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Genesis 1:1-2:4a & Psalm 8 • 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 • Matthew 28:16-20

Today we conclude our three-Sunday feasts of Ascension, Pentecost & Trinity – but in case you think you’ll leave here understanding the Trinity much better, let me retell a story from Augustine of Hippo. Augustine was converted to Christ as an adult, and he struggled with understanding the Trinity – the three-in-oneness of Creator, Jesus & Spirit. One day he was contemplating this mystery while walking along a beach, and he noticed a child repeatedly carrying pails of seawater to put into his hole in the sand. So, he asked the child what this was about. When the child said I’m emptying the sea into the sand-hole I dug, Augustine said – but that’s impossible – to which the angel/child replied or implied – that his efforts to understand the Trinity were equally impossible.

On another Trinity Sunday, maybe lectionary Year B or C, I’m pretty sure our Old Testament Hebrew Bible reading was the Genesis 18 story of the three angels who visit Abraham near the Oaks of Mamre – to tell him that he’d finally have a child born to him in the coming year – when he’d be about a hundred years old, and Sarah about 90. Sarah even gets in trouble for laughing about this, which seems unfair, since laughter is a gentler response than the fear and/or anger most 90-year-olds would feel at such news. Also, in other years I’ve highlighted the 15th century iconographer Rublev and his famous icon of the Trinity as those three angels. And this year I was pleased to find, a few days ago, Kelly Latimore’s contemporary painting of that Trinity image – with the three faces of the angels looking like a Latina woman, a Black woman and an Asian woman https://kellylatimoreicons.com/en-ca/blogs/news/the-trinity. I posted that on our parish Facebook page – along with these wise words from Richard Rohr’s book on the Trinity, called The Divine Dance:

“Circling around” is all we can do. Our speaking of God is a search for similes, analogies, and metaphors. All theological language is an approximation, offered tentatively in holy awe. That’s the best human language can achieve. We can say, “It’s like—it’s similar to…,” but we can never say, “It is…” because we are in the realm of beyond, of transcendence, of mystery. And we must—absolutely must—maintain a fundamental humility before the Great Mystery. If we do not, religion always worships itself and its formulations and never God.”

A spiritual director once taught me this meditative prayer, using the well-known line of “Be still and know that I am God” … and after gently repeating that a few times, you drop the last word: “Be still and know that I am”. Then you drop off that last phrase ‘that I am’ and gently repeat “Be still and know” … and then just ‘Be still’ and finally just ‘Be’

And speaking of BE here’s another way to think of the Trinity that I learned from a wonderful deacon: TO BE * TO BECOME * TO BECOME BLESSED! So, the Creator who brought everything into being is the TO BE part of that Trinity formula. And then with Jesus’ incarnation he BECOMES both human and divine, forging an everlasting link between us and God. And finally, the Holy Spirit as the Sanctifier – as the one who helps us in an ongoing way to Become Blessed: seeking blessings, and to be blessings to each other, and to the world. I might be wrong about this, but my experience is that Holy Spirit Lady Wisdom may be running a small ‘army’ of angels to help us take care and be aware of many seemingly insignificant details in life that could become blessings.
Like last week when my computer life was greatly improved by a $25 laptop stand, so that I’m not too hunched over as I type, and less affected by the screen’s blue light. If you saw my desk you might laugh, since it’s a small desk my father made -- mine is the one that my son left behind and it still has his initials carved into the wood. I can afford a bigger desk, but I love using what my father made, and have several items of such furniture. Anyways, to make room for the expanded computer & paraphernalia spread, from that laptop stand, I needed the desktop to be a few inches bigger around one corner. I think some little angel whispered in my ear – what about the wooden tray your brother refinished and gifted you decades ago? So, I dug that out and voila – it was amazing as to how much more functional and relaxing my desk area is now, thanks to these items from my father and brother, who are both deceased. Then a beautiful image flashed through my mind, as I envisioned my father & brother in heaven – smiling and shaking hands and saying: ‘Isn’t that great – we were able to help her out once again!’ That might sound silly and childish, but thanks to the Indigenous emphasis on how ancestors can continue to help us – I was comforted and blessed by that image.

Isn’t that Message Bible version I sent you last week interesting? I’m not crazy about everything I’ve read in The Message, but Eugene Peterson does have a way of refreshing some of the old stories, to help us see their deeper or even funnier layers. Today’s Genesis reading gives us the first version of Creation – with God creating both men and women at the same time – in God’s they/them image. And this first chapter also has God offering us all a plant-based diet in verse 29. In chapter two, however, God makes man first, and later makes woman out of Adam’s rib, and God offers people the animals to eat as well. The two creation stories in Gen 1 & 2 are quite different in other ways as well. If the first two chapters of the Bible offer us two different versions, then chances are that many other Bible stories have various possible versions. Nothing more damaging to the Bible than to think it has only one rigid version of things.

I’d like to end with The Message version of our 2 Corinthians reading applied directly to us: “And that's about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure. Greet one another with a holy embrace. All the brothers and sisters here say hello.” Such a friendly down-to-earth message – may we too be cheerful and keep our spirits up – while doing our best to live agreeably in harmony. May the Trinity help us always To Be, To Become and Become Blessed – as we walk forward on our path of ever renewed discipleship, Amen