In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God moved over the waters.
This is the very first sentence of the Bible. And already we are talking about God in two forms, the One who creates and the Spirit who moves or the Hebrew means broodes or sweeps, wanders or dances. And the darkness, it covers the face of the deep, but the deep in Hebrew also means the chaos. And the Spirit moves over the face of the waters while God makes everything.
And when God speaks, God says, Let US make man in OUR image…”
Why Us? Why the royal We? For thousands of years, we did not understand why, but, then again, there was much about God that we did not understand.
Then Jesus came, and he told us that he was the Son of God, that he was one with the Father in Heaven. And we were more confused still. And just before Jesus left us, he instructed his followers to baptize and to do so In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Why did he say it this way?
It was not until the third century that theologians came up with the word TRINITY. The Three-in-One concept, a way of pointing to God. It is theology at its best. It is poetry. It tells us a deep truth about God.
God is One and yet God is three. And this makes no sense. Which is exactly the point. We cannot understand God and the Trinity, fundamentally, cannot be understood. Each time someone has tried to explain the Trinity rationally, their theory becomes a heresy. The Trinity is Mystery. Nothing can be one and three at the same time, it defies all rational explanation. But isn’t that just perfect for God?
The Trinity teaches us much about the nature of God. Not only can God not be understood, but God is not alone. God was never alone. We were not created because God was lonely. God has all community and all love within the Divine self. God is complete in a way that you are I are not.
And God is ever-changing, ever-moving. The number three is unbalanced, it is dynamic, it moves and changes. God is always doing a new thing. God is full of surprises.
A week and a half ago, Tim Tuller came to the organ to practice and found that he had company. There was a possum who seemed to have taken up residence in the choir stalls. So Tim consulted Robert Hyde, our properties manager, and they decided to set a trap for Mr. Possum. After all, it was essential to catch the beast. Having a possum join the choir on Sunday might not go over too well. So they put some meat in the cage and set the trap.
But there was just one problem, the possum did not take the bait. No one seemed to be able to catch the little beast. Until finally, on Sunday morning, one of the Vergers came to the rescue and caught the possum with a bucket. Don’t ask me how this was done, the Vergers are a group with many mysterious skills. But God did a new thing at this Cathedral, and we decided to feature a color picture of the possum in the E Eagle for posterity.
God is ever-moving, ever full of surprises. God is Trinity and the Trinity is not only mysterious, it is surprising. God as Trinity plays with us, dances with us. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are always wanting to show us a new thing. I think God brought us a possum to make us smile.
How could God be ever-changing and yet eternally the same? Again, it is beyond all human comprehension. Don’t even try to understand!
A few years ago, I was celebrating the Eucharist in Kansas. We were midway through the service. I had just made the announcements and was about to go up to prepare the altar when something happened. A voice came over the sound system…
THIS IS GOD.
I just stood there. Was there a drunk man who had gotten hold of a microphone? What was going on? Was it really God? There was nothing about this in the Prayer book…I just stood there for a moment and then I said, “Well, I’m glad that you’re here.”
I worried that God might speak again at the service and if so, I did not know what else to say. But God was silent. It was not until after the service that I discovered what happened. One of the older youth, whose voice had changed and had a deep baritone, was testing the microphone in the fellowship hall. For some unknown reason, it sounded in the sanctuary.
Open your eyes. God does new things with us every day. God comes up with new ideas and new plans. God plays with you and loves to show you a new thing. As Alice Walker wrote in her book, The Color Purple, “I think it makes God mad when you pass by the color purple in a field and don’t notice it…” God loves you and is ever changing, ever dancing with you.
I painted an icon this week. All my adult life, I have wanted to paint an icon. For well over 20 years, I have gazed at the face of Christ to say my prayers , looking at his face before I fell asleep each night and as I woke in the morning. I knew that I wanted to paint his face, but I also knew that I was not a painter.
I am the kind of person who buys paints and paper and with a lot of excitement, starts to paint. Then what gets put on the paper shocks me because it is terrible! I do not understand how to paint perspective, I don’t have a clue about color and I generally make a mess. So I had settled on coloring books with Max until this icon workshop came around.
We painted for 5 days from 8:30 to 4. We prayed and generally kept silence while we painted.
It was like loving Jesus every minute. I got to think about what his hands might have looked like, his face, his hair. And every day was full of surprises. I was shocked to see how much he looks like everyone I love, how much my own he is. The painting itself was full of surprises, new discoveries every day.
I want you to think of God not as something stagnant and boring, like some adult figure who sits stagnantly in heaven, observing your every move. Think of God instead as three-in-one, completely beyond your comprehension, yet always moving and dancing and loving. Like the ocean, think of God as always looking different to you, always revealing something new, something beautiful. Think of God as speaking to you in new and changing ways every day, through color and sight and sound. Wake up to the presence of the Holy Trinity that surrounds you and embraces your life. The more you look, the more you will see Him: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
