Trinity Sunday

Different Ways to See This

Note: About to be a spiritual curmudgeon. 

Just thought I would warn you!

Saw a meme posted on Facebook the other day.

Say AMEN if God has ever answered your prayer.
Hit like if you believe in the power of prayer.

Well, I did neither! Not because God has never answered my prayer or because I don't believe in the power of prayer. Both statements reflect truth in my life.

But not the way these memes usually mean it.

God always answers my prayers.

• The answer is "No!" when the prayer is about what I want and I haven't asked what God's will might be.
• The answer is "No!" when I'm being selfish or self-centered.
• The answer is "No!" because God has more important things to do than my petty wishes.

Do I believe in the power of prayer?

Of course I do. But that power only works when I am keeping my prayers focused on what prayer is really all about.

• Improving my contact with God. 
• I do that when the only thing I pray for is the knowledge of God's will for me (and others) and the power to live it in my life.

This view of prayer does not look for God to be like Santa giving good boys and girls what they want while placing lumps of coal in the stockings of the bad boys and girls. This view of prayer leads us into deeper communion with God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Then, as we grow deeper into that communion, we begin to realize that what we have and what we are doing needs always to be in communion with God's will.

When prayer "fails" it is usually our selfishness pulling us away from the will and grace of God.

A Sunday for Theology

Trinity Sunday

The day set aside to discuss Christian doctrine.

Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior.

Yet the Trinity is one of those doctrines that resists explanation. The use of Celtic knots does a far better job. There's the triangle knot, in this case also looking like three fish intertwined. The fish (Ichthus) symbol being one of those ancient symbols of the faith. - Ichthus. As always the circle of the completeness of God holding it all together in one.

As does an M. C. Escher-ish triangle. No end, no beginning, no one side or the other. Just when you think you have it figured out, you look again and it doesn't quite meet our expectations. Just like God. Every time I think I have God figured out, everything shifts. Up is down, right is left, what I thought was light is dark and darkness is overcome.

This one also says it well for me. Another Celtic knot-type design with the triangle interweaving with itself, winding around and around in a way that is unsolvable. Holding it all in one is the circle, the completeness of God.


But you don't have to understand it. You don't have to be a theologian with advanced degrees. We experience God in these three-

Father
Son
Holy Spirit

Creator

Redeemer

Sustainer

God.

One God.

Forever and ever.

What more is there?

Second Sunday of Pentecost - Trinity Sunday

There is no explaining theology. Not in a simple way that won't get you into realms of heresy. I have tried for years to explain things like the Trinity but every time I do I slip into trite phrases, convoluted sentences that seem to run on forever, and, well, I'm already starting down that road. But let me show you an example of how difficult it might be. Here is the lead section on Wikipedia about the Trinity:

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. The doctrine states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, or in the Greek hypostases, but one being. Each of the persons is understood as having the one identical essence or nature, not merely similar natures. Since the beginning of the third century the doctrine of the Trinity has been stated as "the one God exists in three Persons and one substance, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Trinitarianism, belief in the Trinity, is a mark of Oriental and Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and all the mainstream traditions arising from the Protestant Reformation, such as Anglicanism, Lutheranism and Presbyterianism. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church describes the Trinity as "the central dogma of Christian theology".

This doctrine is in contrast to Nontrinitarian positions which include Binitarianism (one deity/two persons), Unitarianism (one deity/one person), the Oneness belief held by certain Pentecostal groups, Modalism, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' view of the Godhead as three separate beings who are one in purpose rather than essence. ...

Like other terms expressing fundamental Christianity concepts, such as monotheism, the word trinity is not found in the Bible. The doctrine developed from the biblical language used in New Testament passages such as the baptismal formula in Matthew 28:19 and took substantially its present form by the end of the 4th century as a result of controversies in which some theologians, when speaking of God, used terms such as "person", "nature", "essence", "substance", terms that had never been used by the Apostolic Fathers, in a way that the Church authorities considered to be erroneous.

Some deny that the doctrine that developed in the fourth century was based on Christian ideas, and hold instead that it was a deviation from early Christian teaching on the nature of God or even that it was borrowed from a pre-Christian conception of a divine trinity held by Plato (428/427 – 348/347 BC).

Got it? (Test next week.)

But I have a hunch that all this is simply our human way to deal with seemingly irreconcilable paradoxes. God as a human being- even as a tiny, helpless baby. God as a breath of fresh air or a push of strong wind moving across the formless waters. God dying on a cross. God in flames or doves landing on average people making them into something more than they ever thought possible.

Can you put all that together in your mind? Can you keep those contrasting views in the same picture? Can you describe what it means?

Neither can I- so I won't go any further with this and instead let it happen, let it be, let it sink into my soul and go from there.

It's all about God and as I have said here before, I'm not sure I could worship a God who I could explain and understand in my poor, almost useless human language.

Theology- Explaining the Unexplainable
As I started to work on this morning’s sermon I was peaching so my pastor could enjoy his daughter's graduation, I realized that I had said yes to preaching on Trinity Sunday. It is the only church holiday that is about a theological doctrine. How in the world can that be interesting? Why bother with dull, dry, theology. Leave it to the professors and scholars, not us everyday Christians struggling to make sense of life in the world while living up to Jesus’ call to follow him.

