Colossians 2:20-23: If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch! (which all refer to things destined to perish with use) – in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?

Today is the first Sunday of the Trinity season.  Trinity season might seem like the “off-season,” since there are no major feasts, but we should view Trinity as the culmination of all that has happened before.  Advent celebrates the Father’s gift of the Son; Lent and Good Friday are about the Son’s gift of Himself, and at Easter we rejoices that the Father has given the Son back from the dead; at Pentecost, we receive the gift of the Spirit.

During Trinity, we are reminded that the gospel story tells us about God Himself: God has given Himself, wholly and without reserve, Father, Son and Spirit.  During Trinity, we remember that this is no accident, but a revelation of the eternal character of the God who is eternally self-giving love.

It’s important to see Trinity season as the climax of the church calendar, and also important to recall that it comes directly after Pentecost.  Trinity reveals the meaning of the outpouring of the Spirit.  When the Spirit falls on us, God Himself dwells in us, God Himself walks among us, God has made us His people and has become our God.  Pentecost means that we are no longer viewing the glory-Spirit from the foot of Sinai, but have been brought up to the peak of the mountain.  During Trinity, we are reminded that the God who gives Himself has not given Himself from a distance, but has incorporated us by and with the Son and Spirit into fellowship with the Father.

That not only means a new, more intimate, relationship with God, but also means a new, more intimate relationship with His creation.  As Paul notes in Colossians, the elementary principles of the Old Covenant prohibited intimate contact with things of this creation.  Don’t touch that, don’t taste that, don’t make that part of your bloodstream.

With the coming of the Spirit, with our incorporation into intimate fellowship with the Trinity, we are no longer so restricted.  All foods are clean; nothing that we touch can defile us.  We can be defiled by the sin that comes from our hearts, but for the pure all things are pure.  Because the Spirit has come, the world has again become for us what it was for Adam in Eden: It has become food, a banquet set before us by our Father

This table announces that good news.  There are no prohibitions of the law here.  We all touch, we all taste, we all handle.  This bread and wine are holy things for the holy people.  Taste, handle, touch; taste and see that the Lord is good.  For God gives us the world in the same moment that He gives Himself.