| Trinity Sunday-our celebration of One God in Three Persons.
In this morning’s First Lesson, the apostle Paul closes a letter to the Christians in Corinth by offering this three-fold blessing: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” And in our Second Lesson, Matthew brings his gospel to a close by describing the Risen Christ as saying to his followers, to quote the venerable King James Version, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” “God, Christ, and Holy Spirit,” “Mother, Brother, and Holy Partner,” “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer,” “God Above, God Beside, and God Within,” “Womb of Life, Word of Truth, and Spirit of Love”-whatever the particular set of titles we use, Christians affirm that God is One, yet also in some way three. Now, Trinity Sunday is the only Sunday in all the liturgical year that’s focused on a specific doctrine of the church. And on this Sunday, pastors are expected somehow to try to “explain,” as it were, the mystery of God, the mystery of the One who is also somehow three. Have you heard the story about people from all over the world who died and went to heaven and began to aggregate there in the entrance way while awaiting further instructions? Finally, the archangels Michael and Gabriel approached this expectant gathering and divided them into two groups. Michael took all of the pastors and theologians with him, while Gabriel ushered everyone else, including our beloved Claudia, and Makiko, and Cathy, straight into the Great Throne Room, where they were immediately caught up, for all eternity, into the indescribable ecstasy of full and direct communion with God’s very Self. Meanwhile, Michael escorted his group-the pastors and theologians-into quite a separate chamber, a room better suited to their inclinations, a hall where they could first spend a millennium or two preparing themselves to meet God by listening to lectures about God. Yes, we pastors and theologians are a strange bunch. Don’t we often put more energy into talking about God than into trying to turn these sanctuaries that have been entrusted to our care into earthly throne rooms where our congregations can experience God directly, where we can all be absorbed into God in wonder, love, and praise? So very much about God is a mystery, a mystery beyond our ability to conceptualize or explain. After all, words can’t even adequately describe the mysteries of this world, like an exquisite sunset, or the depth of our love for those closest to us, or the pleasures we experience in friendship? And if words can’t adequately describe earthly phenomena like these, how can we expect words to describe,well, God! The famous 13th-century theologian Thomas Aquinas spent years writing his two-million-word explication of God entitled Summa Theologica. Yet still, at the end of his life, he could only term his output as "so much straw." And even further back that that, in the late-4th and early-5th centuries, Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, wrote a whole lot of stuff about God, yet in the end he concluded that God’s nature remains so ineffable and so mysterious that it can best be described only through a riddle. In the end, God’s nature is best described by saying just this: God is "an infinite circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere." (repeat) Now that’s a riddle indeed! Still, in our Second Lesson, this awesome, mysterious God comes to us in Christ Jesus and invites us-no, commands us-to teach all nations, however imperfectly, about Godself. Now, over the past six and a half years I have tried my best to help make this sanctuary of ours an earthly throne room, a place where we can all experience God directly, where we can all be absorbed into God in wonder, love, and praise. So perhaps, based on the merit of that effort of mine, you will indulge me this morning as I take just a few minutes to do what we pastors so much love to do-to talk about God. And I want to do so in the hope that my talking will somehow prove able to point you toward a path on which you can yourself have direct experiences of God. And since God as Trinity is a mystery, let me try out several different approaches as I seek to point you toward that mystery. So, my first approach. Science teaches that the three physical elements most essential for life in the universe are hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. But as Paul makes quite clear in our First Lesson, Christianity teaches that the three spiritual elements most essential for life in God’s universe are: God’s grace, God’s love, and God’s offer of abiding fellowship. The doctrine of the Trinity seeks to name as divine these essential elements of existence: grace, love, and fellowship. And it seeks to name these three as the very ground of all existence. (cf. Joanna Adams, The Abingdon Women’s Preaching Annual, Series I-Year A, [Abingdon, 1998] p. 121.) Penelope Mark-Stuart, a Canadian writer on spiritual matters, tells us that whenever she comes home alone late at