between.

Consider God’s creation,

using the first creation story in Genesis,

God made it all, and it is all good,

very good, in fact, once humans are on the scene.

God didn’t just make the night and the day,

God also made everything in between:

the dawn and the dusk,

those times that are in transition in themselves.

humans find ourselves often in transition;

transition is holy.

God made the lands and the seas and the skies,

and everything in between:

the marsh, the swamp,

the tides rolling in on the beach,

the fog and mist over the waters.

God made the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the animals of the land,

and everything in between:

God made the flying fish,

and the bat,

and the axolotl.

God made humans, male and female,

and everything in between,

those whose assigned sex at birth matches their gender,

and those who don’t.

Creation in this fullness,

Night, day, and the in-between,

land, air, water, and the in-between,

male, female, and the in-between

this is the diverse creation that God calls very good.

you, dearly beloved child of God

are part of what makes this creation very good.

Did you know that there are 6 genders in the Jewish tradition?

Gender diversity has been around,

it is nothing new.

We just happen to be better at making God in our image,

than discovering God’s diversity.

We make God in our own image

when we reject parts of the body of Christ.

God loves, cares for, encompasses all of creation,

we make God in our image

when we say God wants us to dominate creation.

No - God’s calling us to dance.

We make God in our image

when we don’t celebrate people as they are,

who they have been made to be and who they are becoming.

Here’s my attempt to bring this all home.

How do we move forward?

In this time of political polarity,

when our governments are making it hard

for young people to receive gender-affirming care,

when some churches are taking

hard stances against 2SLGBTQIA+ people,

in this time of growing white Christian nationalism,

when those with power dictate what the conversation is,

in this time that some say there are only two genders,

while genetics is teaching us we are more complex than that,

in this time in which heteronormativity is weaponized;

How do we move forward?

Trust and believe that our God is a liberatory God,

God is seeking the liberation of creation,

the liberation of God’s people,

and your own liberation.

This is God’s work.

The first person of the Trinity is God the Creator,

and by God’s grace, in God’s Triune image,

we become co-creators with God.

So what kind of world, what kind of church are we going to build?

May we commit to joining God’s liberation work.

May we commit to relationship.

Seek God in your relationships,

and especially with the people

who are most different from you.

May we challenge false or singular understandings of God,

May we learn from other peoples and perspectives.

God is at work in the world,

God cares about and is involved in the day to day,

so our experience is a key source of revelation of God.

May we share our experiences of God.

May we challenge static understandings of ourselves,

for we are changing,

the world is changing,

change is God’s design.

There is nothing more freeing

than the ability to just be yourself, unashamed,

and to find joy in the presence of your Creator.

As Thomas Merton puts it,

to be a saint is to be myself.

Just be yourself, don’t pretend to be anyone else.

Just as God uplifts Godself,

so may we uplift one another,

welcome one another,

treasure one another,

include one another,

across race and gender,

across sexuality and physical ability,

across ages and classes.

May the Body of Christ,

and our particular corner of it, here at Advent,

reflect the beauty and diversity of our God,

lived in harmony, together.

Thanks be to God. Amen.