Trinity Sunday May 18, 2008
To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a church not built by human hands[2]
Second reading - 2 Corinthian 13:11-13
Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the holy ones greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John -- 3:16-18
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction
Trinity Sunday
The church’s liturgical cycle begins with the Father sending the Son in the Advent-Christmas season. It continues with the Son returning to the Father in the Easter-Ascension season. The cycle peaks with the Father and the Son sending the Holy Spirit on the feast of Pentecost. So today’s feast of the mystery of the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is well-positioned here at the end of the cycle.
Mystery vs. theology
In theology mystery does not mean a conundrum or riddle but rather a deep ocean in which to swim. In theology mystery is more than the eye can see or the mind can fathom. But while mystery is more than the mind can fathom, theology, on the other hand, is the human attempt to fathom God. So there is Islamic theology -- Muslims’ attempt to fathom God. There is Jewish theology -- Jews’ attempt to fathom God. And there is Christian theology. That God is a trinity of persons -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- is the attempt of Christians to fathom God.
There is an obvious tug of war between mystery and theology. Mystery says God cannot be fathomed. On the other hand, theology says, “That might be true, but I’m going to try anyway.” St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the church’s most renowned theologian, tried to fathom God. He wrote volume after volume in Latin about the ineffable God. But at the sunset of his life he looked upon his pretentious writings and exclaimed, “Nihil est!" “It‘s nothing!” Karl Barth (1886-1968), a Swiss Reformed theologian and one of the most important Christian thinkers of the twentieth century, also thought he would try to fathom God. After writing volume after volume about the ineffable God, at the sunset of his life he made sport of his pretentious volumes saying, "The angels are laughing at old Karl Barth."
An obedient God
The best thing God has going for Himself is His mystery. But we destroy His mystery whenever we pretend to have God down pat. When we spell out definitively God’s positions on issues like birth control, divorce and remarriage, homosexuality, etc., then we have God down pat and have destroyed His mystery. When preachers have God looking just like us revengeful human beings whenever they proclaim AIDS as God’s pay-back upon immoral sinners, then they have God down pat and have destroyed His mystery. When we pretend to know God’s sexual preferences (i.e., male priests over female priests or celibate priests over married priest), when we pretend to know even God’s very gender (i.e., He is male) then we have God down pat and have destroyed His mystery. When we pretend even to know God’s own special recipe for baking a “valid” Communion wafer, [3] then, indeed, we have God down pat. A God whom we have down pat is an obedient God, and we cherish an obedient God as we cherish an obedient child.
Usama’s obedient God
The world’s most notorious terrorist, Usama bin Laden, has his God down pat. Bin Laden is first and foremost an Islamic believer. He believes in the Five Pillars of Islam, especially the Pillar of Shahada -- the one-line personal profession of faith whereby Muslims fervently profess that There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet. For them that is the one only right answer about God, and anyone who does not profess it is an infidel. At the end of the day, it was that one only right answer about God which inspired bin Laden and his co-fanatics to send two 747s crashing into the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, bringing down two towers and three thousand innocent infidels in the name of Allah, Most Merciful. Bin Laden has his God down pat. A God whom we have down pat is an obedient God, and we cherish an obedient God as we cherish an obedient child.
Rev. Phelps’ obedient God
The Rev. Phelps also has his God down pat. Matt Shepard was a gay student from the University of Wyoming, whom two skinheads beat to a pulp and chained to a wooden fence out in the country, leaving him to die there, bathed in his tears and blood. Inflamed with the same homophobic hatred Rev. Phelps picketed Shepard’s funeral with a sign which read, “God hates fags and buries them in hell—Romans 9:13.” Phelps with his followers also pickets the funeral of any soldiers brought home from Iraq, because, he says, they died for a country which endorses homosexuality. At the end of the day, Phelps and his co-fanatics do not believe in God who is a trinity of Persons loving one another and inviting us into that exchange of love. They believe only in their agenda which they place in God in order to endow it with divine and deadly authority. They have their God down pat. A God whom we have down pat is an obedient God, and we cherish an obedient God as we cherish an obedient child.
