June 7, 2009
John 3.1-17
+ I think one knows one is a “church nerd” when one loves to preach on this Sunday. This Sunday is, of course, Trinity Sunday. Whenever I talk about this Sunday with some of my fellow clergy, they think I am crazy because I unabashedly enjoy this Sunday of the Holy Trinity.
But to be honest, I don’t understand why others have such an issue with it. Yes, I know the Trinity seems like some abstract theological concept to people. But to me, I think it is one of those amazing things in theology that, like an onion, as I unpeel, I just keep finding one more layer that amazes me.
But first, just a bit about why we have this Sunday and why it is important. It was on this Sunday in 1162—this Sunday after Whit Sunday or Pentecost Sunday which in 1162 fell on June 3—that Thomas Beckett was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury. His first act as ABC was to consecrate this Sunday to as a new feast day in honor of the Holy Trinity. From that moment on, it spread through the Anglican Church and the world. Since then, Trinity Sunday has the status of a Principal Feast in the Church of England and is one of seven principal feast days in the Episcopal Church.
It was also on this Sunday that, in certain Anglican Church, particularly Anglo-Catholic congregation, the Creed of St. Anthanasius was recited. Now, I know some of you might be terribly disappointed to hear this, but we will NOT be reciting the Athansian Creed this morning. Though, if you are interested in perusing it, you can find it on page 864 in the Book of Common Prayer. It’s actually fairly interesting reading, especially in regard to the Trinity. But sometimes, when I read it—and yes, I do read it on occasion—my head starts swimming, especially when I come across statements like this:
“…we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance
For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost.”
Interesting reading, but I don’t know if it helps us celebrate this wonderful Sunday with greater understanding.
For me, I certainly see the Trinity as a mystery. I would even go so far as to the say that it is the ultimate mystery of mysteries. I see it also as the paramount belief we Christians have. The Trinity. God as Three-in-One—God as Father or Parent or Creator, God as Son or God Incarnate—God in the flesh— and God as Spirit or Sanctifier. It is difficult to wrap our minds around this concept of God. The questions we priests regularly get is: how can God be three and yet one? How can we, in all honesty, say that we believe in one God when we worship God as three? Aren’t we simply talking about three gods?
Whole Church councils—including the one Athanasius was a part of—have debated the issue of the Trinity throughout history. The Church actually has split at times over its interpretation of what exactly this Trinity is.
Certainly, I struggled with this concept for years. It was only when I was studying for the priesthood, in a systematic theology class I took, that I came across a book that broke down all the barriers for me. The book, by a nun of the Dominican Order, Mary Ann Fatula, was called The Triune God of Christian Faith. Now that title alone would turn most of us off. Certainly when I saw it on the syllabus, I rolled my eyes and thought to myself: Great, another dry, boring book on theology. But despite its title, this book was amazing. Fatula was wonderful in how she took this very difficult concept of the Trinity and made it accessible at least for me. Some of the points Fatula makes are downright beautiful and poetic in attempting to understand what the Trinity is:
She begins with the belief that our very beings are “etched with the signs of Trinitarian origin.”
In a sense, we have proof of the Trinity’s existence in our very bodies and minds. Our psyche, for example, is Trinitarian, made up of three distinct aspects. It’s still one psyche, but it makes its self known in three different ways: memory, knowledge and love. It, in a sense, reflects the relationship the “persons” of the Trinity have with each other.
Another way she attempts to help us understand the Trinity is that of the relationship of the Lover, of the Beloved and of the Love that unites them. The Lover, our course, is God the Creator, the Parent. The Beloved is Christ, God in the flesh. The love that unites them is the Spirit. She stresses that although they are the same, they are still distinct and different in what they do. The Son (Christ) and the Spirit, she explains, are exactly what the Father (Parent) is, without being who the Parent is.
I’ll repeat that: The Son (Christ) and the Spirit, she explains, are exactly what the Father (Parent) is, without being who the Parent is.
Are you still with me? Let’s look at it from another perspective: The Trinity starts with the Incarnation—our belief that Jesus is God made flesh—God made one of us—fully God, fully human.
“Because of Jesus,” Fatula says, “heaven will be joined to earth in our very bodies.”
In other words, because Jesus was both a part of heaven and a part of earth, in Jesus, we find a perfect balance. Heaven and earth have come together. The Holy Spirit, released at the death of Jesus on the cross, is now poured out upon us. Before this death, Fatula says, the Spirit was confined by the “opaque boundaries of Jesus’ human existence.” His pre-resurrection body could only “’contain’ rather than convey the spirit.” At his death, the dam broke, in a sense. The Spirit poured forth into our lives as a lasting presence of God among us.
