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Isaiah 6:1-8, Revelation 4:1-11, John 16:5-15
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, West Valley City, UT
The Rev'd W. Lee Shaw
We have been looking over the last several weeks at the nature of God: God as Trinity, God as Father/Creator, God as Son/Redeemer, and God as Holy Spirit/Advocate. The three in one and one in three doctrine of divinity we call the Holy Trinity. And, today is Trinity Sunday, the one Sunday of the year that the Church more than any other time dances around the edges of heresy trying to explain the Holy Trinity, or as an esteemed colleague noted, the unity of the Triune God.
There is always the danger of over explaining. Read through the
Athanasian Creed and you have a sense of what over explaining can
feel like. I have introduced to you another, more accurate translation
of the Nicene Creed. My hope is that as we use this version of the
Nicene Creed that aspects of your belief and faith will take on
greater focus and understanding. I don't know whether to call this
the new old Creed or the old new Creed. But it
approaches the aspects of our faith as expressed in the Creed from
different angles which I feel will prove helpful for us. As the
old song said, Everything Old is New Again.
It is important to remember that worship/liturgy is not theology. The Creed is the one point in the liturgy that we introduce a theological statement to summarize the faith we are celebrating in the Holy Eucharist. As I have said before, we are very, very careful in the words we choose for our liturgy for we do believe that praying shapes believing; our life of prayer shapes our life of faith.
That being said, all of our language about God has to be approximate and never so precise as to pin God down under one label. We cannot put God in a box. So our language is full of symbol and image, poetry and sign as we point to the mystery of the divine. And every generation finds language that speaks to them in their world and in their time. The language of and about God in Scripture is very diverse. It is diverse to open us up to the mystery and magnitude of God, it is not given to us to be read literally, but rather prayerfully and seriously.
I smiled at what I recently read about how a Rabbi wrote about
reading Scripture: A literalist interpretation of Scripture tells
us that God is a rock that sent a bird to cause a virgin to give
birth to a loaf of bread. And this is supposed to be an improvement
on obtaining a chiseled code of conduct from a flaming shrubbery
in a cloud. If a literal understanding is all that is required for
faith, then I'm a yellow ducky,
(Rabbi Ben Sylva).
Jesus calls us to more than a literalist understanding of the faith
handed down to us. Jesus calls us to listen to what the Holy Spirit
is saying to us in our time, our age, our language. Jesus knew
this as he was saying farewell to his disciples, there is much yet
for the Spirit to say to the church: I still have many things to
say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth
comes, he will guide you into all the truth...and he will declare
to you the things that are to come.
He knew they could not bear it all right then. He knows we cannot
bear it all right now. That is why our discernment of the Holy
Spirit is so important in looking at how the life of the church is
lived to meet the changing needs of her people, how the faith of
the church can be further illuminated through our balanced use of
Holy Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and Right Reason. This is what
the ministry of the Holy Spirit is all about, to guide us into all
truth
and into the things that are yet to come.
Our story is still being written in regards to how we are guided
and understand all truth. As a bumper sticker said some time ago,
God is not finished with me yet.
That is as true of the
church as of individuals. As we are able to bear it,
using
Jesus' words, then we will be lead into it.
This is part of our ongoing struggles now within the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion, the discernment of where and how the Holy Spirit seems to be leading us. It is also part of what all of Christianity is living with: Where is the Spirit leading us? Scripture shows us that the Holy Spirit does not work uniformly with all people. Peter and Paul each had their own timetable and journey to see where the Holy Spirit was guiding the early church dealing with Gentiles and with the purity codes of the Jewish law. A reading of church history shows a lack of uniformity in understanding where the Spirit is leading us: from Jerusalem to Antioch to Alexandria to Corinth to Rome to Constantinople to West Valley City. We are led by the Holy Spirit as we are able to bear it and hear it. But, the Holy Spirit will lead us as the Spirit lead Peter and Paul, on their own ability to hear and feel.
Such it is with us. This past week I sent an email to Bishop Gene Robinson, just to let him know that he was in my thoughts and prayers during this latest controversy about his non-invitation to the Lambeth Conference next year and to let him know of my support and concern for him.
In part this is what he wrote back to me: This story is not yet
fully written, and we'll just see how it all turns out. It's a
time for the Episcopal Church to stand up for itself and the Gospel.
I believe we will, whatever shape that turns out to be. In the
end, God will triumph. I believe that with my whole heart. All
else pales in comparison!" (Gene Robinson).
Yes, in the end God will triumph and all else pales in comparison. We will be led by the Holy Spirit into a greater understanding and reception of all the truth as we are able to bear it and live it. That for me is the message of Trinity Sunday.