The Bread Braid of the Holy Trinity: A Sermon for Youth (and Adults?)

Last year, Trinity Sunday, the Sunday after Pentecost, was the first Sunday where I was the Synod Appointed Minister at Faith Lutheran in Bristol, Tennessee.  I knew I needed to do a children's sermon, but I hadn't met any of them yet.  I thought about all the ways of explaining the idea of a Triune God.  I finally settled on water-ice-steam as a good demonstration (for more on last year's sermon, see this blog post).

I still think it was a good sermon and a good way to introduce myself to the youth and to the congregation.  It was more than just me droning on; although some of my youth sermons are just me, droning on, that wasn't the first impression I wanted to give.  But I no longer think it was as original as I might once have thought.

But maybe originality isn't the goal.  It certainly isn't this year.  This year, we'll be thinking about the Trinity as a braided community.  I thought about fabric, about something for everyone to take with them.  Then I thought about bread.  My church community seems to love the homemade bread that I bake and bring for communion, the youngest ones most of all.  And it's easy to make different colored bread dough.

I could make three different doughs:  pumpernickel, oat, and white/egg.  Or I could use food coloring for something dramatic.  I could have different flavorings, maybe made with chips like chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and red hots--and those would also color the dough.

Three bread doughs, one substance--if I created a Systematic Theology, it would be anchored in bread dough.