A church’s obedient God
One Sunday I assisted in a church dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel deep in the heart of Texas. In the vestibule of the church was a huge muscular statue of the archangel. The gospel that Sunday was about Jesus making the apostles fishers of men. In the homily I suggested the possibility of solving the acute shortage of priests by ordaining married men and even women as fishers of men. That made many deeply unhappy! I was informed that there ensued a flood of fifty plus telephone calls to the church office in complaint. The fury caused by my “wild suggestions” was described as similar to what happened when Vatican II first broke upon the Catholic faithful. As a result I was basically informed that it would have to be the parish’s way or the highway. I knew without doubt that it would have to be the highway. As I look back now, I see that huge muscular statue of Michael as protecting a God whom that church had down pat. A God whom we have down pat is an obedient God, and we cherish an obedient God as we cherish an obedient child.
Who does not love does not know God.
In extremely simple terms St. John writes, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (I Jn 4:8). It is not theology in the head but love in the heart that makes us know God. Usama bin Laden religiously recites his Islamic profession that There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet. He faithfully falls to his knees in ritual prayer five times daily. At the same time, he luxuriates in the apocalyptic event of 9\11 which brought down two towers and three thousand innocent human beings with one blow, and he periodically sends us hate messages promising that worse is yet to be visited upon us infidels. Usama does not know God, for Scripture says, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Rev. Phelps quotes the Bible (Romans 9:13) and recites the Nicene Creed with its clear profession of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At the same time he luxuriates in homophobic hatred as he pickets the funeral of Matt Shepard and buries him in hell. Preacher Phelps, like Usama, does not know God, for Scripture says, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
There are churchly communities whose archangels zealously protect “orthodoxy,” i.e., the “right” formulation of teachings, instead of protecting love which opens the horizons of our hearts and minds. Despite their “orthodoxy,” such churchly communities do not know God, for John writes, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Before Rev. Phelps and Usama bin Laden and that parish community protected by Michael the Archangel, there was a Jewish priest who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. He had a doctorate in theology from the University of Jerusalem and was on his way to deliver a paper at a theological seminary in Jericho. He suddenly came upon a man waylaid by robbers and left half-dead. With a ton of theology in his head but not an ounce of love and compassion in his heart he glanced at the poor man lying there and passed him by. (Lk 10:30-32) Though he had a doctorate in theology he did not know God, for John writes, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Who loves knows God
But John’s words are a two-edged sword, for he writes, “The one who loves is a child of God and knows God.” (I Jn 4:7) Shortly after the Jewish priest inhumanely passed by the man waylaid by robbers on the road to Jericho, along came a Samaritan. For various reasons Jews considered Samaritans as outcasts and heretics. They were heretics especially because they worshipped God on Mt. Gerizim. Jewish teachers, who had God down pat, claimed the only right place to worship God was in the temple in Jerusalem. (Jn 4:20) The heretical Samaritan seeing the poor man by the wayside stopped to pour the oil of compassion into his wounds, then hoisted him onto his beast of burden and hurried him off to the nearest inn where he provided for his care and cure. (Lk 10:33-35) Heretic though he was, the Samaritan knew God, for Scripture says, “The one who loves is a child of God and knows God.”
When Sister Barbara Ann Kutchera (of the BVM Order) died of ovarian cancer at the age of 66, her funeral was held at St. Benedict the Moor Church in Milwaukee. People came from every direction to give joyful testimony of that great lady. The testimony made people laugh and rejoice, and it turned the funeral into a great celebration. Her own religious Order came fifty sisters strong, and none of them were dressed the way sisters “are supposed to dress.” Some of them even wore earrings! There was simply nothing down pat about that funeral. The real shocker came at the homily; the preacher was a she (!) -- the Rev. Linda Hansen. What’s more, the preacher was born and raised a Catholic but left the church for various reasons and became an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. (Unitarians do not subscribe to God as a trinity of persons.)
Rev. Linda was chosen to be the homilist for the funeral because of her warm personal relationship with Sr. Barbara. Her homily was carefully crafted, and it softly alluded to the strange twists and turns of the human journey. Rev. Linda spoke also about the warm, human side of Sr. Barbara. She mentioned a visit to Barbara in the early 1980s in the San Francisco Bay area. Though Barbara had a major paper to finish, she took the time out to show her the Bay Area which she loved very much. Sr. Kutchera knew God not because she was a Trinitarian. Rev. Hansen knew God not because she was a Unitarian. Both knew God because both were loving people, for John writes, “The one who loves is a child of God and knows God.
