May 18, 2008
2 Corinthians 13:5, 11-13
preached by Rev. Wayne Irwin

A customer asks a clerk in a variety store
for a Hanukkah card.
"Sorry," says the clerk.
"We only sell Hallmark."

A preacher includes some biblical geography
in a sermon,
and is thanked at the door
by a departing worshiper,
who adds, "I always thought
Dan and Beersheba were husband and wife,
just like Sodom and Gomorrah."

There is so much
biblical and religious illiteracy out there,
that it is good every once in a while
for us to review
certain tenets of Christian teaching
so we can each contribute something
to the better understanding of the masses.
And Trinity Sunday is such an opportunity.

Week after week
we all hear reference in the worship service
to the Trinity. . .
"Holy, Holy, Holy,
God in three persons, blessed trinity!"
And then comes the Apostles' Creed
or something similar
affirming "the triune Godhead."
And sometimes we recite "The Gloria Patri":
"Glory be to the Father
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost."
Or in the sacrament of
initiation into the Christian Church
we hear the words:
"I baptize you . . . in the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit."
The so-called Trinitarian formula.
Required under the regulations
of the World Council of Churches,
if the baptism is to be recognized
across denominational boundaries.


And some church communities
conclude their services
with a benediction
very much like that in our text today . . .
the words of the Apostle Paul:
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the communion (or fellowship)
of the Holy Spirit
be with you all."

We hear and we speak these words,
relating to the doctrine of the Trinity,
so often within the church.
And it is a church formulation.
Church lingo.
But many persons . . .
maybe even many of you . . .
might well be surprised to learn
that the word 'trinity' itself
never appears in the Bible . . .
and the concept itself
did not appear in church discussions
until over 300 years
after the time of Jesus.

As the mythologist, Joseph Campbell,
the inspiration behind the "Star Wars" movies, observed:
"All of us are utterly inept
at picturing God."
We reflect on what our parents and teachers
tell us about God,
and we reflect on our own spiritual experience.
And we put together a theology,
a way of thinking and speaking of God
that serves us for a time.
We develop a personal concept of God.
Even those who are atheists do so,
choosing a concept of the divine reality
that they then decide to reject.
But whatever the concept
it is always inadequate.

As an artist-friend once observed,
"My painting depicting the moon . . .
is not the moon.
It attempts to represent the moon . . .
but it is always inadequate."


Even so with the doctrine of the Trinity.
It looks at three aspects of God
and attempts to bring them into a unity.
But God is not limited by our concepts.
Any representation,
no matter how satisfying to us,
just by definition . . . is inadequate.

The word "trinity" itself
derives from two words, "tri" and "unity"
meaning "three united" or "three in one."
The doctrine itself is a teaching
that God is one in substance,
but that there are three essential distinctions
or manifestations of that substance.
Three expressions of God's being,
presuming. . . that God "be's", that God "is."

Remember that "being" itself
is a phenomenon of the created order.
Being, existence, is something that is created.
So the Creator, then, himself, herself, itself,
can hardly be said to exist,
when the Creator, obviously, has to predate
the creation of existence.

The Creator, however,
is but one of the three aspects of the Godhead.
The aspect traditionally called "Father,"
because of the "initiating" characteristic involved.

The second aspect of the Godhead,
the one traditionally called "the Son"
which, as the Nicene Creed puts it,
"proceeds from the Father" . . .
the second aspect
is the expression of the divine reality
that does exist within creation.
The Incarnation. The Creator become Flesh.

And the third aspect,
the one traditionally called "the Holy Ghost"
or "the Holy Spirit,"
which the Western church declares
proceeds from the Father and the Son
and which the Eastern church declares
proceeds only from the Father . . .
(centuries-long arguments over concepts again)
this third expression
is the aspect of the divine reality
that we experience within ourselves.




. . .
the experience we name
with such names as the spirit of Love,
ot the spirit of Compassion and Caring,
or as I noted last week,
the spirit of Enthusiasm . . .
and even righteous Indignation.

Three expressions of the one Godhead.
And within the Christian church
there has never been
an idea of there being three Gods,
although there are those
who accuse the church of that.
And there also those Christians
who delight in believing
that there is a second God
whom they call Satan,
who is equal to, or even stronger than,
the God revealed in Jesus.

I say "Don't go there! It isn't biblical!"

What is biblical
is that any expression of reality
that we interpret to be evil
is part of existence . . .
part of the created order . . . not divine.

Nevertheless,
the Church has always held the idea
of the one God, the one Divine Reality,
undertaking to be revealed to us
through three primary forms.

The highly respected Cappadocian Fathers,
who were 4th century monks
living in what is now central Turkey,
namely Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa,
and Gregory Nazianzus . . .
they seem to be the first
who affirmed publicly the belief
that the one primary form of God
is that of Creator,
that the second is that of Redeemer,
and that the third is that of
the guiding, teaching and empowering Spirit
that every person encounters in the world.

