peace be with you and blessings on this
Trinity Sunday
now the Trinity the strangest and most
distinctive of all Christian doctrines
the Trinity the preacher's nightmare the
Trinity the ultimate Rubik's Cube of
theology the Trinity just a lot of
medieval mumbo-jumbo the Trinity has
been characterized in all kinds of ways
both positive and negative and I think
for a lot of Christians even the Trinity
might be a doctrine that they hold
abstractly but it doesn't make a lot of
difference in their spiritual lives well
I'm here to tell you now in line with
the church's instinct that the Trinity
is everything the Trinity is naming in
fact what is most powerful in the
spiritual order and it's very
interesting to see how the church uses
the readings today to make this great
point you know keep in mind every single
time you do this you're invoking the
Trinity whenever we pray in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit maybe next time you do that
be consciously aware that you are
inserting yourself into the dynamics of
the Trinity you're praying within the
Trinitarian life
so how's the church today use these
readings to show us how important the
Trinity is well it begins with a rather
interesting peculiar passage from the
book of Exodus describing the moment
when Moses goes back up Mount Sinai with
two new tablets for the Lord to write
the Ten Commandments on remember of
course Moses received the Ten
Commandments then he went down the
mountain to see the the reverie of his
people and then his anger he threw the
tablets against the base of the mountain
broke them the Lord says now get new
ones and bring them up the mountain and
I'm gonna write the law so it's a very
sacred moment in Israelite history and
Moses presents the tablets and then we
hear this having come down in a cloud
the Lord stood with Moses there and
proclaimed his name
Lord there's a lot packed into that
little wine first of all this familiar
symbol of the cloud very often the Bible
God's presence is accompanied by a cloud
think even in the New Testament how
often Jesus like the Transfiguration or
when he's lifted up at the Ascension a
cloud is involved when out why well a
cloud is a symbol of something it
obscures your vision if you've seen
something through a cloud you're gonna
see it at best indistinctly so God at
least in this life is never seen
straight on we never fully understand
who God is God is always wrapped in a
cloud like mystery san agustin said see
comprehend us known as deus it's lovely
Latin for if you understand that's not
God God's always seen indistinctly
indirectly that's why by the way at mass
waves incense symbolizing yes our prayer
is going up to God but also at these
very sacred moments we we throw smoke in
people's eyes we're trying to
communicate the simple fact that we're
dealing here with a very profound
mystery and don't think you can have a
sort of eagle-eyed view of it it's
always obscured the things of God and
then the name that God uses is very
interesting Lord he says Adonai in
Hebrew we know God's true name the one
he delivered to Moses in Exodus 3:14
when Moses said well when the people
asked me what's your name what will I
tell them and God says I am Who I am and
that summed up and what they call the
Tetragrammaton this means the four
letters right there yhw age Yahweh we
say but yhw H was meant to be something
unpronounce
scible because the minute you say god's
name with utter confidence well then
you're not dealing with God you're
dealing with something you can control
so in the cloud and then uttering the
name Lord see which was a kind of
substitute for the Tetragrammaton it
also signaled there for God's
strangeness and mysteriousness okay now
the doctrine of the Trinity God is one
absolutely
that's the monotheism of Israel the
monotheism of Christianity we believe in
one God right and God is three a play of
Father Son and Holy Spirit what what
he's one and he's three uh-huh
can you see how to a degree that
language is meant to confound us it's
meant to obscure our vision it's meant
to make us say I don't know quite what
that means
good says the church in a way the
Trinitarian language is sort of like
smoke in your eyes obscuring your vision
giving you a healthy sense of the
strangeness mysteriousness and other
nosov God okay having said that I don't
think we're left completely in the dark
I also think Trinitarian language has a
more positive import and let me try to
explain that by again going back to this
reading so the lord comes down in the
cloud he pronounces his name Lord and
then he says this to Moses thus the Lord
passed before him and cried out the Lord
the Lord a merciful and gracious God
slow to anger and rich in kindness and
fidelity beautiful it's a very high
moment in the biblical revelation when
God Himself is revealing his names and
attributes to Moses and the four great
ones merciful gracious kind faithful
don't those echo by the way up and down
the biblical revelation Old Testament
and new especially love God's full of
