Trinity Sunday 26 May 2013

• I was taught at a rather young age that “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” This was not said to downgrade education or curiosity. Actually, it is quite the contrary. It is the little bit of knowledge that becomes dangerous when it is mistaken for a lot of knowledge. Some people mistake a little knowledge for a complete understanding of a topic or even of all topics. A friend of mine once said that a person with a Doctorate knows more about less than any person alive. And I repeat that with all respect to people present who hold advanced degrees. It is an occupational hazard of education that the highest levels attain a supremely deep knowledge of a very narrow slice of the world's knowledge.
• Now, there can be a certain arrogance attached to knowledge and in particular with concepts that are hard to grasp. I say “can be” because it is not necessarily there. It seems that the truly knowledgeable person is often humbled by their knowledge when compared to what they know about and compared to what they don't yet know. But when that unfortunate arrogance is present, that “little knowledge” can become dangerous.
• Today is Trinity Sunday, the celebration of the nature of God. If any here were expecting me to explain the Holy Trinity in terms that could be easily understood, you can expect to be disappointed. The Trinity, the very nature of God, is beyond our understanding and our knowledge.
• The Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not a team of independent entities, like the Pep Boys – Manny, Moe, and Jack. Each is separate and they are forever united as one. How this is possible is beyond any of us.
• It appears that God has revealed enough of Godself for us to come to faith. We will never be able to completely comprehend the fullness of God, but we will be able to comprehend what is needed to trust in God. Enough has been shown to us for us to move on in our lives of faith and even to grow in faith.
• The Mystery of God remains and this mystery is not to be understood so much as to be experienced. We can all experience the Trinity, whether or not we make an attempt to understand the intimate nature of God. We experience this in other areas of our lives. We may not know the why or the how of Spring growth in the fields, but we can experience it. We might never be able to put into words our concept of the love we have for another person, but we certainly can -and do- experience it.
• The love we have for another person might be the closest we come to understanding and experiencing the life of God, the life of the Trinity. In the experience of love in our lives, we are united with the one we love, yet we remain separated and distinct from the other.
• Now, we do know a few things about God, because God has revealed these things to us. One of the most powerful things we know about our God is that relationship and community is at the heart of God. Any idea of the Trinity includes this. In fact, this might be all we know about God's own life. We know a lot of what God has done and we have been told why God has done those things in our world. And what little we know about God as God reflects this relationship and community within God. This is reflected even in the created world where all creation is interdependent, and for those who believe, in that way, nature itself reflects God.
• I think we know that the doctrine of the Trinity is not what draws people to Jesus Christ and that the doctrine of the Trinity is one of those things that requires both faith and a lot of thought in order to see anything in it. It will require more faith than thought.
• Is our salvation tied up in the Trinity? Absolutely! The Father has sent the Son to redeem us and save us from our sin and separation from God. The Spirit remains with us, supports us, and lead us to a deeper life in God. So not only our salvation, but our sanctification is Trinitarian in its nature.
• At this point, it would be worthwhile to read again the words of Paul when he wrote to the Church in Rome about justification, suffering, and the love of God.
• Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
• It is possible that the Trinity is the best way of seeing the life of God, a way we'll never understand, but a way we can all experience in our lives with God, with each other, and with all of God's creation.
• In that experience then, we'll know the true beauty of our God. That's something we all want, isn't it?