a sermon, based on Genesis 1.1-2.4 and Matthew 28.16-20, preached with the people of Epiphany Episcopal Church, Laurens, SC, on Trinity Sunday, June 11, 2017
A story is told that Voltaire,[1] that French Enlightenment philosopher known, among many things, for his complicated relationship with religion, once doffed his hat at the passing of a funeral procession. A friend, surprised, said, “I thought you did not believe in God.” Voltaire replied, “We acknowledge each other, though we are not on speaking terms.”[2]
We, declining to share Voltaire’s sensibilities, claim the annual grace of Trinity Sunday (if not on any other day, then surely this day!) to acknowledge and speak of the threefold nature of God: alway transcendent, beyond all things, immanent, with all things, and spiritually in all things.
The word “trinity” is not found in the Bible. Still, the Bible, in one sense, is our record of our religious ancestors’ encounters with what 20th century German theologian Rudolph Otto[3] termed the mysterium tremendum et fascinans; that mystery called “God” before which we, in fascinated reverence and fear, tremble. Therein, we behold their attempts to make sense of that mystery, putting into language their experiences and perceptions.
Through the lens of this understanding, let us see what our spiritual forebears have to tell us about God and about us.
Before we do, I share a word about words. Words are symbols. Whether spoken or written, they are meant to conjure up the in the minds of the speaker and hearer, the writer and reader the realities to which they point. Hence, the word “God”, as a symbol, is not God, but only the term we use in our attempt to communicate our understanding of the reality of that mysterium tremendum et fascinans. And, as God is mystery (not a riddle to be resolved, but that which, in its totality, is beyond the reach of our reason), try as we might, we never can comprehend God completely. In a word (pun intended!), we never fully “get”, grasp God. Yet, in our continued quest for understanding, we hope, we believe that what we do get is fully God. For that reason, through prayer, study, and worship, we keep trying, remaining steadfast in the quest to behold our God!
Now, back to the Bible!
The first Genesis creation story is a rhapsodic Hebrew poem testifying that God is almighty! For through the agency of “wind”, in the Hebrew, ruach, Spirit, “sweeping over the face of the waters”, God creatio ex nihilo, creates out of the nothing of “formless void and darkness.” Whenever we humans “create” we always must take things that already exist to fashion something new. God begins with nothing and, through word, “Let there be…”, comes light, sky, earth, and sea, suns and stars, flora and fauna, and humankind. And this unfolding differentiation continues unto this day. Our God always is creating and we, made in God’s image, are called to create, not destroy. Our dominion over the earth is not, is never to be domination, but rather creative caretaking, loving stewardship.
In the Gospel of Matthew, the risen Jesus declares unto his first disciples the Great Commission, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” As important as this mission of baptizing and teaching has been and is for the spread of Christianity, the most important word Jesus says is “therefore.” Jesus can (is able to) command his disciples because “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Jesus claims the authority, the right to exercise power, of the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, the God of whom Genesis speaks as the almighty Creator.
It is this God revealed in this Jesus who, in the Spirit, is “with (us) always, to the end of the age.”
Behold our God!
Illustration: The Trinity, Fernando Yáñez de la Almedina (1475-1536)
Footnotes:
[1] Voltaire, the nom de plume of François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778) famous or infamous, depending on one’s point of view, for his attacks on the established church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and separation of church and state.
[2] Recorded in David Head’s He Sent Leanness: a book of prayers for the natural man (The MacMillan Company, 1959), page 36.
[3] Rudolf Otto (1869-1937), German Lutheran theologian and philosopher.
paulrobertsabernathy 
Beautiful sermon, Paul. But the detail/footnote that caught my eye proves another one of those historical literary synchronicities that you and I frequently seem to share. He Sent Leanness by David Head is a little book I have treasured since my early college days. Its gentle cheekiness and slightly irreverent reverence I found so quietly liberating as I began to cast off the heavy chains of fundamentalism. I found it in my Episcopalian days (St. Martin’s in Charlotte) when I was a freshman in college, and it felt like coming home to something I had needed. Thank you for bringing that breath of fresh air back to memory this morning! I’m now going in search of that little book somewhere among the hundreds of books on the basement bookshelves.
Love,
Karen
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Ah, my dear sister, synchronicities, indeed! I have found and continue to find the manifold confluences of our thoughts and feelings, sensitivities and sensibilities, reading histories and habits fully amazing!
In this latest instance, Head’s slim, yet breathtakingly broad volume is one I have turned to year after year after year, especially during Lent. His is a perspective, in his reverent irreverence (or is it irreverent reverence?), that touches the heart and speaks to the soul of my doubting faith (or is is faithful doubting?).
Much love,
Paul
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