Musical Prelude and Service.

Trinity Sunday – John 3:1-17
I believe preaching on the Holy Trinity can easily become one of the most intellectually intense exercises on the Christian calendar. We are often left trying to rationally describe or explain the doctrine of the Trinity. And that can certainly be important. The notion of God in three persons and three people as one God is central to how the vast majority of churches, the United Church of Canada being one of them, defines us as Christian. But explaining what we mean by Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or to use non gender terminology, Creator, Redeemer, Holy Spirit is far, far trickier. It is a slippery terrain and I also believe that in digging too much into the image of the trinity we risk losing sight of the beauty of the image itself.
In attempting to describe and make sense of the trinity, we can find ourselves attempting to describe or define each of the individual persons of the trinity and we can end up floundering very quickly; especially around just who is the Spirit.
One of the images of the Holy Spirit I have come to truly appreciate in recent years is that of the wild goose. The popular understanding of this image is that it originates with Celtic Christianity. There are those that argue there is little, if any historical documentation of this as a Celtic image of the spirit, whether it be in writing or artwork. But others point to some writings which refer to the Spirit as “Geadh-Glas”. That could be speaking of a goose, as it basically translates to English as goose grey.
But in any case, among many Christians, the image of the spirit as a wild goose has become incredibly popular. It doesn’t remove the image of the spirit as a dove and nor should it. But it does offer us another way of considering how the spirit works in our lives.
The wild goose is passionate, noisy, and courageous. They work and fly in community, encouraging one another and strengthening one another. Protecting one another. And can you even begin to imagine capturing one and containing such a goose? Gentleness rarely comes to mind when picturing a wild goose.
This image of the spirit as a wild goose, may also help us in considering the idea of the Trinity.
How do we describe the trinity or explain the trinity? Just when we believe we have come up with an analogy to best explain how the trinity, God/creator/parent; Christ/son/redeemer and Holy Spirit works and relates to one another, we are told that image – whether it be water or a shamrock or the sun highlight and warmth, breaks with some form of theological doctrine and is far from perfect.
We simply cannot corral this idea of God in three persons; but three persons as God and make sense of it without it reducing God to what God does or leaving God as only a part of who God is.
Recognizing the Trinitarian nature of God, but also admitting that perfectly explaining what that means is beyond my capacity is quite vexing.
The best I can come up with is to say this perfectly explains why the United Church of Canada’s Song of Faith says in its first lines that God is Holy Mystery.
We are left working with poetry and other forms of art to attempt to get as close as possible to describe our encounters with the Holy nature of God. And the idea – the image of the Trinity offers us a glimpse into God’s desire to be in relationship. Whether it be with other aspects of the holy or with God’s creation.
In today’s reading from John’s Gospel, Jesus sits in conversation with leader and pharisee Nicodemus. It is a conversation that discusses the nature of Jesus’ relationship with God and also with the spirit. It is as close to a scriptural description of the Trinity as we get in the gospels.
Jesus is described as God’s son, sent from God. We also get the description of the spirit which is part of how we come to be in relationship with God. And that spirit is mysterious all on its own.
We cannot know where it comes from or when it will blow upon us.
It is like the wind.
I am left with the realization that we are not capable of confining or defining God in any fully satisfying way. God is beyond our full comprehension and ability to describe or define, whether it be with language, image, music or poetry. And that is also the case for each of the persons of that trinity. God as father, parent, creator. Spirit as Ruah; the breath, flame, dove or goose, and Jesus, son, anointed one, liberator, redeemer. None of these fully captures the essence of who they are and how they relate to us or to one another.
But I have also come to appreciate that the idea of relationship is crucial. At least for me. Franciscan theologian Bonaventure offered a vision of God desiring to be in a fuller relationship with God’s creation. In order to pursue that relationship, God enters into creation as fully human in the person of Jesus. Fully human, experiencing the pain and the joy, the heartbreak and the excitement, the betrayal and the camaraderie that are all a part of human experience. In and through Jesus, God’s absolute love of creation is revealed. But also, what humanity can truly be is also revealed. In Jesus, God the divine can relate completely with humanity and humanity with God. But connecting God who transcends creation to Jesus is the spirit. The spirit connects God the creator to Jesus. The spirit also connects God to all of creation. The spirit is God’s gift connecting with and moving in and about and through creation. To quote my theology professor Don Schweitzer, the spirit is God’s growing bond of love.
But, again, the spirit is more than a connector. The spirit is a force that moves in and through all of creation. The spirit inspires us, comforts us, and disturbs us. We cannot control the spirit. We cannot predict that movement of the spirit. But Jesus can breathe the spirit out and upon us.
The spirit can work through gentle nudges and prodding.
Or the spirit can pour out upon us disturbing us and frightening us and leaving us with no choice but to act.
And in that moment, when we find ourselves shaken to our roots because of the work of the spirit, we encounter Jesus; our friend and our teacher, comforting us and encouraging us and guiding us on the way.
The idea of the trinity is vexing. It is confusing and more often than not, leaves us fumbling to truly explain it. We are left on some level with an intellectual exercise of studying, praying, meditating, and reflecting on who God is and how God is at work in our lives, using the notion the Trinity as some sort of framework for that reflection.
And that is good. Perhaps it provides us with a framework to start our meditations. But we are left with the journey to discovery. Perhaps even self discovery. and that in itself should be a moment of excitement. We are on a journey. Perhaps a wild goose chase. And that itself can be exciting, because there are a great many things to be discovered along the way.
Always learning, seeing new things, and witnessing the world again in new ways. And moving us once again to say, Thanks be to God.
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

 

 

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789