Trinity Sunday: Lead Us Into All Truth, We Aren't There Yet

Today's Scripture Readings

Proverbs 8: 1-4, 22-31 (NRSV)

Does not wisdom call,

and does not understanding raise her voice?

On the heights, beside the way,

at the crossroads she takes her stand;

beside the gates in front of the town,

at the entrance of the portals she cries out:

"To you, O people, I call,

and my cry is to all that live.

The LORD created me at the beginning of his work,

the first of his acts of long ago.

Ages ago I was set up,

at the first, before the beginning of the earth.

When there were no depths I was brought forth,

when there were no springs abounding with water.

Before the mountains had been shaped,

before the hills, I was brought forth--

when he had not yet made earth and fields,

or the world's first bits of soil.

When he established the heavens, I was there,

when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,

when he made firm the skies above,

when he established the fountains of the deep,

when he assigned to the sea its limit,

so that the waters might not transgress his command,

when he marked out the foundations of the earth,

then I was beside him, like a master worker;

and I was daily his delight,

rejoicing before him always,

rejoicing in his inhabited world

and delighting in the human race."

Psalm 8 (BCP., p.592)


Romans 5: 1-5 (NRSV)

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

John 16: 12-15 (NRSV)

Jesus said to the disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

Blog Reflection

On this Trinity Sunday during Year C, we have a view of the mystery of God presented to us in the feminine as opposed to the masculine.   While we traditionally address God the Trinity as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God is also known as Mother, Servant and Life-Giver.   God's revelation of Self is not limited to our labels, ideals, theologies, or Creeds.   God's truth is ever teaching us, moving us and calling us beyond where we are into new understandings of God.

The reading from Proverbs tells us of the Wisdom of God.   The Wisdom of God is also referred to as the Word of God.  Christians know the Incarnate Word was and is God's perfect revelation of Self in Jesus Christ.  In that Wisdom is the One through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made.   The Prologue of John's Gospel 1-18 tells of the Word through whom everything exists, and continues by God's will.  It is by way of the Wisdom of God that everything that holds itself together is what it is, and continues.  The very goodness of all things and people, is by way of God who is Wisdom and the Word made flesh.

It has been suggested by many that Jesus Christ could have been transgender.  He was the Son of God, yes, at least in His outer appearance.  Yet, His character, compassion and tenderness show a very feminine nature.  One that could suggest that He was both male and female.

St. Julian of Norwich wrote A Song of True Motherhood.

God chose to be our mother in all things
  and so made the foundation of his work,
  most humbly and most pure, in the Virgin's womb.
God, the perfect wisdom of all,
  arrayed himself in this humble place.
Christ came in our poor flesh
  to share a mother's care.
Our mothers bear us for pain and for death;
  our true mother, Jesus, bears us for joy and endless life.
Christ carried us within him in love and travail,
  until the full time of his passion.
And when all was completed and he had carried us so for joy,
  still all this could not satisfy the power of his wonderful love.
All that we owe is redeemed in truly loving God,
  for the love of Christ works in us;
  Christ is the one whom we love.  (Enriching Our Worship 1, Canticle R, p.40)

The truth of God's revelation continues as the Holy Spirit leads us into all truth.  The reading from John's Gospel is my favorite for this day.  Because, we are hearing Jesus telling His disciples and us, that the work of God revealing truth is not finished.  It also suggests that truth is something that is never abstract or objective only.  Truth is in the Person of Jesus as understood in John 14: 6.   However, even the Truth is understood and grasped only so much by each generation of Christians.   As Christ, Himself was born, grew into knowledge and wisdom, so must Christians.   As the Church that was born on Pentecost which we celebrated last Sunday grew and expanded in the Truth of Christ, so it must continue to mature and become more inclusive today.

Rather than receive this news as a threat to our comfort zones, we should be looking with anticipation of what God is leading us into.   The evolutionary God is always revealing God's Self in new and amazing ways.  God is continually evolving in our midst, and as God does, so must the Church and Christians.  In the Trinity we know of God's love as unified, yet diverse in three separate and distinct Persons.  Each Person exists and loves in union with God, yet one is not the other.   It is a mystery that we cannot totally explain, nor can we understand.   At the same time, the mystery of the God-Head, one in three Persons continues to reveal God in new and awesome ways.  There are no words that can adequately describe God, nor is there art work that completely captures the image of the Trinity for us.   Only be faith and trust can we grasp the Truth, and be open to the Holy Spirit to be lead into all truth.

Among the truths that the Spirit is ever leading us into, is the erroneous interpretations of Scripture with regards to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people.  As I have read the blogs written about the Boy Scouts of America voting to allow gay scouts, marriage equality laws being passed, the removal of LGBT families from immigration reforms, the one remark that leaps out in almost every comment line is: "If you embrace homosexuality, you are not a true Christian, because God's word clearly condemns it."  What is happening in a statement like that, is not evangelism.   It is not religious fervor to win souls for Christ.  It also does not suggest an honest relationship with God through the Scriptures.   It is, however, a relationship with an idol in ideology, a lust for power, and an addiction to hate rhetoric.

An actual reading of the Scriptures using the guidance of good scholarship, and careful criticism, one will learn that in the times, traditions, customs and languages in which the Bible was written, they did not have two words called heterosexual and homosexual.   Sexuality in the time of the biblical authors was about dominance and power, by men over women.  Women as property, because they were thought to be inferior.   The idea of a man assuming the sexual position of the presumed "weaker species" was uncustomary and viewed as "unnatural."  Because many other Christian Scholars like the Rev. Gray Temple in his book Gay Unions in Light of Scripture, Tradition and Reason details much of what I have written in this paragraph.   The book is so great for Episcopalians on both sides of this important issue.

Over the many centuries the Bible has been used and abused to suggest that it is okay to discriminate against African Americans.  If you have not watched the movie Lincoln, you should.  In that movie, they are trying to pass the thirteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution to abolish slavery.  During the debate in Congress, one of the Representatives says of African Americans then, what Christians say about LGBT people today.   "We should not deem equal, those whom God has deemed as unequal."   This language is being used and has been used to denigrate the poor, those ravaged by tornadoes, storms and floods.  Those words have been used towards Muslims, Jews, Native Americans, Atheists, Buddhists and many others.   Even if the words are not spoken, the intent is all too often there in what is said in it's place.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would come to lead us into all truth.  We are definitely not there yet.   All of us have to mature in truth, so that we can better live what is true.  One of those truths the Church and society must grasp is that it is never appropriate to use the Bible, God, Jesus Christ, the Sacraments, or any other such part of our Faith to commit and/or justify violence, injustice, oppression and bias.  As God, the Holy Trinity loves each of us for who we are, we must also be open to God's grace to love others as Christ loves us.

Amen.


Prayers 

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us
your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to
acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the
power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep
us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to
see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with
the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen. (Collect for Trinity Sunday, Book of Common Prayer, p.228).

Heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit into our hearts, to
direct and rule us according to your will, to comfort us in all
our afflictions, to defend us from all error, and to lead us into
all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (Prayer from Noonday Prayer, Book of Common Prayer, p.107).

Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this
land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as
their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to
eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those
who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law
and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of
us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Oppressed, Book of Common Prayer, p.826).