Invitation and gift
(Dear non-church going readers and friends... this one is churchy.)
Trinity Sunday - Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15
We are entering the liturgical season which, in the Episcopal church, is known ungloriously as “the Sundays after Pentecost.” For the summer and into the fall, the gospel readings follow the narrative arc of Jesus’ teaching and ministry from one day to another, one chapter and verse to the next.1
This Sunday opens the season by putting the Trinity on center stage. With good reason. Without the Trinity, Jesus is simply a loving teacher and gifted healer who died young and violently 2000 years ago.
Christians say there is more to Jesus than that. They say:
“Led by the Spirit more deeply into the life of Christ, we see the unveiled face of the living God.”2
That is a stunning statement.
The physicist Niels Bohr reportedly said, “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.” That can be said of the doctrine of the Trinity too: anyone who is not shocked by it may not have spent enough time with it.
Not that we ever understand it. It is not meant to be understood. The doctrine of the Trinity is not intended to be a diagram of God. It is “a summary of biblical faith, the briefest and most [precise] of Christian creeds.”3 It is an invitation into the mystery of God.4
When I have the time to read and reflect, there are a few books I can count on to help me “get it” enough to feel the shock. That is a moment of awe, giving rise to wonder, love and praise. It inevitably fades, and to get it back I would need to read and reflect again. Given the busy-ness of life, I don’t always.
But every time I conclude a prayer in the name of the Triune God, (whatever names I use for the three “persons,”)5 I remember that moment — that feeling of awe. And the wonder, love and praise.
Amidst the busy-ness of life, (and these days in this country, the cruelty and violence), that is a great gift.
Peace.
During the very “themed” seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and Easter the gospel readings skip around in order to tell the story of the season.
Catherine Mowry LaCugna, God for Us: The Trinity & Christian Life (HarperCollins, NY 1991) at 378.
Brian E. Daley, S.J. in his Foreword to Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine, by Khaled Anatolios (Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, MI. 2011) kindle edition [location 110.]
In the religious sense, “mystery” is a sometimes confounding sense that we are called to know something that is beyond our rational ability to know. To be open to it gives rise to both humility and ecstasy. Like relationships (!) which are at the heart of the Trinity.
Heartfelt thanks to my Trans and Queer friends whose courage-to-be has helped me to be less binary about gender. Their wisdom helps me look at Mayiyane’s photo (above) and see “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” and “Mother, Daughter and Wisdom” as well as “Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier,” and “Earth-Maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver.” If God can switch up her pronouns (which is the testimony of scripture) we can too.
A lovely piece Lily.
As a non church-goer 😉 I wonder if that feeling of awe is a bit of what I feel when creating new music, or in the presence of some work of art that I connect with and that “moves” me. Perhaps too simple, but there is mystery and sooo much energy in those moments….. moments of real beauty.
The mystery of God; a great gift indeed. Your writing and insigts, Lily, are also a great gift.