Wauwatosa Presbyterian Church

May 30, 2010

So Explain It To Me

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Romans 5:1-5

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTURE: Romans 5:1-5

On this Trinity Sunday, the first five verses of chapter 5 of Paul’s letter to the Romans may sound familiar to you. The reading may put words around what you have already concluded about life, given your experience to date. But, I wonder, though, if unprompted we would even notice in the reading the essential Attending…that is, the presence of the Living Trinity - the One God in three persons or manifestations? The Triune God is not mentioned by name. But if Paul’s experience of the Speaker (capitol S) Risen Word, the Living Breath, were not undergirding his writing, then what he has to say to us would be no more worthy of our attention than hot air on a stifling hot day.

However, Paul is and aware of God’s presence. What has happened by God through Christ makes all the difference to Paul. God’s saction has made and is making it possible for Paul and we to stand and, ultimately, to hope – no matter our circumstances . God’s perpetual saving actions in Christ is the gift to each and all of us through all time.

Here’s how Paul delivers this message to the Romans:

Therefore, since we are justified (understand “justified” to mean – made right with God) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

May these words bring to us the Word of God for us today.

I have a friend who calls this first Sunday after Pentecost the hinge Sunday.

Trinity Sunday stands between the two halves of the church year. The first half focuses on the life of Christ, and the second half on the life of the church. I think “hinge” is a useful image for this Sunday. Hinge is also useful as to explain Trinity, though some explain this doctrine as a pain!

Interesting, too, is (Christian Century 5/20/1998:523), that this is the one Sunday per lectionary year that challenges the church to ponder a teaching of the church rather than those of Jesus. The scriptural readings for this Sunday reflect the Three-in-One doctrine: God: Creator, Holy Spirit, our Redeemer but none of the passages names the Trinity explicitly. The readings provide Biblical back up for this nonscriptural word: Trinity. This word TRINITY, begins our Christian life at baptism and continues until we receive full communion with the Eternal Three. In between is all of human life as we experience it in time, space and context.

Okay, but who or what is it? Can it be explained? Has anyone articulated a comprehensive understanding? Definition? To my knowledge, my answer is a very guarded and tentative “Not really! But, then, I quickly have to add, “Nevertheless, The Trinity is know-able…experience-able, just not capture-able (if I can make that a word for our purposes). The Trinity works and is working in our lives. It is a living Mystery for whichthere are many, many images and metaphors – some Biblical, some traditional, some new - that point to God at work. As monotheists, we have lived with the Trinity and have tied ourselves in verbal knots over why such a core belief doesn’t make us polytheists. I hope to avoid the knots!....and also lift up something of this doctrine’s promace. 

I do wish the video camera had been invented in the eighth century CE, when Saint Patrick taught the King of Ireland about the Trinity. I’d like to have seen the king’s face. Apparently, he was at a total loss as to how three Persons would be in the Godhead. So, according to the legend, to illustrate, St. Patrick looked at the ground, then, lifting up a sprig of shamrock, said to the king: “Here’s a perfect leaf with three perfect parts.” And with that, the shamrock was elevated to become a often-used symbol for the Holy Trinity….which remains integral to the Celtic understanding of God. The popular Celtic hymn known as St Patrick’s breastplate (part of which is in our Renew book) begins with these words: I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through the belief in the threeness, through confession of the oneness of the Creator of Creation.”

What difference might it make in your life if you, after putting bare feet to floor in the morning, invoked the Triune God?

It’s fascinating to know that many Celtic rituals, from stirring the porridge to kindling the fire, involved short prayers spoken as work was done, each invoking and stirring the Trinity into daily routines. This way of living the faith is completely Biblical. The ancient Celts consciously lived under the grace and authority of God. The mystery of God was intentionally planted and consciously focused on as they performed daily chores.

Today marks the official “START” to Wisconsin’s outdoor gardening season. The ancient Celtics, just before planting seed-corn blessed it. They did this by walking round the seed sunwise and sprinkling it with water in the name of the Trinity. If we did that with our petunias might we still need Miracle Grow? I don’t know…  but I do long to be more intentionally aware of God’s presence during my routines, my joys as well as troubles.