It was St. Augustine, 4th century,
who set forth the concept
of greatest consequence
to the early church . . .
the position that has become traditional.
He set forth the concept of God
as a personal divine parent
having these three
co-eternal and co-equal distinctions.
Spoken of as Father, Son and Spirit.

Augustine is the one
first using the word "person"
for each of the three,
arguing that God's nature
is fully expressed
in each of these "persons,"
with the presence of each "person"
sensed by each of the other "persons."
"God in three persons." God in community.

Karl Barth, the great Swiss theologian
considered
one of the most important Christian thinkers
of the 20th century . . .
Karl Barth rejected
the contemporary use of that word "person."
He argued that its meaning
had changed so much since its early use
that to say "three persons"
contributes to modern-day confusion.

He points out that
the early Greek form of the word 'persona'
to which Augustine was referring,
meant 'mask' or 'face,'
and then later 'role,'
as in a drama, as in a play.
Barth pointed out that
there was no relationship whatsoever
with our present-day use of the word.
God in three persons, in Augustine's time,
meant the one Actor on stage
playing three different roles.

And across the years
there have been many attempts
to explain this concept of the Trinity
in ways that make sense
to the people of that particular day.

One popular attempt
was using the analogy of the egg . . .
the egg having three parts,
its shell, its white and its yolk,
yet with all three being part of the one.

Another attempt
was the analogy of the candle . . .
with its tallow, and its wick,
and the surrounding atmospheric air.
All three essentially combining
to make the one light.

Julian of Norwich, 14th century,
one of the greatest English mystics
used the analogy of the hazelnut,
holding one in her hand and musing:
"This is one aspect
of all that has been created.
And in it I see three properties.
God made it.
God loves it.
And God sustains it.
That (said she) is my threefold God."

But in our modern time,
the 20th century British author Dorothy Sayers
offered a contemporary analogy
using her own experience as a novelist.
In her book, The Mind of the Maker ,
published back in 1942,
Dorothy Sayers observed
that the person who is a writer
conceives a plot
and then develops the characters
who will enact that plot . . .
giving us two of the factors . . .
first the Mind of the Writer
and then the ideas formulated
by the Mind of the Writer.

And then, she says, comes the third part.
The writing itself,
which has an energy of its own,
sometimes even taking charge of the Writer,
taking charge of the Mind of the Writer,
and leading in directions
not originally anticipated.


I think of that in terms
of one of my favourite relaxations.
Reading the works of Lee Child.
He is a contemporary writer of thrillers.
Born and raised in England.
Now with a home in southern France
and another in New York City.
He has done so well.

After graduating from law school
he spent 18 years in commercial television
writing commercials and news stories
and trailers advertising movies.
Until he was suddenly downsized,
because of corporate restructuring.

Whereupon he decided to take up
writing novels,
calling them "the purest form of entertainment."

And two years later, publishing his first.
It did so well,
won so many awards,
that he kept on.
Presently publishing his twelfth.

I first encountered his writing
in mid-winter this year.
And was so captivated,
I read all eleven of his stories
in a matter of weeks.
And as I like to say it:
"They each took me down the rabbit hole."

And that experience
I liken to the working of the Holy Spirit
in any of our lives.

The experience of being captivated.
Of being animated.
Of being energized.
And inspired . . . and empowered.

The Idea,
the Written Word attempting to convey the Idea,
and the Experience of
the Reading of that Written Word,
and feeling the Excitement of the Idea.
The Idea, the Word and the Experience.
A Trinity. A Three-in-One.
And a Good Read!

James Joyce, early 20th century Irish writer,
author of Ulysses . . . and Finnegan's Wake,
noted the tendency in his day
for the masses to think of the Universe
as mechanical,
as something God had wound up
and that is presently winding down.
Joyce declared that in his observation
the Universe
behaves much less like a great Machine,
and much more like . . . a Great Thought.

God, the Great Thinker,
Creation, the Great Thought.
And Life . . . the Great Thought Spoken.
And experienced.
In hymn-writer Peter Davidson's words:

"When long before time
and the worlds were begun,
when there was no earth
and no sky and no sun,
and all was deep silence
and night reigned supreme,
and even our Maker had only a dream . . .
"The silence was broken
when God sang the Song,
and light pierced the darkness
and rhythm began,
and with its first birth-cries
creation was born,
and creaturely voices
sang praise to the morn . . .

"To you, God the Singer,
our voices we raise,
to you, Song Incarnate,
we give all our praise,
to you, Holy Spirit,
our life and our breath,
be glory . . . forever,
through life . . . and through death."

God, the Idea. . . . God the Song.
And God the Singer. Three in One.
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with you all."

Amen.