Be at peace!
In the Nicene Creed at Mass we profess to”believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth…. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, … begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father…. And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son….”
If, as we recite the creed, we feel we do not know what the words mean, be at peace! The person in the pew beside us also does not know what the words mean. Be at peace! As long as we are loving human beings, we are children of God and know God. Be at peace also when someone we love very much (like a son or daughter) has left the church and no longer sits with us in the pew and recites with us the ancient Trinitarian creed. As long as they are loving human beings they are children of God and know God.
Conclusion
Trinity: a good attempt
At the end of the day, the Christian attempt to fathom God is a good one. It has rich overtones. It speaks of God as a Father who loves and forgives us his children. That lays an axe to the mean and revengeful god whom the Rev. Phelps has invented to hate and bury fags in hell. Trinity also speaks of God as a Son who in the fullness of time was born into the human condition and became Emmanuel – God with us. That lays an axe to a god who is high above us or beyond us or unconcerned about us. Trinity also speaks of God as a Holy Spirit who dwells within us. That lays an axe to the awful thought that we are alone on the long arduous journey of life and have no one to speak with.
Again, the Christian attempt to fathom God is a good one. It says that “God is love” (I Jn 4:16), but loving requires more than one. God, is never alone or lonely, for in God there is a family of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and all of them are busy loving one another. What’s more, God who is in a constant inward loving exchange extends an invitation outward to us to join Him in His family of love. There we shall find the Good Samaritan, Rev. Hansen, Sr. Kutchera, and all the other people who have gone before us, and who are God’s children because they loved much.
[1]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24
[3] To accommodate a child afflicted with celiac, a disease which can not tolerate wheat, a pastor had a Communion wafer made from rice for the little girl’s first Communion. His boss, the bishop, declared the Communion invalid because, he said, “We must follow Christ—we must do what he did. At the Last Supper he did not consecrate rice wafers but bread”!
To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a church not built by human hands[2]
Second reading - 2 Corinthian 13:11-13
Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the holy ones greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John -- 3:16-18
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction
Trinity Sunday
The church’s liturgical cycle begins with the Father sending the Son in the Advent-Christmas season. It continues with the Son returning to the Father in the Easter-Ascension season. The cycle peaks with the Father and the Son sending the Holy Spirit on the feast of Pentecost. So today’s feast of the mystery of the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is well-positioned here at the end of the cycle.
Mystery vs. theology
In theology mystery does not mean a conundrum or riddle but rather a deep ocean in which to swim. In theology mystery is more than the eye can see or the mind can fathom. But while mystery is more than the mind can fathom, theology, on the other hand, is the human attempt to fathom God. So there is Islamic theology -- Muslims’ attempt to fathom God. There is Jewish theology -- Jews’ attempt to fathom God. And there is Christian theology. That God is a trinity of persons -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- is the attempt of Christians to fathom God.
There is an obvious tug of war between mystery and theology. Mystery says God cannot be fathomed. On the other hand, theology says, “That might be true, but I’m going to try anyway.” St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the church’s most renowned theologian, tried to fathom God. He wrote volume after volume in Latin about the ineffable God. But at the sunset of his life he looked upon his pretentious writings and exclaimed, “Nihil est!" “It‘s nothing!” Karl Barth (1886-1968), a Swiss Reformed theologian and one of the most important Christian thinkers of the twentieth century, also thought he would try to fathom God. After writing volume after volume about the ineffable God, at the sunset of his life he made sport of his pretentious volumes saying, "The angels are laughing at old Karl Barth."
An obedient God
The best thing God has going for Himself is His mystery. But we destroy His mystery whenever we pretend to have God down pat. When we spell out definitively God’s positions on issues like birth control, divorce and remarriage, homosexuality, etc., then we have God down pat and have destroyed His mystery. When preachers have God looking just like us revengeful human beings whenever they proclaim AIDS as God’s pay-back upon immoral sinners, then they have God down pat and have destroyed His mystery. When we pretend to know God’s sexual preferences (i.e., male priests over female priests or celibate priests over married priest), when we pretend to know even God’s very gender (i.e., He is male) then we have God down pat and have destroyed His mystery. When we pretend even to know God’s own special recipe for baking a “valid” Communion wafer, [3] then, indeed, we have God down pat. A God whom we have down pat is an obedient God, and we cherish an obedient God as we cherish an obedient child.