Lady Wisdom, encountered in the Scripture passage from Proverbs that Don read, was part of every aspect of human life. She stands at the busiest intersections, teaching. In the ancient world, this would have to have been at the city gate where business transactions, legal proceedings, marriages, political negotiations, not to mention commerce and gossip were exchanged. All roads went to, from and met there. The gate was the veritable “mouth of the town”, the most populated, high-profile location of locations! So, wanting to be in the “thick” of it, she who was at Creation stands there to proclaim the goodness of the created order. Could she be the Logos of John’s Gospel? Many have suggested it. Her mission among God’s people is similar to Christ Jesus’. Both reveal God’s awesome greatness and compassion. Both teach of God’s desires for human life. Both proclaim God’s loving, saving grace.

So, let’s ask ourselves: Where might Lady Wisdom be proclaiming today? at City Market during lunch today…at the Ball Park roaming out by the concessions during the Brewers’ game this evening? Is the Christ of faith among those buying plants at Steins this morning? On the docks in Louisiana? In the fields and mountains of Afghanistan? In the streets of Arizona? In the halls of BP?

Well….yes… but after saying “Yes” it’s hard to know how to continue. Which suggests to me that we might be missing an underlying, as-yet-unspoken question or issue for us, for which the doctrine of the Trinity is partial answer. I’m wondering if this deepest question isn’t: “Am I saved? Are you saved? And if so, how do you know that? Scary question. The passage we heard this morning from Paul’s letter to the Roman addresses this salvation question. Paul says: first, salvation is based on something that really happened in the past, namely, Christ’s death and resurrection, and in the believer’s conversion and coming to faith, and so he pens, in verse 2, “we have obtained… (The People’s New Testament Commentary p. 480)

But there’s more. Paul writes: having been reconciled, “we stand” now which suggests the business of saving is also a present process, a matter of present experience. And that process is not completed now or next week, but awaits future consummation – our hope! This three dimensional, already-but-not-yet belief of salvation is thoroughly Biblical. It flows throughout and by the fourth century, the church fathers finally hammered out the doctrine of the Trinity as a naming and concept for this threeness of the One God. So the answer to the question “Am I saved? is “yes”. How do I know? Because through Jesus’ death and resurrection in the past; and am on-going process in the present of being saved AND, looking ahead, because I await with hope the victory of God’s kingdom coming.” Now, be sure to note this: our worship on Sundays is not of the process of being saving, but rather our worship is in praise of the Author of our salvation, the One God.

Paul’s next verses go on to remind Christians to expect to encounter life’s struggles and troubles and to see them in the framework of God’s ultimate purpose for the world. He doesn’t think suffering develops character in the cultural sense of making one tough or improving one’s personality, BUT rather one’s troubles, as well as joys, are being incorporated, by God, into God’s larger purpose for the world and history, a purpose that will finally prevail. Let me illustrate: The 20^th century English theologian, Leslie Weatherhead recounts a difficult pastoral call to a grieving family that points for me, to the presence of the Trinity. Dr. Weatherhead writes: “ In one corner an old, white-haired woman sits in a low chair, her face half hidden by her hand…Her other hand is on the shoulder of a younger woman, little more than girl, who is sitting at her feet. There is a fire in the grate…the younger had only been married three month, and then death stalked her…husband through pneumonia, and brought him down at last. It was the day after the funeral. Suddenly the younger woman turns almost ferociously on me… “Where is God?, she demands. “I’ve prayed to Him. Where is He?... You preached once on the “Everlasting Arms”. Where are they?” I drew his fingertips lightly down the older woman’s arm. “They are here” I said. “They are round you even now. These are the arms of God.” (CC 6/1/2004): 18)

There is no mention of the Trinity in Weatherhead’s story, but…I sense the Trinity, don’t you? I also think we need less to explain it and more to embrace it. Of course we do need to explain, in language articulate and faithful, is what God had done among us, is doing now and what God promises will be accomplished. The Trinity announces for us who God is in a way faithful to Scripture. The Trinity promises the presence of a vulnerable and suffering God, a Savior who is with us in our suffering and who, in solidarity, grows in us “endurance, character and hope”. The Trinity guards the very truth proclaimed by Paul and by John, the Evangelist, which is the basis of our trust that Jesus is truly God and truly human. The Trinity also declares that our trust is in the One God who has plans for each of us – to quote from Jeremiah, chapter 29 – plans got [our] welfare and not for harm, to give [us] a future with hope. To the glory of God.