Trinity Sunday, Year A

Genesis 1:1–2:4; Psalm 8; II Corinthians 13:11–13; Matthew 28:16–20
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, June 19, 2011.

“GRASPING THE MYSTERY OF GOD”
(Homily texts: Genesis 1: 1 – 2: 4 & Matthew 28: 16 – 20)

Let’s suppose that a friend comes up to you, carrying some objects in a bag, and a handkerchief. The friend asks you to close your eyes while they put an object under the handkerchief.

Once the object has been draped with the handkerchief, you are asked to open your eyes. Once open, your friend asks you to identify the object that is under the cloth, using your sense of touch, of smell, and sight (though only partially, because the object is hidden under the cloth).

You begin by touching the cloth, and sense that the object under it is hard, cylindrical, and is made of metal. You sniff, but can’t detect any odor coming from underneath. On further examination, you notice that the mysterious cylinder has a bottom to it, which has ridges on it. You have an idea of what it is.

Next, your friend places another object under the cloth while your eyes are closed. This time, once they are open, your friend invites you to touch the cloth, to smell, and to observe with your eyes as much as you are able. As you place your hands on the handkerchief, you note that the object underneath is rectangular. It seems to be made of a hard material like the first one, but it isn’t made of metal. As you feel around some more, you notice that this object has some sort of a small top to it. You sniff around, and notice that a fragrant smell is coming from the object. You come to a conclusion of what the object might be.

Finally, your friend, once again, asks you to close your eyes as the third and final object is placed under the handkerchief. Once you open your eyes, you are asked to begin your examination of the hidden object. You notice immediately – using your sense of touch - that this object isn’t hard at all, but rather, it’s quite soft. Feeling around, you notice that it seems to have some sort of a head, and it has ears, as well, but not human ones. You notice that this object is kind of furry. You guess what it is.

Now, abandoning our game for a moment, did you guess that the first object was a tin can? Did you come to the conclusion that the second object was a bottle of perfume? And, of course, you probably know by now that the third object was a stuffed animal.

If you got all three, congratulations. Your correct conclusions might mean that you have a keen sense of imagination. Or, it might mean that I did a good job of describing each object for you in the text of this homily.

What we have been doing here is to try to ascertain something about an entity that is partially hidden from our sight and from our understanding. We used our senses: sight (partially, of course, to determine the general shape of the objects), smell and touch. (Presumably, too, we could have used our sense of hearing, perhaps by hitting the object to try to figure out what it was made of.)

This same process is at work when we try to understand just who God is, and especially on this Trinity Sunday, to understand who God is as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

To come to an understanding of who God is, we use our senses, and our ability to reason through the things that our sense of sight, smell, touch, and so forth tell us about God.

God is hidden from our view, at least partially. But though God is hidden, we can see things about God’s nature in the things that He does. Again, we see Him at work as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

So, let’s examine some of the things we can know about God, judging from the things that God has done, and continues to do.

The first thing we notice is the wonderful and complex world around us. Notice how scientists are constantly finding out more and more about how interwoven the creation is! Awesome in its majesty, beautiful in its simplicity and in its intertwined relationships, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that a Creator – God - is behind it all. Of course, that’s what our Genesis reading describes to us today, the bringing into being of everything that is.

Our Genesis reading talks about the movement of God’s Spirit over the waters, and the speaking of the Word which brings things into being. (More on both of those things in a moment!)

The first verses of Genesis are important in this regard. Hear them again, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light.’”

And so we affirm the reality that God is creator of all in the words of the Nicene and the Apostles’ Creeds. We say, “We believe in God, the Father, maker of all things, seen and unseen…..”

But then, we must move onto the reality of God the Son, the one of whom it is said that He, Jesus Christ, is the Word, just as we read in John 1: 1 - 3, which reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”

So the author of the Fourth Gospel equates Jesus Christ, the Word of God, with the word that was spoken at the beginning of creation, when God said, “Let there be light.”

Did you notice the similarities between Genesis chapter one and John chapter one? Biblical scholars have long noticed the parallels, which are too obvious to ignore.

The coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the one who said, “I and the Father are one,” (John 10: 30) prompted God’s people to come to a deeper understanding of just who God the Father is. It is this same Jesus Christ who also said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” (John 14: 9b)

So Jesus Christ is the perfect image of God the Father. He is the one who shows us the Father most clearly and most fully. In the life, teachings, miracles, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we come to the fullness of understanding just who God the Father is….the veil which has shrouded God from our eyes and from our understanding has been removed, at least in part.

And yet, the Father and the Son are one, not two. I refer again to John 10: 30.

The mystery of God is further revealed in the coming of the Holy Spirit. (Recall with me that we dwelled on the coming of the Holy Spirit at the great Feast of Pentecost, just last week.)

It is the Son (again), who points us to the reality of the identity of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said to His disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” (Acts 1: 8. a text we read last Sunday.)

Jesus also points to the coming of the Holy Spirit, saying that the Spirit will come once He (Jesus) has ascended to the Father (see John 15: 26). Jesus says that the Spirit (the Counselor) will come, proceeding from the Father (notice the resemblance to the phrase in the Nicene Creed which says that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son”). He adds that the Holy Spirit will bear witness to Him (Jesus Christ), and will lead Jesus’ disciples into all truth.

So, the veil is again lifted a little more by the coming of the Holy Spirit, the one who will lead Jesus’ disciples into all truth, bearing witness to not only the Father, from whom the Spirit came, but to the Son, as well.

In much the same was as the example we used of the objects which were hidden from view, but whose identity we could determine by using our senses and our abilities to reason through the findings that our senses discovered, we also come to understand just who Jesus Christ, the Son, is, and we discover just who the Holy Spirit, is, as well.

For these two persons of the Holy Trinity come, displaying the characteristics of God as creator, as sustainer. The Son and the Spirit come, demonstrating the power that belongs to God alone, that same power as we hear in our Genesis reading this morning, power to create, power to sustain what has been created.

It is no wonder that the Church – that is, God’s people – eventually come to the conclusion that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are One God in Three Persons. There is no division between the three persons, nor is there confusion in their separate identities.

Talk about mystery!

There’s a mystery for you: One God, but Three Persons.

Our minds can grasp part of that reality, but perhaps to much the same extent as our senses are able to grasp the identities of the objects that lie hidden beneath the covering cloth.

It is the same with the reality and the nature of God: We can discern the characteristics of God as we see them in the created order, in the person and work of the Son, and in the creative power of the Spirit.

But we cannot fully grasp all that there is to know this side of heaven about God’s fullness and His majesty. That complete understanding will have to wait until we see Him face-to-face. As St. Paul says in I Corinthians 13: 12b: “Now I know in part, then I shall understand fully….”

So, until we see God in all His glory and understand Him fully, even as he understands us, we can be content to know that we can understand Him to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit, based on his own unveiling of Himself in the creation, and in the work of the Son and the Spirit.

AMEN.