Trinity ‘07 Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
Twente, Nijmegen Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15
How do we know God?
It is Trinity Sunday, so we should spend this time going into the debates about Christology and ontology of the 4th & 5th centuries, don’t you think? Do not worry, we will not. But before we skip over the contribution that some of the greatest minds of early Christianity were up to, we should recognize what we have in common with them. People like Cyril, Basil, and Augustine were simply trying to put into words what they knew of God based on what they had experienced of God. We’re too quick to dismiss ancient and medieval thought as abstract when, after all, they were only trying to understand their God more deeply based on what God had done in the past and what he had done in their own lives.They knew God as the creator of all things. We, too, have not come up with a more persuasive argument about the origin of life and the universe than that of St Aquinas, based on Aristotle, that something or someone had to be an original cause. The big bang and other theories science know offers do illuminate early cosmology, but they still do not adequately explain what caused the bang or anything else. Certainly they do not rule out God starting it. And just looking around at the wonders of creation, the magnificence of mountain ranges and the intricacy of the human body, it is hard to believe that it is all mere coincidence, unguided, uncrafted by something greater. The writer of Proverbs marvels at the wisdom of God seen in the wonders of His creation.The early Christians knew Jesus as the Son of God, God with us, God in our own flesh, yet without sin, the masterful teacher, the miracle worker, the one who offered himself to mend our broken relationship with God. Paul writes, in Romans, ‘5:1Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.’ Jesus showed us that a human could be, can be, God’s true child. And through him, each of us can be God’s true child. Many of us are asked, when we are young, what we want to be when we grow up. And we often say something like a doctor, teacher, film star or whatever. What if we said, ‘like Jesus’? We, from an early age, think of human success and glory (and sometimes, if we serve others, then we may glorify God). But none can compare to God’s glory, Paul reminds us, and we can even share in God’s glory if we believe and follow Jesus. Let us resolve to grow up into him. The early Christians knew the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit arrived fully and powerfully at Pentecost in Jerusalem and had never left us. It is through the Spirit that we can even know God at all. So the Spirit is not some spooky shadow, a pale figure of God. The Spirit is God among us throughout all time and in all places. The author of Proverbs notes how the spiritual wisdom of God was there at creation – intriguingly personified as a women. But then, the Greek word for Spirit is feminine, even if Jesus, in John’s account, does refer to the Spirit of truth as a ‘him’. The breath of the Spirit was with God hovering over the waters at creation in the Genesis story, and the Bible recounts the mighty working of the Spirit through the ages. And the church, from its birth, has been graced with gifts or fruits of the Spirit. Paul tells of some of them here: by faith we may know God’s love, his goodness. We have endurance, character and hope that does not disappoint. I remember poignantly a conversation I had with a family friend of someone whose funeral I took late last year. She was not a Christian, but she said that she envied the comfort and hope that Christians shared when faced with death. She wished she could share that, too. I pray she will. Our hope, says Paul, ‘5does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.’The early Christians experienced God as Father/creator, as Son Jesus, and as Spirit. And they wanted to put that in words. There is no verse in the Bible that says ‘God is triune: 3 persons in one God.’ But the Bible is suffused with experience of God as Father, Son and Spirit.Our attempts, both ancient and modern, to express this 3-ness and one-ness of God fail. But that is OK. God is greater than our attempts to define God. Thanks be to God – because we have a tendency to get God wrong too often. We can only try, like St Patrick, explaining the Trinity with a shamrock leaf, 3 petals and one leaf. But even the best human illustrations fall. We just know God as Father, Son and Spirit. What is wonderfully brought out in our readings today are the wisdom of God, the sacrifice of God’s son and its benefits for us, and the unity and truth of God. A final word on that first point: wisdom. Here, too, our situation has not changed too much for millennia: the ancient character Job cried out, ‘Where can wisdom be found?’(28:12) He found it alone in God. Today people still ask where wisdom can be found, though they ask it differently – where can understanding, self-improvement or insight be found? And many look to self-help books and gurus, to New Age religion, or to conspiracy theories, some of which are more incredibly far-fetched than anything Christians have ever believed.Wisdom dwells with and in God, the writer of Proverbs suggests. And Jesus insists that when the Spirit of God – the Spirit of truth itself – comes, ‘13he will guide you into all the truth.’ It is a truth which we can test and experience.God who creates us, and protects us. Jesus the Son, who was no guru out for money or earthly success, but who laid down his life – proving he was genuine. And not just that, but effective in bringing us back to God. And the Spirit who inspires and guides us if we rely on God.Where can wisdom, let alone love and salvation be found? In God, Father, Son and Spirit. Amen.
Any questions? Contact:
The Chaplain, Revd Sam Van Leer, 026 495 0620,
