Trinity Sunday, cycle C

JOHN 16:12-15
IF YOU WERE TO LOOK AT A HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, YOU WOULD FIND THAT A VERY LARGE NUMBER OF WRITINGS HAD TO DO WITH THE TRINITY. AND WHEN YOU READ THESE WRITINGS BY SOME OF THE GREATEST MINDS WHO EVER LIVED, YOU ARE LEFT MORE CONFUSED THAN BEFORE. PART OF THE PROBLEM IS THAT MUCH OF WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN AND IS STILL BEING WRITTEN IS BASED ON A WAY OF THINKING THAT STEMS BACK TO PLATO AND ARISTOTLE. AND IT SEEMS AS THOUGH THAT METHOD MAY HAVE HIT A WALL; AND MAYBE THAT IS THE REASON WE TRY NOT TO THINK OF THE TRINITY. AFTER ALL, THREE PERSONS, ONE GOD; THREE PERSONS WHO ALL SHARE THE SAME WILL, BUT ARE DIFFERENT; THREE PERSONS WHOSE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THEIR MODE OF GENERATION; BUT THEY ARE STILL EQUAL IN ALL OTHER RESPECTS; THREE PERSONS WHO ARE NOT SEPARATE BEINGS, BUT ARE ALSO NOT JUST DIFFERENT WAYS FOR GOD TO BE. WHEN OUR MOSLEM AND JEWISH FRIENDS HEAR THESE THINGS, NO WONDER THEY ARE CONFUSED ABOUT WHAT CHRISTIANS ACTUALLY WORSHIP.
BUT MAYBE WE ARE LOOKING IN THE WRONG PLACE. MAYBE WE ARE TRYING TO GET BACK TO OUR BOOK OF PROVERBS READING WHERE THE AUTHOR IMAGINES WISDOM AS A CHILD WHO WAS THERE AT THE BEGINNING, PLAYING ON THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH, AND FINDING DELIGHT IN THE HUMAN RACE. MAYBE WE SHOULD BE LOOKING AT THE CROSS.
JESUS SAYS TODAY, “EVERYTHING THAT THE FATHER HAS IS MINE”. OUTSIDE OF TIME, WHERE THERE IS NO BEGINNING NOR END, THE FATHER DOES SOMETHING ONLY GOD CAN DO, WHICH IS TO GIVE HIS ENTIRE SELF, HIS ENTIRE GOD-SELF, TO THE SON. YOU AND I COULD, PERHAPS, GIVE UP OUR LIVES FOR ANOTHER PERSON; BUT WE COULD NEVER GIVE UP OUR VERY SELVES. BUT THE FATHER CAN AND DOES. THE SON IS THEREFORE IDENTICAL TO THE FATHER, EXCEPT THAT HE IS GENERATED BY THE FATHER, WHO HIMSELF IS NOT GENERATED. IN SOME MYSTERIOUS WAY, THAT ACT OF GENERATION, WHICH HAS NO BEGINNING AND NO END, IS THE REASON FOR THE EXISTENCE OF ANGELS, AND OF THE WHOLE UNIVERSE. AS SCRIPTURE TELLS US IN REFERENCE TO JESUS, THE SON, “THROUGH HIM ALL THINGS WERE CREATED”.
BUT THE UNIVERSE IS NOT RIGHT; ON THE WHOLE ALL OF CREATION IS BEAUTIFUL AND WONDERFUL, BUT ULTIMATELY, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING IN IT WILL COME TO AN END. DEATH IS INSEPARABLE FROM CREATION. WHY IS THIS? WAS IT A REBELLION OF THE FALLEN ANGELS? WAS IT THE FIRST SIN OF ADAM AND EVE? MAYBE IT WAS THE ENTIRE BURDEN OF SIN THAT STARTED WITH ADAM AND EVE; OR MAYBE WE ARE LIVING IN A TIME WHEN THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE IS NOT YET COMPLETE, OR, TO PUT IT ANOTHER WAY, NOT REDEEMED.
