The coast gaurd came along with volunteer divers from an environmental group. They quickly realized that the only way to free the whale was to cut her free, one wire at a time. They got their scuba gear, curved knives, and got to work.
The whale was surprisingly still, as if she knew exactly what they were doing. She did not flail or wriggle or try to fight. One man was assigned to get a wire trap out of her mouth. As he cut through the wires, she just looked at him out of her great eye, watching his every move. He said that he will never be the same.
It took many hours to cut her free, but when they finally succeeded, she did not just take off into the blue. Instead, she swam a number of joyous circles around and around and then returned to nudge each and every diver. She would swim up to them and butt them gently. It was her way of saying thank you.
Today is Trinity Sunday. It is the one day each year when we focus on the fact that God is Trinity. God is one and God is three. It is a mystical day when we try to talk about things that cannot be understood with the rational mind. It is a day of mystery in which we contemplate things that we cannot see.
In the gospel, Nicodemous is asking Jesus about God and Jesus is trying to explain that there is a whole other life beyond this physical one. But in order to experience this life, a person must be born by water and the Spirit. Nicodemous cannot understand Jesus because Jesus is talking about a reality that is new to him, a kind of life that he has never contemplated before. The Pharisees were so focused on following the rules that they did not ponder the unknown or mysterious aspects of God.
Jesus was trying to tell Nicodemous that those who are baptized have a life that is deeper and more true than the physical existence in which we live. In baptism, we are born to another life, a reality that exists eternally, a world that is more real than this one, and it is that world that is truly important.
The whale lives below the surface of the water. If we were to fly an airplane over that ocean and look down, we would not even see her, for she lives below the surface in another world made up of not air but water, not birds but fish. Everything's sounds different in her world. Everything looks different. And within this other world, she was all tangled up. She had gotten tangled up by all the cares and trappings of the world on the surface, but these trappings had effected her life below the surface. She was no longer joyful and could not swim. What the divers did was to release her to enjoy her life under the sea. They freed her so that she could dance again, and once she was free, she was full of joy and love.
God exists in dimensions that we cannot see. And yet, God is real, more real and more true than anything in this life. The first thing that Jesus asks us to do is just to acknowledge this reality, that God lives in us and that, in our baptism, we have a new life in God, a life below the surface, beyond our understanding, where there is eternity.
But the cares and occupations of this life can get us all tangled up. We can become consumed with thoughts about ourselves, our bodies, our loved ones, our jobs, our money. We get so consumed with all this that we begin to think that it is all there is. But a marriage, for example, cannot be successful if you put all your hopes on it and believe that it alone can complete you.
Take my friend up north, Jennifer. She is in her mid-thirties and finally met a man she would like to marry. But he is in the midst of a divorce from his first wife and he cannot think about getting married again right now. As much as he loves Jennifer, he cannot begin to contemplate marriage again. He is just not ready. So Jennifer has become more and more tangled up. The more she wants him to marry her, the needier she becomes. Her whole reality is tied up in her fantasy that marriage to him will make her life work. She is becoming a tangled up mess.
If Jennifer were to realize that her life was more than her status as single or married, that she had a life with God, a life of love and joy that began in her baptism, then she might not hold on so tightly. She would cut herself free from all the expectations and attachments and be able to love freely again.
Be careful to remember that this life, this dimension, is only the surface of the deeper life with God. Be careful not to measure your worth based on your successes or failures in this surface life. By worldly standards, Jesus himself was a complete disaster. But we all know he was so much more.
You are of infinite value. You are ageless, baptized ones. You are loved. Go and share this reality with everyone. You are born to something much more than just this surface life. Free yourself to dance there.