Usama’s obedient God
The world’s most notorious terrorist, Usama bin Laden, has his God down pat. Bin Laden is first and foremost an Islamic believer. He believes in the Five Pillars of Islam, especially the Pillar of Shahada -- the one-line personal profession of faith whereby Muslims fervently profess that There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet. For them that is the one only right answer about God, and anyone who does not profess it is an infidel. At the end of the day, it was that one only right answer about God which inspired bin Laden and his co-fanatics to send two 747s crashing into the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, bringing down two towers and three thousand innocent infidels in the name of Allah, Most Merciful. Bin Laden has his God down pat. A God whom we have down pat is an obedient God, and we cherish an obedient God as we cherish an obedient child.
Rev. Phelps’ obedient God
The Rev. Phelps also has his God down pat. Matt Shepard was a gay student from the University of Wyoming, whom two skinheads beat to a pulp and chained to a wooden fence out in the country, leaving him to die there, bathed in his tears and blood. Inflamed with the same homophobic hatred Rev. Phelps picketed Shepard’s funeral with a sign which read, “God hates fags and buries them in hell—Romans 9:13.” Phelps with his followers also pickets the funeral of any soldiers brought home from Iraq, because, he says, they died for a country which endorses homosexuality. At the end of the day, Phelps and his co-fanatics do not believe in God who is a trinity of Persons loving one another and inviting us into that exchange of love. They believe only in their agenda which they place in God in order to endow it with divine and deadly authority. They have their God down pat. A God whom we have down pat is an obedient God, and we cherish an obedient God as we cherish an obedient child.
A church’s obedient God
One Sunday I assisted in a church dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel deep in the heart of Texas. In the vestibule of the church was a huge muscular statue of the archangel. The gospel that Sunday was about Jesus making the apostles fishers of men. In the homily I suggested the possibility of solving the acute shortage of priests by ordaining married men and even women as fishers of men. That made many deeply unhappy! I was informed that there ensued a flood of fifty plus telephone calls to the church office in complaint. The fury caused by my “wild suggestions” was described as similar to what happened when Vatican II first broke upon the Catholic faithful. As a result I was basically informed that it would have to be the parish’s way or the highway. I knew without doubt that it would have to be the highway. As I look back now, I see that huge muscular statue of Michael as protecting a God whom that church had down pat. A God whom we have down pat is an obedient God, and we cherish an obedient God as we cherish an obedient child.
Who does not love does not know God.
In extremely simple terms St. John writes, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (I Jn 4:8). It is not theology in the head but love in the heart that makes us know God. Usama bin Laden religiously recites his Islamic profession that There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet. He faithfully falls to his knees in ritual prayer five times daily. At the same time, he luxuriates in the apocalyptic event of 9\11 which brought down two towers and three thousand innocent human beings with one blow, and he periodically sends us hate messages promising that worse is yet to be visited upon us infidels. Usama does not know God, for Scripture says, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Rev. Phelps quotes the Bible (Romans 9:13) and recites the Nicene Creed with its clear profession of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At the same time he luxuriates in homophobic hatred as he pickets the funeral of Matt Shepard and buries him in hell. Preacher Phelps, like Usama, does not know God, for Scripture says, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
There are churchly communities whose archangels zealously protect “orthodoxy,” i.e., the “right” formulation of teachings, instead of protecting love which opens the horizons of our hearts and minds. Despite their “orthodoxy,” such churchly communities do not know God, for John writes, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Before Rev. Phelps and Usama bin Laden and that parish community protected by Michael the Archangel, there was a Jewish priest who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. He had a doctorate in theology from the University of Jerusalem and was on his way to deliver a paper at a theological seminary in Jericho. He suddenly came upon a man waylaid by robbers and left half-dead. With a ton of theology in his head but not an ounce of love and compassion in his heart he glanced at the poor man lying there and passed him by. (Lk 10:30-32) Though he had a doctorate in theology he did not know God, for John writes, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Who loves knows God
But John’s words are a two-edged sword, for he writes, “The one who loves is a child of God and knows God.” (I Jn 4:7) Shortly after the Jewish priest inhumanely passed by the man waylaid by robbers on the road to Jericho, along came a Samaritan. For various reasons Jews considered Samaritans as outcasts and heretics. They were heretics especially because they worshipped God on Mt. Gerizim. Jewish teachers, who had God down pat, claimed the only right place to worship God was in the temple in Jerusalem. (Jn 4:20) The heretical Samaritan seeing the poor man by the wayside stopped to pour the oil of compassion into his wounds, then hoisted him onto his beast of burden and hurried him off to the nearest inn where he provided for his care and cure. (Lk 10:33-35) Heretic though he was, the Samaritan knew God, for Scripture says, “The one who loves is a child of God and knows God.”
