It is "Trinity Sunday" today in the Episcopal church; otherwise known as the Sunday priests all across our nation try with all their might to explain to their congregations a concept that completely and totally baffles them (the priests, not the congregation)!
I'm never one to shrink from something I don't understand, or to be afraid to tackle the unexplainable. So here it comes: Trinity Sunday.
Genesis 1: "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters."A wind from God, what an amazing image. In the formless chaos before creation God creates wind from God's own self. God breathes. And then God speaks the first words: "Let there be light." God breathes, God acts, God speaks. But wait, this is Trinity Sunday. Shouldn't I be explaining about how the wind is the Holy Spirit; and the Word, that's Jesus; and well then God is, well, God...
Except the Jewish people who told this story didn't have our concept of the Trinity. This isn't a story about "The Trinity," this is a story about God. A God who speaks, and acts, and breathes. You notice, God doesn't even have a name here. All the god's around the Hebrews had names, like Baal, and Ra, and later still Zues. God though, their God and our God, is only God.
Our psalm today ends: "O LORD our Governor, how exalted is your Name in all the world!" and our canticle:
"Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers; *All these mentions of God's Name, and yet do you notice, its missing. The Hebrews finally gave God a name that couldn't be pronounced. We don't even bother with that, we just say God. Not a name, but a title. There used to be thousands of little gods, every one of them with a name. We have God.
you are worthy of praise; glory to you.
Glory to you for the radiance of your holy Name; *
we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever. "
What does this have to do with Trinity Sunday? I think it has quite a lot. You see every year we try to explain the unexplainable. Every year we try to name the unnameable. I hope you'll forgive me if I quote the Tao te Ching. The opening words of that ancient sacred text begin:
The tao that can be toldThere is great truth here. I was in college when I first read those words and I remember vividly stopping in the middle of the University library and sitting down on the floor to read them again, very slowly. As I read I felt a flower of understanding opening in my heart and in my mind. My soul said yes!
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
I can't explain the Trinity to you today. Not if we had a hundred years to sit together and discuss nothing else. Not if all of humanity sat down together and pondered nothing else for a thousand years, because God cannot be named. The God who has no name, and a thousand names, and who is too great for any name, moves and acts and speaks and breathes.
God cannot be explained by any doctrine, or constrained by any name. I did a search while writing this for "names of God," and I found a website that listed all the "names" of God from Hebrew and Christian scripture. Now most of them would hardly sound like proper names to you or I, but the list numbered over a thousand and I'm sure we here could think of more. Our God is a God of a thousand names, and all togehter they are insufficient. Yahweh, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Creator, Redeemer, Holy One, Lord, Mighty One, Savior, Deliverer, Shield, Righteous One, El-Olam, El-Berith, Abba.
If you want to understand God, then my friend, you are in the wrong place. The closest we've ever come were the words spoken to Moses: "I am that I am." or more literally and I think excitingly "I-shall-be that I-shall-be." We cannot name God. Neither can we divide or define God. That is why there are a great many preachers this morning sweating over sermons for Trinity Sunday.
That does not mean the Trinity is not important, or valid. Oh no, just the opposite. The uniquely Christian doctrine of the Triune nature of God is so very important because it is so impossible. If I could explain it to you in ten minutes, or in a lifetime it would be horribly and irrevocably flawed. It would be too small and too simple for the awesome impossibility that is God. God who moves, and speaks, and breathes, and acts. God who is, and was, and is to come. God who bears a thousand names, yet cannot be named.
If you are confused by the Trinity, you're in good company. And you have it exactly right. Because God is bigger than our names and yet God has chosen to reveal God's self through those names. God has chosen to draw God's awesome and infinite self down to fit infinity into a name. Holy One, Yahweh, Jesus, Spirit, Love. God who is the source of all things, and the destination of all things. God who is both Son, and Father, and Spirit. God who created time itself in its mind twisting infinity. And God who fits within each of our hearts, dwelling fully within us to comfort, to guide, to challenge, and to inspire.
Indeed God is Great, and Good, and Holy. God who cannot be named and yet to allows His essence to dwell within a name that we can grasp: Abba/God. God who cannot be named and yet dwelt fully within a human who bore an ordinary name: Jesus/God. God who cannot be named and yet dwells within you and I as She inspires and fires us: Spirit/God. And for that great mystery; thanks be to God. Amen.