May 26, 2013
Pentecost 1 - Trinity
Genesis 1:1-4a
Proverbs 8:1-4,22-31
John 16:13-16
(prayer)
We have moved into the next season of the church year – a relatively long period of ‘ordinary time’ after Pentecost before Advent. For 2013, that will be 26 Sundays (fully half the calendar year), starting today. I hope you like green (it’ll be here for a while.
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Last Sunday, on Pentecost, we heard how the early church had its roots in Jesus’ disciples having a shared spiritual experience – where they realized that they were not alone. They believe, as Jesus said, that the Holy Spirit would be their helper along The Way.
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Traditionally, on this Sunday after Pentecost, the theme of the scriptures can often point to the number of ways we know God as Christians. This Sunday can be called “Trinity Sunday”
The United Church’s most recent formal faith statement – part of the evolving doctrine of if the church says this about how we speak of God:
With the Church through the ages,
we speak of God as one and triune:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We also speak of God as
Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer
God, Christ, and Spirit
Mother, Friend, and Comforter
Source of Life, Living Word, and Bond of Love,
and in other ways that speak faithfully of
the One on whom our hearts rely,
the fully shared life at the heart of the universe.
We witness to Holy Mystery that is Wholly Love.
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On this Trinity Sunday, I have to admit that the Trinity is not an easy concept to grasp – I know St. Patrick was said to have used a three leaf shamrock to explain it, but I still don’t think I really get it.
(video – Lutheran Satire)
From almost it’s earliest days, Christianity has struggled with what it means by saying that God the father, God the Son and God the Spirit are distinct, but unified – three in one. It was one of the bones of contention that Jewish Christians of the first century faced in their synagogues: did Christians worship one God or a pantheon of gods?
This is a bigger question that (another good question), Is Jesus divine? The Trinity begs us to ask, is Jesus fully God – is all that is God, Jesus? And Ditto with the third person of this trinity – the Spirit.
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I appreciate that in the first centuries of Christianity, our forbearers struggled with how to flesh out phraseology that can from the first decades of the church – a baptismal formula – that people were being baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).
What did those words mean about the nature of God?
While I appreciate that, I am not sure that the various declarations and creeds and declared heresies, help a modern person of faith deal with the question – if it is a relevant question at all anymore.
As our virtual St. Patrick noted, the 4th century Athanasian Creed dictated:
We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons; nor dividing the Essence. For there is one Person of the Father; another of the Son; and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal.
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The nature of God may simply beyond complete human understanding. We are limited to the images and metaphors from the experience of the universe we know.
There are so many ways people talk about God. The names and metaphors are seemingly endless. Some work well for us; others make us uncomfortable.
*Is there one perfect name or image that can hold it all in one?
*How do you explain mystery?
*How do you display an ever expanding tapestry?
*Can we admit that (maybe) the best of our language is inadequate to describe God fully?
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So, what language works for you?
Is God best described in persons: Father, Son, Spirit?
Or does function work better: creator, redeemer sustainer?
What about emotion: Source of love, Love incarnate, Love’s power?
Other language might work: Grace? Judge? Forgiveness? Jealous? Eternal? Mystery? Rock? Wisdom? Word? Foundation? The list could be endless.
Today, I’m going to pause in what I am saying and ask you to have a brief conversation with a small group of people around you: How do you describe God? Is there a word or phrase that sums up God for you? Does traditional Trinitarian language help or hinder your understanding of God.
[Talk amongst yourselves]
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Does how you think of God, change depending on the context of your life in the moment? I know it does for me.
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What about the possibility that God is big enough to be all that we need God to be – in the varies seasons and hills and valleys of our lives.
One of themes we talked about last week on Pentecost Sunday, was that God was understood at the most basic local level – no matter what part of the world the pilgrims came from, no matter what language they spoke, they were able to understand the good news that the Followers of Jesus were speaking.
In the bigger picture of the nature of God, perhaps our varied images and descriptions connect in a similar way: God is All in One.
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For me, I think I am closest to understanding the nature of God when I think of God, less as a person or being, but as a feeling. I find the first letter of John (chapter four, beginning at verse seven) the most compelling (this is from the New Revise Standard Version):
7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world. 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
Okay, I do find the constant use of male pronouns less helpful (but that’s the way the original greek wrote it). However, I don’t think that God is male (and I don’t think the New Testament writers thought of God as being male (in the practical human sense); they weren’t expecting their readers to imagine the holy bits and pieces [so to speak]. The biblical authors did not use gendre-based language because they believe God has certainly shaped genitals) – it is again, at most, just a metaphor.
See, getting lost in opinions about a less-than-helpful image for me, got me all distracted from what does work – God is Love: agape - . God is Compassion without condition.
We are loved by God – the scriptures make this clear over and over again. Indeed, God delights in all creation. In accepting that simple truth, hopefully we can dare to open our minds and hearts to experiencing God in a wide variety of ways.
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Shakespeare’s Romeo reminds us that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
God – the heart at the centre of the universe – is beyond language. We do our best, but we can never capture the true fullness of God. How can you catch a cloud and pin it down?
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Here’s what I believe: as we bring our many names and our varied images together (as we share our own experiences of the Divine), we might just learn a bit about the Holy within our midst.
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It is the search for meaning that improves our understanding. Our spiritual experiences will help inform our language as we evolve and mature in faith.
Enjoy the search – know that you are loved without condition as you try to grasp meaning and wonder.
Let us pray...
Amen
#268VU “Bring Many Names”
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