Mystery Beyond All...Trinity Sunday

Begin with a Story
Near Anchorage, AK, Philip Yancey pulled off the highway to look at what many other motorists had stopped to observe, a pod of silvery white beluga whales that was feeding just offshore. “I stood for
forty minutes, listening to the rhythmic motion of the sea, following the graceful, ghostly crescents of surfacing whales. The crowd was hushed, even reverent. We passed around binoculars, saying nothing,
simply watching…. Just for that moment, nothing else—dinner reservations, the trip schedule, my life back in Chicago—mattered. We were confronted with a scene of quiet beauty and a majesty of scale. We all felt small. We stood together in silence until the whales moved farther out. And then we climbed the bank together and got in our cars to resume our busy, ordered lives, which somehow seemed less urgent.
And it wasn’t even Sunday.” (Philip Yancey, “Of Whales and Polar Bears,” in The Best Preaching on
Earth, ed. by Stan L. LeQuire [Judson Press, 1996]: 163-166.)

Creation does that to us.

It fills us with Awe, Reverence, Beauty, Majesty,

When we witness creation, we know that God is.

And then, our humble attempts to explain, describe, tame or domesticate the Divine become ludicrous.

But what are we to do? We’ve probably all felt the incredibleness of God and so want to put it into words.

We so want to share our joy & profound experience, that we have no other way then to try to put it into words.

Hence, the Trinity as a concept came into being.

-This doctrine became official in 325 AD at Council of Nicaea. Trinity Sunday has been celebrated since 1334 when Pope John XX11 fixed it as the Sunday after Pentecost.

But, since I am always a little less Orthodox then that, I like what
Gertrude Stein said:

-There ain't no answer. There ain't going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer.

Emily Dickinson said… you speak the truth best when you tell it at a "slant."

Perhaps poets can serve the Trinity best because they know that truth can at best be told at a slant, between the lines, beyond where words themselves can go.

Or this…from B.B. Taylor…
“Perhaps the most faithful sermon on the Trinity is one that sniffs around the edges of the mystery hunting for something closer to an experience than a understanding.”

This is how I feel about the debate between science & religion. Between faith & reason. Between Creationism & Evolution.

Science has a Universe Story. The Bible has a Creation Story.

Both are words, images, descriptions of the myseterious & profound. Both try to convey that which is beyond words.

From the Bible, The opening phrase is, “In the beginning, God . . .”

This came to mind as I was reading Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything.” He’s writing about the instant that creation happened.“There is no space, no darkness. The singularity has no ‘around’ around it. There is no space for it to occupy, no place for it to be. We can’t even ask how long it has been there – whether it just lately popped into being, like a good idea, or whether it has been there forever, quietly awaiting the right moment. Time doesn’t exist. There is no past for it to emerge from.
“And so from nothing, our universe begins.“In a single blinding pulse, a moment of glory much too swift and expansive for any form of words, the singularity assumes heavenly dimensions, space beyond conception.”Or, as the words in Genesis put it, “In the beginning, God created …”

Albert Einstein said – “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

Thich Nhat Hanh is a world renown Vietnamese Zen master and peacemaker. He is the author of numerous books and is known for his poetry. He lives in Plum Village, a meditation community in France, and travels widely teaching the "art of mindful living".
This is the way he translates Psalm 8 , in a work called: “Teachings on Love”
The Psalms are the ancients attempt to describe the awesomeness of God, the wonders of creation and awe & reverence in the Bibles Poems. Here is his paraphrase…..
O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings.
Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
Let no one do harm to anyone. Let no one put the life of anyone in danger. Let no one, out of anger or ill will, wish anyone harm.
O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
May all living beings live in security and peace, beings who are frail or strong, tall or short, big or small, visible or not visible, near or far away, already born or yet to be born. May all of them dwell in perfect tranquility.
Maybe there is now way we can contain God in a formula, creed or story.
Maybe all of our best attempts are feeble.
As Rober Capon says…
- We are like a bunch of oysters trying to describe a ballerina.
I end with this wonderful prayer: “May the Sacrament of the Word and the hunger of our hearts meet, and lead us ever more deeply into the heart of God.” Renee Miller