So What?

 Proverbs 8, Psalm 8, John 16:12-15

As you can see from the poem on the front of the bulletin and can discern from our hymns, today is that strange liturgical Sunday called Trinity Sunday. 

Every year, this Sunday pops up immediately following the festival of Pentecost.  And, every year, we make the awkward move from a special Sunday centered around the Spirit-birthed church, to another special Sunday centered around… a theological doctrine, of all things. 

 The constant challenge of Trinity Sunday is that we creatures only have mere words at our disposal as we sit in front of a table heaped high with theological mystery.  And simple words—even beautiful theological words—cannot do justice to the gift of the Holy Mystery.  It is like trying to describe why hearing an amazing piece of music unexpectedly makes your heart ache or fills your eyes with tears.  You simply cannot give words to such a powerful experience.  I feel the same inadequacy about trying to articulate God’s mysterious triune nature. 

 And yet, just as I start feeling completely inadequate for the task, I go to the Bible and recognize that its writers suffered the same struggle.  They, too, seemed to have struggled with the task of giving words to explain the mysterious inner workings of God.  Indeed, Scripture often speaks of the three in very distinct terms, making it seem like they operate independently.  We can look at our Scriptures for today as our example.  In Psalm 8, we hear about God as the Creating Sovereign, the person of God known traditionally as the Father, the one above all and in charge. 

 But then, in our Proverbs passage, we learn about another part of God—one known in Hebrew as Hockmah, in Greek as Sophia, or in English as Wisdom.  Actually, she is known as Wisdom Woman.  Our Scripture uses completely feminine imagery for this part, this person of God.  Wisdom tells us she was also at creation, serving as a co-architect with God the Father, as a master worker, beside him, daily his delight, helping to spin the world into being, and humanity into existing. 

 And so it sounds like there are two persons involved now as one God.  The Gospels, especially Luke and John, carry this wisdom tradition into their description of Jesus as the Christ.  Jesus is known as the embodiment of this Wisdom of God.  The Logos that was in the beginning.  The Word that was with God, and the Word that was God. 

 And then, to further complicate things, in our John passage for today, we listen to Jesus speaking about this person of the Advocate, the Spirit of truth.  We hear Jesus tell the disciples that if he does not go away, the Spirit will not come.  We hear Jesus saying that he is going to send the Spirit of truth to be with them.  And the Spirit will glorify Jesus the Christ, and God the Father.  And so now, it appears there are three persons involved in this God thing.  And yet, we still claim God as One. 

Are you confused yet?  Don’t be embarrassed if you are!  It is confusing.  Who are all these people?  How can God the Creator be God as Wisdom Woman at the same time if God is one?  How can God the Father be God’s own Son?  And, if Jesus is God, to whom does he pray all those times?  And what is this Holy Spirit?  Is it the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, or something else altogether?  How are all these people one, yet distinct; indivisible, yet separate?

 It is very confusing.  And that intellectual and emotional confusion is why church councils took centuries debating and discussing these questions.  And the church councils came up with some wonderful orthodox statements, some of which you find in our Book of Confessions, particularly in the Nicene Creed.  However, as much as I intellectually understand what the councils were striving to do, and as much as I appreciate their work, their answers never quite do it for me.  And so, again, we are left with the very important question:  When all is said and done, why should we care?  Why is it so important to proclaim the triune God, God in three persons, God as relational, blessed Trinity?

 For me, it is important because when we use this relational trinitarian language for God, we are making some bold claims about who God isn’t and who God is.  First, who God is not:  When we use relational trinitarian language about God, (God as Father, Son and Spirit) we are claiming that the God we worship is not stagnant and distant; untouchable, the great watchmaker in the sky who set things into motion and went far, far away. 

