Can We Believe that God Delights in Us?

Trinity Sunday 12^th June 2022

[Proverbs 8:22-31, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15]

The Trinity (A. Roublev)

Last night a good friend bought me a ticket to the musical The Girl from the North, based on the songs of Bob Dylan. Set in the Great Depression, like the novels of John Steinbeck it showed us poverty, hunger, loneliness and despair, and how human love and spirit can overcome suffering.

Watching the play, I wondered how we might cope with the troubled times that will no doubt come in the near future, as the earth continues to heat up, more species become extinct, famine increases – there are six million right now facing starvation in NE Africa – and even our wealthy Australian economy will falter.

It is important that poets and playwrights lead us to ponder these things. And on this Trinity Sunday we have three wonderful readings from the inspired poets who wrote various books of the bible. They give us glimpses of the Three-In-One God, the Trinity who made the trillion galaxies in which our tiny planet spins. These writers give us a wonderful glimpse of the bigger picture, offering us the key to understanding the universe, and even to cope with the mystery of suffering.

First, the book of Wisdom: This poet, struggling to understand what God was unveiling, tells us that Wisdom must have been with God “from the beginning”. The New Testament, as in today’s reading from John’s Gospel, tells us that this Wisdom is one of the Persons of the Trinity; the Logos or Word of God, Christ.

Earlier in my life, I found the idea of God as the Trinity too obscure and theoretical to be of any help. But I have learned that it is immensely practical, for the three persons in God are always active. They are the origin of our being and the source that keeps us alive, and will do so forever.

It is interesting that the book of Wisdom says God gave birth to Wisdom as a woman gives birth. It also describes Wisdom as female. We know that God is neither male nor female, but has the qualities of all genders far beyond what we can imagine.

It is also fascinating that Wisdom is described as being delighted to create the universe; playing with God. Can we believe that the universe, and the human race, is based on joy and play? I’m told that when a baby’s birth is not complicated or difficult, the baby is born smiling. We are made to be happy. Forever.

The reading from Romans tells us the precious fact that we have been given the Spirit of God. This amazing truth means that we are God’s adopted children, and so have no reason ever to be sad or lonely! We can call on this status of ours, the love and energy of the Infinite One, when dealing with all our struggles, and as we try to change our world for the better!

Our third reading says that Jesus and the Father are equal, and that Jesus gives us the Spirit, the Love between them. So on this day when we honour the Trinity, we can reflect that we are equipped to deal with the struggles of life such as our grandparents suffered in the Great Depression; the changing times that Bob Dylan sang about, and whatever threats or shortages of water or food that might face us from the warming of our planet.

We need to be realistic: sin is “what one person does to hurt others”, and we need to avoid it in ourselves and to overcome it in others. Last Sunday’s gospel showed Jesus giving the Holy Spirit so that we can forgive sins and retain sins as a dam wall holds back the water.

We can take part in changing our world by calling out, for example, the grave sins of those companies in Australia which make and sell weapons or the parts of weapons. We need to stand against those who would expand the use of coal or gas, and others which greedily exploit our planet’s resources. Dairying, fishing and forestry can be done in sustainable ways, but too often they damage our world. In Aotearoa-New Zealand, for example, the excessive growth of dairying is dangerously poisoning rivers with too much nitrogen. Even within our own church, too, we need to stand against corruption and promote good change.

Today, can we each ponder more deeply the Trinity within us, perhaps praying one of the three readings, and entering into the mystery of the life which God shares with us. This deep Christian truth, the joy and intimate love of the Trinity, is surely the key to understanding our own sufferings and the world’s sufferings. As Jesus did, we can endure our own necessary suffering and help others in theirs, growing stronger in our power to love.

* * * * *

Source, Wisdom and Love

Trinity Sunday 30^th May 2021

The Trinity – Andrei Rublev

[Deuteronomy 4:32-40, Romans 8:14-17, Matthew 28:16-20]

As little children we were naturally selfish. We were glad that our parents and siblings provided us with comfort, food and friendship, though we sometimes imagined them as obstacles and rivals. As we grew and developed – still benefiting from the good things they provided – we appreciated them more as persons, although sometimes still saw them as obstacles… and sometimes they were!

We often strove to be better than those around us, and measured ourselves by heroes, seen mostly on screens. This struggle of comparing ourselves to ‘rivals’, this clashing of egos, goes on through our lives. Just as this competition among children sometimes breaks out into conflict, among adults it can lead to tragic, deadly wars.

With more maturity however, we might begin to glimpse that every other person is struggling with the same uncertainties and fears as we do, and is capable of the same joys as we ourselves. We might realise that although some people accumulate great wealth or power, and some achieve great good or evil, we are all fundamentally equal because we have all come from the same source. Some other religious traditions have found this truth, but Christians have learned that we can call the source our Father in heaven.

Our lives, even the lives of ‘ordinary’ people, are filled with profound adventures: birth, growth, work, rest, love, struggle, pain, joy, creativity and the final journey into death. What does it all mean? As we gaze into life’s depths, we might be gifted with the insight that everything that happens to us brings true benefit and advantage. Like Albert Facey, a farmer, Gallipoli veteran, lover and author, we all have ‘A Fortunate Life’. How can this be? We can begin to understand by seeing that all that exists, from galaxies to wheat-grains, has been guided as it evolved and exists now by the Word or Wisdom of the Source. We Christians believe this Word came on earth in Jesus of Nazareth.

Surely volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, famines and genocide can’t be beneficial? Yes, the vast movements in the crust of our planet are essential if it to develop mountains, rivers, weather and all its other gifts. The terrible evils that people commit against each other happen because we are free, but are also selfish and ignorant. These crimes may be eventually eliminated by our struggle for truth and justice. Their fearful after-effects can partly be healed by forgiving and by compassion, but their ultimate solution comes from the truth that Jesus, going into the depths of rejection and destruction, showed us that God is even there.

He passed through death and his followers experienced him as present in a deeper way. His victory and our victory over death enables us to understand his saying: ‘Blessed are you poor; … you persecuted… who hunger for justice.’ So the deep truth about our life is that God lives within us: ‘I am with you always.. to the end of time’. It is not just cold reason that governs the unimaginable, complex web of the universe: within the Source there is Wisdom and Love, which we share because God’s Spirit comes into us, the more we welcome it.

What we lamely call the Trinity is the Source that has no beginning, the Wisdom that brings order out of chaos and the infinite Love in which there is no rivalry. This Community lives within us already, and in it we will dwell eternally.

* * * * *