This is certainly what we celebrated last Sunday on Pentecost. Jesus, after he was resurrected, after he ascended bodily into heaven, has left us his presence—his spirit—to remain with us. It was poured out on those disciples in the upper room and it continues to be poured out upon all of us still to this day. This Spirit, according to Fatula, is the Father and the Son’s embrace of us, “their kiss, their joy and their delight lavished upon the earth.”
By the Spirit, we come to know both God as our loving Parent and God as our redeemer—we are encircled and drawn close to God.
So, what are talking about here is not three gods, as some people seem to think. What we are talking about it one tri-personal God—a God who cannot be limited in any way, but a God who is able to come to us and be revealed to us in a variety of ways So now we’re getting a real idea of what the Trinity is. Now, all of this is, hopefully, very helpful. It helps us to make sense of this sometimes confusing and difficult belief.
But ultimately what we have here are symbols and analogies of what the Trinity is. They are ways of taking something incomprehensible and making them, in some small way, tangible. We can go on and on about theology and philosophy and all manner of thoughts about God, but ultimately what matters is not how we think about God, but how we believe in God. Or more important than that, how do these views of God help deepen our relationship with God and with each other? How do they bring us closer to God?
Because that is our primary responsibility: our relationship with God. How can all this talk about God—how can this thinking about God—then deepen our relationship with God? Our goal is not to understand God: we will never understand God. Our goal is to know God. Our goal is to love God. Our goal is to try to experience God as God wishes to be experienced by us.
I have experienced God in a variety of ways; certainly I have experiences God in that tri-personal way countless times. I have known God as a loving and caring parent, especially when I think about those times when I have felt marginalized by people, when I have felt ostracized and turned away by people. I have also known God in Jesus. Probably this has been my most common way of knowing and loving God. And again and again in my life I have known the healing and renewal of the Spirit of my life.
So, no matter what the theologians argue about, no matter what those supposedly learned teachers proclaim, ultimately, our understanding of the Trinity needs to be based on our own experience to some extent. The Trinity does not have to be a frustrating aspect of our church and our faith. It should widen and expand our faith life and our understanding and experience of God and, in turn, of each other. It should, like that onion, be revealed to us in layers that surprise us and amaze us and delight us.
So, today, as you ponder God as Trinity—as you consider how God has worked in your life in a tri-personal way— and who God is in your life, remember how amazing God is in the ways God is revealed to us. God can not be limited or quantified or reduced. God can only be experienced and adored and pondered. And, of course, loved.
John 3.1-17
+ I think one knows one is a “church nerd” when one loves to preach on this Sunday. This Sunday is, of course, Trinity Sunday. Whenever I talk about this Sunday with some of my fellow clergy, they think I am crazy because I unabashedly enjoy this Sunday of the Holy Trinity.
But to be honest, I don’t understand why others have such an issue with it. Yes, I know the Trinity seems like some abstract theological concept to people. But to me, I think it is one of those amazing things in theology that, like an onion, as I unpeel, I just keep finding one more layer that amazes me.
But first, just a bit about why we have this Sunday and why it is important. It was on this Sunday in 1162—this Sunday after Whit Sunday or Pentecost Sunday which in 1162 fell on June 3—that Thomas Beckett was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury. His first act as ABC was to consecrate this Sunday to as a new feast day in honor of the Holy Trinity. From that moment on, it spread through the Anglican Church and the world. Since then, Trinity Sunday has the status of a Principal Feast in the Church of England and is one of seven principal feast days in the Episcopal Church.
It was also on this Sunday that, in certain Anglican Church, particularly Anglo-Catholic congregation, the Creed of St. Anthanasius was recited. Now, I know some of you might be terribly disappointed to hear this, but we will NOT be reciting the Athansian Creed this morning. Though, if you are interested in perusing it, you can find it on page 864 in the Book of Common Prayer. It’s actually fairly interesting reading, especially in regard to the Trinity. But sometimes, when I read it—and yes, I do read it on occasion—my head starts swimming, especially when I come across statements like this:
“…we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance
For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost.”
Interesting reading, but I don’t know if it helps us celebrate this wonderful Sunday with greater understanding.
For me, I certainly see the Trinity as a mystery. I would even go so far as to the say that it is the ultimate mystery of mysteries. I see it also as the paramount belief we Christians have. The Trinity. God as Three-in-One—God as Father or Parent or Creator, God as Son or God Incarnate—God in the flesh— and God as Spirit or Sanctifier. It is difficult to wrap our minds around this concept of God. The questions we priests regularly get is: how can God be three and yet one? How can we, in all honesty, say that we believe in one God when we worship God as three? Aren’t we simply talking about three gods?
Whole Church councils—including the one Athanasius was a part of—have debated the issue of the Trinity throughout history. The Church actually has split at times over its interpretation of what exactly this Trinity is.