AND OUTSIDE OF TIME, WHERE THERE IS NO BEGINNING OR END, SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENED; WE HEAR ABOUT IT IN THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS. “ALTHOUGH HE WAS IN THE LIKENESS OF GOD, HE DID NOT DEEM THAT SOMETHING TO BE GRASPED AT, BUT TOOK ON THE LIKENESS OF A SLAVE, AND BECAME HUMAN”. THE SON OF GOD, IN ORDER TO REDEEM THE UNIVERSE, AND ALL THAT IS IN IT, SEPARATED HIMSELF FROM THE FATHER, GAVE UP HIS GOD-SELF, AND MADE HIMSELF ONE WITH SIN AND DEATH. HE CROSSED THE IMMEASURABLE GAP BETWEEN GOD AND HIS CREATION, BECAME A HUMAN BEING, SUFFERED AND DIED, REALLY DIED. I THINK MOST OF US THINK ABOUT THAT TIME BETWEEN DEATH AND RESURRECTION, AND IMAGINE THAT JESUS WAS WANDERING AROUND IN THE LAND OF THE DEAD, GATHERING TOGETHER THE PROPHETS AND PATRIARCHS AND OTHER HOLY PEOPLE WHO HAD LIVED AND DIED BEFORE HE CAME. BUT THEY WERE DEAD, REALLY DEAD, AND JESUS WAS DEAD. BUT THE FATHER WOULD NOT LET HIS SON STAY DEAD, AND GAVE HIS GOD-SELF TO THE SON AND RESTORED HIM TO LIFE.
AND THE FATHER WHO MADE THE UNIVERSE AND THE SON WHO PAID THE PRICE OF REDEMPTION GIVE AWAY THEIR GOD-SELF ONCE AGAIN TO THIS UNIVERSE – AT THE VERY BEGINNING THE SPIRIT BROODS OVER THE WATERS; AND THE SPIRIT CONCEIVES JESUS IN THE WOMB OF MARY; AND THE SPIRIT COMES IN TO THE CHURCH, AND STILL DOES, TO GIVE US A SHARE IN GOD-SELF SO THAT ALL OF CREATION IS GIVEN THE MEANS TO ACCEPT REDEMPTION, TO BECOME WHAT GOD MEANS IT TO BE, THE NEW JERUSALEM. AND EACH OF US WHO POSSESSES THE SPIRIT BECOMES A SON OR DAUGHTER OF GOD, IS GIVEN THE PROMISE OF RESURRECTION AND ETERNAL LIFE, IS GIVEN A SHARE IN GOD-SELF.
YOU AND I LABOR IN TIME; WE CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE TRINITY, OUTSIDE OF TIME, WHERE THERE IS NO BEGINNING NOR END. BUT WE CAN LOOK AT THE CRUCIFIX, AND WE CAN SEE THAT THE SON OF GOD TORE HIMSELF AWAY FROM THE FATHER, GAVE UP EVERYTHING THAT THE FATHER GAVE HIM, SO THAT HE COULD BECOME ONE WITH US, SO THAT HE COULD DIE, AND PUT HIMSELF AND ALL OF US IN THE HANDS OF THE MERCIFUL FATHER. “I WILL TAKE UP LIFE AGAIN ONLY IF YOU RAISE THESE BROTHERS AND SISTERS AS WELL,” HE TELLS THE FATHER. AND JESUS IS RAISED UP, AND IS THE FIRST-FRUITS OF THE PROMISE THAT GOD MADE TO MAN.
AND WHEN WE SEE THE BODY OF JESUS ON THE CROSS, AND WHEN WE KNOW WHAT IT MEANS, OUTSIDE OF TIME, WHERE THERE IS NO BEGINNING OR END, WE BEGIN TO NOTICE A CERTAIN BEAUTY, A BEAUTY THAT CAN TRANSFIX US IF WE LET IT; BEAUTY IS ALWAYS OF GOD, AND IN THE SIGN OF THE CROSS, BEAUTY SHINES FORTH, BEAUTY WHICH IS GLORY.
GOD REVEALS HIS INNER LIFE TO US, EVEN THOUGH WE CAN BARELY BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND IT, BECAUSE THE VERY NATURE OF GOD IS TO GIVE HIMSELF UP, THE FATHER TO THE SON. THE SON TO THE FATHER, AND THE FATHER AND THE SON TO THE UNIVERSE, WHERE GOD-SELF, THE HOLY SPIRIT, ACTS IN OUR LIVES. AND THE GREAT SAINTS UNDERSTOOD THIS; GIVING YOURSELF UP IS THE MOST GOD-LIKE THING YOU CAN DO, WHETHER IT IS THROUGH A SINGLE ACT OF MARTYRDOM, OR THOUSANDS OF LITTLE ACTS OF SELF-GIVING OVER A LIFETIME. SO LOOK AT THE CRUCIFIX AND SEE THE INNER LIFE OF THE TRINITY BURSTING THROUGH INTO OUR WORLD. AND BE CONSCIOUS OF THE GLORY THAT IS REALLY THE BEAUTY OF GOD, THERE MOST ASSUREDLY, BUT IN EVERY ASPECT OF REDEEMED CREATION, AND IN EVERY PERSON. AND WHEN YOU SEE GLORY, REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE SEEING GOD-SELF, WHO IS EVEN IN THAT MOMENT GIVING HIMSELF UP.