For most of my ministry, Trinity Sunday has befuddled me. How can I put the teaching of the Trinity into a helpful message for people slogging through their issues? The doctrine is so heady. For example, from the Athanasian Creed, “One (Christ), not by the conversion of the divinity into the flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God.” Huh?
These days I find preaching about the Trinity much easier. One reason is science. On May 12, astronomers announced “that they had pierced the veil of darkness and dust at the center of our Milky Way galaxy to capture the first picture of ‘the gentle giant’ dwelling there: a supermasssive black hole….” (New York Times, May 13; A1). Another “Huh.” Astronomers understand that, but what I take from the discoveries of science is awe and wonder. “Science,” wrote Jewish philosopher Abraham Heschel, “does not try to fathom the mystery. It merely describes and explains the way in which things behave in terms of causal necessity” (“Between God and Man,” 45).
Theology can’t fathom the mystery either. “I am in awe because that’s our supermassive black hole,” said University of Connecticut physicist Dr. Chiara Mingarelli… ‘It feels very personal to see it for the first time, to have that undeniable image of it’” (Wall Street Journal, May 13; A3). Heschel again, “The surest way to suppress our ability to understand the meaning of God and the importance of worship is to take things for granted. Indifference to the sublime wonder of living is the root of sin.”
“Immortal, invisible, God only wise, / In light inaccessible, hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, / Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we raise.
“Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light, / Not wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above / Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.” (W. Chalmers Smith)
For all the intellectual distinctions in the Athanasian Creed, and I believe they are true, the Creed evokes awe and wonder that the Trinity comes to your little place on the planet, to mine, in our solar system, in our Milky Way, in this wondrous universe beyond anyone’s understanding. God comes to us with “goodness and love.” Hence, “It is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That I can understand, and hope you do too.
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