When Sister Barbara Ann Kutchera (of the BVM Order) died of ovarian cancer at the age of 66, her funeral was held at St. Benedict the Moor Church in Milwaukee. People came from every direction to give joyful testimony of that great lady. The testimony made people laugh and rejoice, and it turned the funeral into a great celebration. Her own religious Order came fifty sisters strong, and none of them were dressed the way sisters “are supposed to dress.” Some of them even wore earrings! There was simply nothing down pat about that funeral. The real shocker came at the homily; the preacher was a she (!) -- the Rev. Linda Hansen. What’s more, the preacher was born and raised a Catholic but left the church for various reasons and became an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister. (Unitarians do not subscribe to God as a trinity of persons.)
Rev. Linda was chosen to be the homilist for the funeral because of her warm personal relationship with Sr. Barbara. Her homily was carefully crafted, and it softly alluded to the strange twists and turns of the human journey. Rev. Linda spoke also about the warm, human side of Sr. Barbara. She mentioned a visit to Barbara in the early 1980s in the San Francisco Bay area. Though Barbara had a major paper to finish, she took the time out to show her the Bay Area which she loved very much. Sr. Kutchera knew God not because she was a Trinitarian. Rev. Hansen knew God not because she was a Unitarian. Both knew God because both were loving people, for John writes, “The one who loves is a child of God and knows God.
Be at peace!
In the Nicene Creed at Mass we profess to”believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth…. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, … begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father…. And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son….”
If, as we recite the creed, we feel we do not know what the words mean, be at peace! The person in the pew beside us also does not know what the words mean. Be at peace! As long as we are loving human beings, we are children of God and know God. Be at peace also when someone we love very much (like a son or daughter) has left the church and no longer sits with us in the pew and recites with us the ancient Trinitarian creed. As long as they are loving human beings they are children of God and know God.
Conclusion
Trinity: a good attempt
At the end of the day, the Christian attempt to fathom God is a good one. It has rich overtones. It speaks of God as a Father who loves and forgives us his children. That lays an axe to the mean and revengeful god whom the Rev. Phelps has invented to hate and bury fags in hell. Trinity also speaks of God as a Son who in the fullness of time was born into the human condition and became Emmanuel – God with us. That lays an axe to a god who is high above us or beyond us or unconcerned about us. Trinity also speaks of God as a Holy Spirit who dwells within us. That lays an axe to the awful thought that we are alone on the long arduous journey of life and have no one to speak with.
Again, the Christian attempt to fathom God is a good one. It says that “God is love” (I Jn 4:16), but loving requires more than one. God, is never alone or lonely, for in God there is a family of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and all of them are busy loving one another. What’s more, God who is in a constant inward loving exchange extends an invitation outward to us to join Him in His family of love. There we shall find the Good Samaritan, Rev. Hansen, Sr. Kutchera, and all the other people who have gone before us, and who are God’s children because they loved much.
[1]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24
[3] To accommodate a child afflicted with celiac, a disease which can not tolerate wheat, a pastor had a Communion wafer made from rice for the little girl’s first Communion. His boss, the bishop, declared the Communion invalid because, he said, “We must follow Christ—we must do what he did. At the Last Supper he did not consecrate rice wafers but bread”!