night from a meeting or a class or whatever, she always finds the back porch light on, illumining her way. Now one could, of course, explain the phenomenon of that porch light scientifically, by discussing electric charges and light waves. But what really makes that light happen is her husband, who sets scientific processes into motion and tends to them out of his gracious remembering of her need, out of his love for her presence, and out of the communion between his spirit and hers. Well, God is like that. God, too, sets scientific processes into motion and tends to them, and God, too, does so out of grace, out of love, and out of a proffered fellowship of Spirit. That's approach number one to the mystery of the Trinity And now, my second approach. The language of God, Christ, and Holy Spirit, of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of Mother, Brother, and Holy Partner-this language points to the understanding that whatever else God may be, God is relational. God is a complex being living in an intimate, loving inner mutuality. Now, how can we get at the mystery toward which this second approach is pointing? Well, note, for example, this morning's bulletin cover. There you’ll find the image of a triangle that circumscribes a continuously curving line formed by three interlocking arcs, or half circles. This symbol suggests that the three aspects in which we experience God reflect an internal Oneness that is complex rather than simple, an internal Oneness that is composed of three interlocking elements existing in an inseparable, interrelated community of being. Much the same concept of the Triune God is offered, without resorting to a mathematical model, by the contemporary British essayist Sara Maitland. In her book A Big Enough God [1995], Maitland suggests that the inner being of the triune God is like a child's ideal pigtail, a plait of three exactly equal strands smoothly interrelated, a single braid compounded of three elements that are interlocking and inseparable, yet distinguishable. Were any one of these strands larger or thicker than the other two, the braid would be lopsided and unbalanced. And were any one strand pulled out of the plait, the pigtail would collapse and altogether cease to exist. Now, the understanding of the Triune God offered to us both by this image of Maitland's and by the graphic on today's bulletin cover-this understanding posits that the heart of existence is relationship, that the essence of God's own being is relational, that God exists through an inner relationship of equal and inseparable, yet distinguishable, component elements. And therefore, the world created by this God also exists through relationships. Atoms exist in relationship to other atoms; and if they did not exist in relationship, they would altogether cease to exist. Humans exist in relationship to other humans; and if we did not exist in relationship, we would altogether cease to exist. God our Creator: because God is triune and relational, God has created us for living in community. God our Redeemer: because God is triune and relational, the Good News of forgiveness and healing that comes from God is directed not just to one people but to the whole of humankind. God our Sustainer: because God is triune and relational, our mission as a people of God is to braid all peoples into one smoothly interrelated plait. Furthermore, because the Oneness of God is a triunity of equals, we humans, created as we are in the image of this God-we humans are called to relate to each other as equals. Now, theology may be difficult, but it does in fact matter. For our doctrine of the Trinity shapes not only our image of God but also our image of ourselves, and our image of how we are intended to live with others. Developing fellowship and egalitarian community with one another is the way we can best become the images of the Triune God that we are meant to be. That's a second approach to the mystery of the Trinity. Matthew promises that the Triune-God-Made-Known-in-Christ will not abandon us to whatever doubts or confusions may remain in our minds as we wrestle with God’s mystery. For the Triune-God-Made-Known-in-Christ has promised to be with us always-extending to us grace, and love, and perpetual fellowship, both here in the space of this sanctuary of God’s presence and also in the space of the cathedral of our hearts. What Good News that is! Whatever our doubts, whatever our doctrinal difficulties, God is with us always. Let us pray: O God of Mystery, we praise You. You have created all things. You have revealed Your salvation to all the world by coming to us in Jesus Christ, the Word-Made-Flesh. You have sustained us in life and in love through Your Holy Spirit and have promised to be with us always. O Triune God, You have created us in Your image, to live with others in relationships of equality. May we prove worthy of Your gift to us and of Your trust in us. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen. |
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