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St. Andrew's Church
An Anglican Church • Grimsby, Ontario, Canada
Preached by
Stuart Pike
Rector
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Trinity Sunday 2007
St. Andrew's Church
3 June 2007
Proverbs 8: 1-4
Romans 5: 1-5
John 16: 12-15
There were four priests, taking a short break from their heavy schedules, sitting on a park bench, chatting and enjoying an early spring day. "You know, since all of us are such good friends," said one, "this might be a good time to discuss personal problems." They all agreed. "Well, I would like to share with you the fact that I drink to excess," said one, "and sometimes, I've taken a nip or two from the communion wine." There was a gasp from the other three. Then another spoke up. "Since you were so honest, I'd like to say that my big problem is gambling. It's terrible, I know, but I can't quit. I've even been tempted to take money from the collection plate." Another gasp was heard, and the third priest spoke. "I'm really troubled, brothers, because I've started to have a little dalliance with a woman in my church —— a married woman." More gasps. But the fourth remained silent. After a few minutes the others coaxed him to open up. "The fact is," he said, "I just don't know how to tell you about my problem." "It's all right, brother. Your secret is safe with us," said the others. "Well, it's this way," he said. "You see, I'm just such an incurable gossip!"
And now I must admit to you that I don't really know why I decided to start today's sermon off with that story, except that it is such a good one, and I have been waiting to use it for quite some time. And, I suppose, that it underscores the fact that so much of our lives are about relationships. They are about friendships, love, needs, hopes, drives. Even when things are amiss in people's lives, and there is anger, jealousy, deception, and certainly gossip: most of that is still about relationships.
We are social animals - even when we are anti-social. Relationship is usually at the heart of the matter. We spend a lot of our energy simply trying to figure out how other people work. And sometimes, as we get older, we need to spend some time figuring out how we work - how we're put together.
Today is Trinity Sunday - the Sunday after Pentecost when we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit. On Trinity Sunday, we think about the great mystery of God - that God is one, and yet God is three.
The Church has traditionally spoken of God in the three terms of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For most of us, that presented a problem for us from our Sunday School days right us to the present.
I remember the questions I used to have as a kid: If Jesus, the son, is God, then who was he praying to when he prayed to the Father? Was God being Father and Son and Holy Sprit at the same time? And if not, then who was looking after the universe when God was being Jesus? Did Jesus know he was God?
Mine was an enquiring mind which just wanted to know. What I discovered was that there didn't seem to be an answer to the Trinity mystery for me. Nothing adequately explained the doctrine in logical terms. Nothing fully made sense to me.
It has only been after having preached and prayed through many a Trinity Sunday that I come to understand that the concept of the Trinity isn't an explanation of the nature of God, but our relationship with God. If once I thought that I would understand how God is put together, I now know that isn't going to happen. But I can understand more about how I have experienced God, and how other people have experienced God.
The writer of today's lesson from proverbs understands God as holy wisdom. This image has often been associated with the Holy Spirit. The writer speaks of wisdom in feminine language: "Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice?" Wisdom was with God from the beginning and was involved in the creative process. I love the end of the passage:
"When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep .... when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race."
God has sometimes been experienced as God the creator, as God the Father: planning, organizing, protecting - sometimes disciplining. God who is greater than we are. God who is above us - God who is transcendent - God who is beyond.
And yet, God the Holy Spirit was right there in the creative process.
Last week I spoke about the Holy Spirit being like fire: the fire of Pentecost, that swirls and eddies in a complicated unknowable dance. Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit being like the wind: "Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Sometimes we experience God as the Holy Spirit - the God who reaches us, right inside of us, and leads us in her new creative dance of transformation. God who prompts and directs. She who rushes into our lives sideways, and carries us away. God who is inside.
God was also experienced as a human being in Jesus Christ. This mystery of a human being living within the unity of God is so great that it is beyond understanding. As I did last week, I would like to quote from our own parishioner, Richard Berryman's book, which we are currently studying in our book study. I don't think I have read these ideas more elegantly expressed:
Richard writes:
"At the heart of faith, as at the heart of life, there is always mystery. The Christian faith, teaches , and I believe, that the mystery we call God is Trinitarian. Whatever else that means, it makes the startling declaration that at the very depth of the existence of God there is relationship. ... Only Christianity maintains that within the depth of the one God there is relationship. But even more - that the relationship is one of infinitely intimate love."
Our lives are about relationship. And God is, at the essence, about relationship. As we mature and grow in our lives and our day to day relationships, we can realize that our journey is also about deepening our relationship with God. The Trinity provides me with an understanding of an ever deepening relationship with God. From God beyond us to - in the person of Jesus - God beside us to God who is even within us. Thanks be to God for the joy of this inexpressible mystery. Amen
