Trinity Sunday

Today’s Scriptures: Lectionary selections from the Revised Common Lectionary Year C Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 Psalm 8 Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15

Today’s Reflection: There are some things in life I do not think I will ever understand.  Algebra, for instance. I use it (successfully) all the time in my job, but I do not understand it. I particularly frustrate math teachers by demanding to know how they can so degrade language by putting perfectly good letters into math problems. The same thing can be said for the Trinity we celebrate this Sunday. We know it; we accept it; we believe it; but we have great difficulty understanding it. Today’s scriptures do not necessarily help the understanding. The great Proverb’s discourse on wisdom almost makes wisdom sound like an alternate name for the Holy Spirit with the passage in chapter 8 discussing wisdom’s presence and role in the creation; however, wisdom recalls being the first of God’s creative acts. The Holy Spirit, as part of the Trinity was God from the beginning along with the Father and Son. As impressive as wisdom is, it does not rise to the level of being God. The passage in Psalm, too, gives a distinction to the Trinity by presenting a non-example. Humanity is identified as being less than God (…a little lower than God….). As precious as mortals are, we do not rise to the level of being God. My understanding of the Trinity can best be described as considering the function of each member: The Father as creator, The Son as teacher, The Holy Spirit as guide. All are God, but I have a different relationship and interaction with each. None is greater than any other: none is less than any other. The diagram helps show the interconnectedness of each member of the Trinity.  Even though I can understand my relationship with each part of the Trinity and have a profound connection to my faith in God, like Algebra, the Trinity is something I struggle to explain and fully comprehend. Not understanding is ok. It is part of the mystery that keeps me seeking as it has kept believers seeking since the beginning of time. My relationship with the Trinity, kind of like Algebra, works for me and I am happy about that.

Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, copyright © 2005 Consultation on Common Texts. www.commontexts.org

Trinity Sunday - June 3

Today’s Scriptures: From the Book of Common Prayer Psalm 146, 147, 111, 112, 113 Job 38:1-11, 42:1-5 Revelation 19:4-6 John 1:29-34

Today’s Question: Who is the God we celebrate on Trinity Sunday?

Today’s Reflection: Trinity Sunday brings to the forefront one of the most challenging concepts of Christianity: the concept of a triune god. 3=1=3=GOD. I have heard teachers try to explain it using the states of water, something almost everyone is familiar with, to explain the concept. Solid, liquid, gas, but all the same compound. The explanation fails in that the three states do not exist naturally at the same time. The physics of temperature prevent that. Our triune God, though, exists constantly and eternally, in all iterations simultaneously. The passages today force us to consider some of the difficult questions about God. Job has long proven to be a thorn in the side of theologians as the interaction between Job and God raises questions that are difficult to answer. God fails to answer Job’s challenges, instead responding, in an Oz-ian way, “I am great and powerful. Fear me.” After a time, Job comes back with a response that is ironic at best and possibly sarcastic. God ultimately caves and restores to Job double what was taken as part of God’s wager with Satan. The idea that God would wager with Satan and then cave into the object of the wager, raises immense challenges to the idea of an infallible God. The Revelation passage offers a brief description of universal praise. The use of the word, “Hallelujah” occurs only in these passages of the New Testament. It is a Hebrew word used in the Old Testament that means, “praise Yaweh” and comes in here as it occurs in the celebration of the restoration of the Holy City. It comes at the time when humanity begins the eternal life in Heaven in the presence of God. In John, John recounts the baptism of Jesus, not by telling of the event, but revealing his reaction to it. The passage reflects typical John writing with riddles and twisted sentences that logically prove Jesus’s “Christness.” Among the Gospels, the John account of the baptism differs in that it does not describe the actual event and it does not describe the distinct presence of each part of the Trinity. It does emphasize Jesus as Christ. Perhaps the biggest challenge in each of the passages today comes from the fact that each of the passages leaves us with an incomplete vision of God. Recognition of the complexity of the deity builds the greater part of the wonder of Trinity Sunday. As we take this time to look into the nature of God, we can celebrate a God bigger than we are capable to understand. Passages through the Bible present the argument of the wisdom tradition and of the knowledge tradition. Both are panes to the same window that give part of the picture. Today, we rejoice in those parts we know and look forward to the time when we can see clearly the triune God we worship.

Today’s Prayer: Let us recognize our limitations and accept the limitlessness of our God. Open our eyes, ears, and hearts to rejoice in the challenge of the present and promise of the future.