God Is Not Going Away
This Trinity Sunday we explore the persistent, relational nature of God. Drawing on Psalm 8, Proverbs 8, and John’s Gospel, we experience a God who remembers us, delights in us, and stays with us. The Trinity is not a puzzle to be solved, but a promise of unwavering love and presence.
The Glimpses of Grace podcast is a ministry of Grace Episcopal Church in Gainesville, Georgia. We are passionate about supporting the spiritual growth of souls, and we hope these sermons and conversations meet you where you are and enrich your soul as we all continue to make meaning in the world today.
Glimpses of Grace on Spotify
Transcript
You may have heard this phrase being used—
usually when love gets complicated or
perhaps when someone is being a bit stubborn. One might say: “You’re not going to get rid of me that easily.”
If you’ve used this saying, you may remember the deep desire… asserting your presence in a new way.
Being on the receiving end, you may have felt support and dedication, or maybe you felt overwhelmed or a loss of control.
Either way, this phrase points to a truth:
a determination to remain involved, to stay present;
a refusal to accept being ignored, excluded, forgotten;
a level of persistence in staying connected.
“I’m still here.” “I’m not leaving.” “I’m not going away.”
Dear friends, that is what the Trinity means—
God is a God who is not going away.
Gazing at the sky, the psalmist, in Psalm 8, wonders:
“When I consider your skies, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have established—
what is human that you remember us […] that you attend to us?” …struck by how big God is, and how small we are.
And yet—even in our smallness, in our lacking—God remembers us. God draws near.
The psalmist describes a God who will not be confined to the heavens, who refuses to remain distant, who will go to any length to stay close. God does not keep to a remote heavenly place. God reaches toward us.
This God who draws near is not solitary.
From the very beginning, God’s creativity was accompanied by Wisdom. In Proverbs 8, Holy Wisdom, Sophia,
speaks with a voice full of delight and mystery:
“The Lord created me; it happened when his work was beginning… All this time I was close beside him, a master craftsman.
Day after day I was there, with my joyful applause,
always enjoying his company.”
Wisdom is not just a concept here—it’s a companion. It’s presence. Relationship.
Playfulness, even.
Here we get a glimpse of God’s eternal movement,
the divine dance of relationship.
Before there were words, there was this Love.
Before creation, there was this Joy.
Wisdom reveals a God who has always existed in relationship— and who creates out of that very relationship.
Later, Christian theology will come to see this Wisdom as a reflection of Christ— “the Word who was with God in the beginning”—
and as resonating with the Spirit who hovered over the waters and leads us still. The Trinity bears witness that:
God has more to say than human language can carry.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says,
“I have so much more to say, but you cannot absorb it right now. The Spirit of truth will come and guide you in all truth.”
God is not done speaking.
God is not finished revealing.
God is not going away.
This is what we take from Trinity Sunday.
Because it’s tempting to think of God as a concept,
an idea we might eventually “figure out”—
something that we might boil down into something manageable. But Rowan Williams says, “God is not a thing among other things.” God is elusive, yet God is deeply present.
Jesus knew that even his disciples would not grasp everything. He promised the interweaving of the Spirit to guide.
That is the work of the Trinity:
The Father creating,
the Son redeeming,
the Spirit sustaining—
all three holding us in a shared life of infinite, unconditional love.
We live in a world that often wants to forget God,
we think we can get along just fine on our own.
Or maybe we go through moments when God seems silent. Or distant. Or absent.
But Trinity Sunday is a reminder that God is not absent.
Because God is not finished.
The Trinity is God’s way of being persistent.
God as Creator says, “You are mine, and you are good.”
God as Christ says, “I will live your life, die your death, and you may rise with me.” God as Spirit says, “I am here with you.”
Even when our words fail—God remains.
Even when we struggle to understand—God stays.
Even when we push God away—God says,
“You’re not going to get rid of me that easily.”
“O Lord our Governor,
How exalted is your Name in all the world!”
In between the stars and the soil,
between the majesty of God and the mystery of us,
we are called to wonder.
And in that wonder, we are given responsibility:
to live as stewards of creation.
to care for one another.
to listen for the Spirit’s voice, still speaking.
to marvel at the Christ in one another.
to trust the Creator who still names us “beloved.”
A love that is never stagnant.
A God who never gives up.
A presence that never abandons us.
God is a God who is not going away.
And that, my friends, is very good news.
Amen.