The problem is that theology is at least two or even three steps removed from reality. Let me explain. Everything starts with an experience of course. It’s like if I go to the Boundary Waters canoeing for a week. I have one of the most amazing weeks of my life. The weather is great. The fishing out of sight. The loons- well, they are loons- which in and of itself is an other worldly experience. That’s the start – the experience – a reality- that I have. It’s neat and wonderful.
Well, a few weeks after I come home we are sitting around a Starbucks or Caribou and I begin to tell you about my amazing trip up north. I describe for you the remarkable beauty of seeing a Bald Eagle soaring high above as I paddled up the lake. Then I talk about how humble I felt lying on a rock after dark watching the uncountable stars spread above me like a great milky path. As you listen you hear the joy and wonder in my voice and may even notice a twinkle in my eye as I relive for you my experience. I may even invite you to join me sometime and experience what I saw and felt. Well, this is the first step away from reality. It’s once removed from what I have experienced. But because I am telling you directly it still can be stirring and moving. Personal testimony often can be.

Well, it turns out you are a newspaper reporter and you are writing a column for the Sunday travel section about people who have had amazing wilderness adventures. You interview me- and others- about what we have seen and felt and done and you write the article. The person reading the paper that Sunday morning is now at a 2nd step away from reality. They are reading about from someone who heard about it. Someone else is telling about my experience. Then, at the end of the article the reporter talks about why these experiences are so moving. Perhaps he tries to explain what goes on in people as a result using natural, psychological, or even religious language. And there- right there- you have gone into theology. The third step away from the experience. Someone explaining what someone else told you about someone’s experience. Even if I would try to explain the experience it will still be a couple steps removed because it isn’t just telling the story.

The 12-step groups, for example, have tried to avoid this by telling their members that when they seek to help someone they should stick to what they were like, what happened and what they are like now. They say they share their experience, strength and hope.
So what is the experience behind the theology of a doctrine like the Trinity? What’s behind the fancy language? What’s the experience, strength, and hope that we can share and received from this idea that God is Three in One- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Now I am not a 1st or 2nd Century Christian who lived before this became part of the faith, but I can do some imagining from my experience and what I read about the early Christians. Part of it, I believe, has to do with the fact that this God of ours is so BIG and so beyond words and our senses that it is hard to compact what we know and feel into one sentence. People were having God experiences right and left that they couldn’t seem to bring together in one.

• There’s creation. That in itself is huge. Awesome!
• There’s parental love. God as Father. Wow!
• There’s salvation as you know- you KNOW- you have been freed from sin. That’s humbling.
• There’s that powerful wind that rushes through the soul and pushes you out the door speaking in every language in town. Exciting!
• There’s that comfort that surrounds you like a well-loved blanket- warming the soul. Peace.

How can all this be God? As they described these things, invited others to share them, the experiences spread and became – well – controversial. That may sound strange but as people talked about this it began to sound like they were talking about different gods instead of just one. Some didn’t want to believe that one God could be experienced in all these different ways. Some began to accuse the Christians of worshipping more than one God. Over a couple hundred years it became a mess with charges and counter charges being made.

So in step the theologians. An obviously necessary step to help sort it out. To make the long story short enough, the result was what we call the Nicene Creed with its convoluted language of one God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance. Voila- the Trinity.
As a doctrine it is important- an essential. God is three in one and one in three- Father and Creator, savior, and comforter and source of Power as the Holy Spirit. To lose sight of the Trinity is to lose sight of the all-encompassing power of God. To lose sight of the Trinity is to limit the experiences of God.

And we have all had varied experiences of God. We know on some level what it means- even if it is just the basic essential that there is only one God who created all that is, brings salvation through Jesus, and empowers us through the Holy Spirit. As theology it is an explanation. As a statement of faith- it is a retelling of our experience.

Thursday evening I was sitting with some friends and one of them started explaining about how- in his life- he had become “God dependent.” After a quick summary of what he meant by that he added- “When I say that I means the Holy Trinity. All three. God- all three.” He knew what he meant and understood it was coming from his experience of God, the strength he has gained over sin- the hope for the power to live a life that seeks to do God’s will. He didn’t go into theology.

So, even as I have explained a little about where the doctrine came from, I have not spent much time trying to explain it. To explain it is to take you or myself away from the experience and its power. Even when I preach I can only preach from my own experience, strength, and hope.

When I get into interpretations, and explanations and definitions I am on my way into theology. It can be interesting and challenging, of course. It helps me put words to what I have seen and felt. But in the end the theology points somewhere else- somewhere apart from intellectual discussions. I am putting my experience into words and in so doing inviting you to find, live, and share that experience.

• The experience of the creator God who brought all that we see into existence.
• The Savior God who reached out- and still reaches out- to bring us out of sin.
• The empowering and comforting God who fills is with His life and kicks us out into the world- while walking along right beside us.

It’s not rocket science.
It’s not theology.
It is simply life with God.