Certainly, I struggled with this concept for years. It was only when I was studying for the priesthood, in a systematic theology class I took, that I came across a book that broke down all the barriers for me. The book, by a nun of the Dominican Order, Mary Ann Fatula, was called The Triune God of Christian Faith. Now that title alone would turn most of us off. Certainly when I saw it on the syllabus, I rolled my eyes and thought to myself: Great, another dry, boring book on theology. But despite its title, this book was amazing. Fatula was wonderful in how she took this very difficult concept of the Trinity and made it accessible at least for me. Some of the points Fatula makes are downright beautiful and poetic in attempting to understand what the Trinity is:
She begins with the belief that our very beings are “etched with the signs of Trinitarian origin.”
In a sense, we have proof of the Trinity’s existence in our very bodies and minds. Our psyche, for example, is Trinitarian, made up of three distinct aspects. It’s still one psyche, but it makes its self known in three different ways: memory, knowledge and love. It, in a sense, reflects the relationship the “persons” of the Trinity have with each other.
Another way she attempts to help us understand the Trinity is that of the relationship of the Lover, of the Beloved and of the Love that unites them. The Lover, our course, is God the Creator, the Parent. The Beloved is Christ, God in the flesh. The love that unites them is the Spirit. She stresses that although they are the same, they are still distinct and different in what they do. The Son (Christ) and the Spirit, she explains, are exactly what the Father (Parent) is, without being who the Parent is.
I’ll repeat that: The Son (Christ) and the Spirit, she explains, are exactly what the Father (Parent) is, without being who the Parent is.
Are you still with me? Let’s look at it from another perspective: The Trinity starts with the Incarnation—our belief that Jesus is God made flesh—God made one of us—fully God, fully human.
“Because of Jesus,” Fatula says, “heaven will be joined to earth in our very bodies.”
In other words, because Jesus was both a part of heaven and a part of earth, in Jesus, we find a perfect balance. Heaven and earth have come together. The Holy Spirit, released at the death of Jesus on the cross, is now poured out upon us. Before this death, Fatula says, the Spirit was confined by the “opaque boundaries of Jesus’ human existence.” His pre-resurrection body could only “’contain’ rather than convey the spirit.” At his death, the dam broke, in a sense. The Spirit poured forth into our lives as a lasting presence of God among us.
This is certainly what we celebrated last Sunday on Pentecost. Jesus, after he was resurrected, after he ascended bodily into heaven, has left us his presence—his spirit—to remain with us. It was poured out on those disciples in the upper room and it continues to be poured out upon all of us still to this day. This Spirit, according to Fatula, is the Father and the Son’s embrace of us, “their kiss, their joy and their delight lavished upon the earth.”
By the Spirit, we come to know both God as our loving Parent and God as our redeemer—we are encircled and drawn close to God.
So, what are talking about here is not three gods, as some people seem to think. What we are talking about it one tri-personal God—a God who cannot be limited in any way, but a God who is able to come to us and be revealed to us in a variety of ways So now we’re getting a real idea of what the Trinity is. Now, all of this is, hopefully, very helpful. It helps us to make sense of this sometimes confusing and difficult belief.
But ultimately what we have here are symbols and analogies of what the Trinity is. They are ways of taking something incomprehensible and making them, in some small way, tangible. We can go on and on about theology and philosophy and all manner of thoughts about God, but ultimately what matters is not how we think about God, but how we believe in God. Or more important than that, how do these views of God help deepen our relationship with God and with each other? How do they bring us closer to God?
Because that is our primary responsibility: our relationship with God. How can all this talk about God—how can this thinking about God—then deepen our relationship with God? Our goal is not to understand God: we will never understand God. Our goal is to know God. Our goal is to love God. Our goal is to try to experience God as God wishes to be experienced by us.
I have experienced God in a variety of ways; certainly I have experiences God in that tri-personal way countless times. I have known God as a loving and caring parent, especially when I think about those times when I have felt marginalized by people, when I have felt ostracized and turned away by people. I have also known God in Jesus. Probably this has been my most common way of knowing and loving God. And again and again in my life I have known the healing and renewal of the Spirit of my life.
So, no matter what the theologians argue about, no matter what those supposedly learned teachers proclaim, ultimately, our understanding of the Trinity needs to be based on our own experience to some extent. The Trinity does not have to be a frustrating aspect of our church and our faith. It should widen and expand our faith life and our understanding and experience of God and, in turn, of each other. It should, like that onion, be revealed to us in layers that surprise us and amaze us and delight us.
So, today, as you ponder God as Trinity—as you consider how God has worked in your life in a tri-personal way— and who God is in your life, remember how amazing God is in the ways God is revealed to us. God can not be limited or quantified or reduced. God can only be experienced and adored and pondered. And, of course, loved.
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