hesse said in the Hebrew beautifully
rendered in the King James Version this
tender mercy God is merciful gracious
kind faithful their qualities of God's
covenant old relationship with Israel
aren't they he's faithful to Israel kind
generous merciful okay you say yeah so
far so obvious but here's the
interesting question and it's raised by
this doctrine of the Trinity would God
have these qualities if he had never
created so it's clear in relation to his
creatures God is merciful and kind and
generous etc that's his relationship to
to Israel by way of a covenant is
relationship to all that he's made okay
but suppose God had never made the world
would God still have these qualities are
they naming something in other words
that belongs to the very being essence
and nature of God the doctrine of the
Trinity everybody says yes to that
question now what am I talking about if
God is generous merciful faithful not
just in relation to the world not just
in relation to creatures but somehow in
his inner life what must be true there
must be within the unity of God a lover
a beloved and the love that they share
there must be some someone who loves
someone who is loved and then the mercy
and love and generosity that they share
see all the religions and religious
philosophies of the world will say that
God or the gods or ultimate reality
loves rights one of the things that God
does
they might say love is an attribute of
God what's Christianity say and it's all
the radicality of Christianity all the
distinctiveness of it contained in that
line Christianity says it's in the first
letter of John God is love we'll see if
that's true he's not just love in
relation to what he's made he is love in
his own most nature that means there
must be within the unity of god lover
beloved and shared love what do we call
these persons the lover we call the
father the beloved we call the son their
shared love we call the holy spirit
three gods no no we're not talking about
three separate beings we're talking
about the love that characterizes the
unity of God the love that constitutes
the unity of God ultimate reality we say
and that's why this doctrine is not just
a theological a distraction it's of
enormous spiritual import ultimate
reality is a play of love being loved
and shared love that everybody is the
doctrine of the Trinity that's why I
always love GK Chesterton said many
people you know are very very fond of
the phrase that God is love
but they might be uneasy with the
hyper-technical language of the Trinity
well chessmen said look the Trinity is
just the technically correct way of
saying that God is love you can't
maintain that without at the same time
maintaining the Trinity that's why it's
so important now that's our Old
Testament reading let me conclude by
looking briefly at the New Testament
which is that magnificent conversation
between Jesus and Nicodemus look for at
the beginning of John's Gospel we hear
the famous line now John 3:16 if you go
this is true or years ago I think at
sporting events and all that
see someone holding up a sign with John
3:16 on it and that's okay that does in
some ways sum up Christianity because
here's John 3:16 from our reading for
today God so loved the world that He
gave His only Son so that everyone who
believes in Him might not perish but
might have eternal life by the way at
some point today just take out your
Bible find it John 3:16 let's parse that
statement a little bit God so loved the
world who's being referred to here but
God the Father remember the the lover
God the Father so loved the world that
he sent not just one more prophet God
said lots of prophets throughout the Old
Testament not just one more plenty
potentially not just one more
representative nothing as bland as that
God the Father so loved the world that
he sent His only Son listen L the one
whom he loved from all eternity he sent
His only Son so that we might be
gathered into the dynamics of the divine
life the Rubik's Cube of theology
medieval mumbo-jumbo hardly we're naming
here the very central dynamic of
Christian life now perhaps you're
wondering you say okay I got the father
God so loved the world he sent His only
Son I got that where's the spirit the
spirits found everybody in that little
word loved God so loved the world it's
in love the father sent the son it's in
love the son accepted the mission the
Holy Spirit is the love that connects
the father in the son that's why John
3:16 is a statement of Trinitarian faith
do you see now why when you make the
sign of the Cross and be mindful is
everybody next time
do it you are signaling this
indispensable heart of Christian faith
God so loved the world that He sent His
only Son that we might not perish but
might have eternal life the father sent
the son so that we might be gathered
into the love which is the Holy Spirit
that's what Trinity Sunday's about
that's the central doctrine of Christian
faith and God bless you thanks so much
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