 On the contrary, when we use this relational trinitarian language, we are making the bold and radical claim that somehow, the same God who created life out of chaos also walked the earth as Jesus.  We are claiming that the one who experienced crucifixion, at the exact same time experienced the death of a beloved child.  We are claiming that the one who ascended into heaven is the same one who is always with us.  We are claiming that the one who prays for us at the right hand of the Father is the same one groaning deep within our souls for the redemption of creation.  When we say we believe in a triune God, in God as Creator, Son, and Spirit, we are boldly claiming that the active God of the past is an on-the-move God who is acting now, and will act in the future until all has been reconciled and made new. 

 Furthermore, when we confess belief in a triune God, we are claiming that the God we worship is a God who has relationships at God’s very core.  Another way to talk about the Holy Mystery as Three-In-One is to talk about God existing as divine community.  As my beloved professor Shirley Guthrie would say, God is the divine community who lives with and for and in each other in mutual openness, freedom, and self-giving love.  And that inexplicable mystery has deep implications for our life together as God’s children, created in God’s image.

 God, at God’s very core, is about mutually interdependent relationships.  So we, as people created in God’s image, children of God, carry that trait in our core too.  It means that we don’t just exist beside each other, we aren’t just supposed to love each other, but we deeply need each other to be fully human, in order to be Christ’s body. 

 We cannot simply exist on our own, in isolation, in autonomy, separate from the body of Christ.  In order to really live out our identity as children of God, in order to live fully as baptized people, we need, we are called, we are created to be in honest and deep relationships with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.  We really must share one another’s burdens, rejoice when one of us rejoices, and weep when one of us weeps. 

 All I have to do when I want to see how this claim of God as divine community impacts us is to picture Dave Bassett’s memorial service almost one month ago.  Sylvia and her daughters came into a sanctuary filled with people—people from the community, people from their school, and people from this church.  At Dave’s memorial service, they walked into a sanctuary full of people who had come simply there to stand with them in their grief.  Sylvia walked in and saw all of you who had made promises to welcome them as family when they joined this church years ago, here to fulfill those promises of support for them in a way we never would have predicted. They walked in and you literally had their backs—standing silently behind them, praying for them, loving them—made family in Christ. 

 When I want to know what holy community looks like and feels like—I just remember the power of your witness.  In that moment, in all of those kinds of moments that we regularly share together, we were reflecting fully what it means to be created in the image of a triune God—a God who has relationships at God’s very core.  And that is simply one way our theology, our God-talk, has taken shape, become incarnate, in our congregation. 

 But it goes beyond just Black Mountain Presbyterian.  Our theological claim of God as divine community also has serious implications for our denomination as we again move into a time of General Assembly.  Now I know that theological church fighting has been going on since God birthed the church into the world.  And I am convinced church fighting will continue on until the last days. 

 However, I believe this claim of God as divine community requires me to stick in there through all of it.  It requires you, too.  We cannot just pack up our toys and go home when something happens that wounds us or wounds people we love.  We cannot decide to separate ourselves from the community.  You have heard me preach it before and I promise you will hear me preach it again.  But if we believe that God is divine community at God’s very core, then somehow, you and I have got to figure out how to stick in there with each other so as not to lose out on who we have been created to be together.  I don’t always like that challenge from God, but I do believe it is true. 

 Somehow, in God’s great imagination and humor, it is only when we are together that we see and experience the Holy Mystery with the clearest eyes.  My prayer is that our commissioners to the General Assembly meeting will find that true for themselves.  For the church will be a stronger and more vibrant witness if they do. 

 This God-talk, this theological language about the Trinity, this feast of mystery spread out before us, can feel daunting from time to time.  It can feel like it is way too big, way too important, to get our mouths and our minds around.  And, in some ways, it is.  It reminds me of what Emily Dickinson wrote, which is on the front of your bulletin:  Always tell the Truth, but tell it at slant.  That is exactly what we are doing when we speak of the Trinitarian God.  We are speaking about God’s holy mystery at slant. 

 But, we must keep on trying.  Even when we run out of words or sermons to describe it, we must keep on reflecting on the power of our belief in a Triune, relational, mysterious God.  We must keep on seeing when and how that claim lives on in our lives.  For as children of God, the Holy Mystery told at a slant, we can do no less.  Amen.