05/26/2013 ~ Trinity Sunday ~ The First Sunday after Pentecost ~ Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15 ~ Memorial Day Weekend.

Growing in Understanding

[Jesus said] “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now.” — John 16:12.

As I am sure you know, on March the 13th the Catholic Church elected a new Pope— Francis.  Please note (and when the election happened I did not, myself, know about this rule of grammar): grammatically, Francis should not be known as Pope Francis the First but should be known simply as Pope Francis.  This is the case despite the fact that Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the first Pope to be known by the name Francis.

Apparently, the rule is you are not to call anything or anyone “The First” until there is a second.  What that means, for instance, is the person we now call Queen Elizabeth the First was simply Queen Elizabeth until Elizabeth the Second came along in 1952.

Back to the Pope— since more than 40% of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics live in Latin America and Francis is from Argentina, this may have been a logical choice.  Francis is also, of course, a Jesuit, the first one elected to the Papacy.  So, in fact, the Pope and I have something in common in our backgrounds: Jesuit training.

And, if Jesuits are known for anything, it is that they are innovative thinkers.  They seem to be able to think (pardon the cliché) outside the box.

Certainly, this Pope has already thrown some surprises at the entrenched bureaucracy in the Vatican.  And some of these have been widely covered in the popular press.

They include foregoing a bit of the ceremony, the paraphernalia, the vestments commonly associated with the Papacy.  The pontiff has also made statements about the church needing to better connect with and serve those who live in poverty.  I suppose that might be enough to get many a bureaucracy in an uproar.

But this Pope does seem to be striving to move the entrenched along.  Just last week, by declaring that everyone was redeemed, including atheists, the Pope shook things up again.  I need to say, that kind of statement did not surprise me for two reasons.

First, this is the type of assessment— that even atheists are redeemed— which does not seem to often get filtered into the populist press and/or populist folk beliefs commonly held by many Christians.  However, it is  the kind of thing regularly said, even emphasized, by serious theologians— redemption is universal.

To be clear: it is not even the kind of thing often said by leaders who have institutional axes to grind both in Catholicism and in Protestantism.  I, for instance, think the previous Pope would have had a hard time delivering this kind of opinion.  (Too many axes to grind.)

The second reason this did not surprise me is Francis is a Jesuit.  You see, aside from thinking outside the box, that Jesuit training to which I earlier referred helps an individual do two things.  It helps one think things through with great clarity.  Put another way, it creates habits which insist that a person maintains an open mind.

Jesuit training also insists people are important.  Jesuit training, thereby, makes the claim that a person needs to maintain an open heart.  Open mind; open heart; most of the time this is a sure formula for dealing with reality and challenging others to do the same— open mind, open heart.  Seems like a simple formula, doesn’t it?  (Slight pause.)

And these words are from the work known as the Gospel According to the School of John: [Jesus said] “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now.”  (Slight pause.)

So, how did this Papal statement about atheists come to the front?  In the course of offering a sermon (I’ve read Francis often speaks ‘off the cuff’ in the course of offering a sermon), Francis retold the story of the disciples being upset when someone outside their group was doing good.  And complained about that to Jesus.  The Pope said the disciples were intolerant and Jesus broadened the horizons of the disciples by condoning the good that was being done.

The root of doing good, said Francis, is in all creation— God created and it was good.  Therefore, we all have this good, even atheists.  Put yet another way, redemption— life with God and neighbor— is about meeting people where they are at and not about meeting people where we are at.  That’s not an easy one: redemption is about meeting people where they are at and not about meeting people where we are at.

In commenting on what the Pope said about universal redemption, James Martin, another Jesuit, wrote this (quote:) “That’s always been a Christian belief.  You can find St. Paul saying it in the First Letter to Timothy....  but rarely do you hear it said by Catholics so forcefully and with such evident joy....  In this era of religious controversies, it is a timely reminder that God cannot be confined to our narrow categories”— narrow categories.  (Slight pause.)

Today, as you heard earlier, is Trinity Sunday.  We make a mistake when we think in terms which suggest ‘Trinity’ is a category.  We make a mistake when we think in terms which suggest simply or only a naming of God, a way to describe God, a noun.  Indeed, we often use terms like Father, Son, Holy Spirit or Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier.  These are namings.  These are descriptions.

Trinity, you see, is not a noun in the sense that Trinity is not simply or only a naming.  Trinity must been seen as a verb.

Put another way, to say God is three is to say God is relational, God is always in the midst of, in the action of relating.  This way of looking at God opens up a notion of God as mystery who can never fully be understood or fully named with our rational, instrumental, mechanical minds.  (Slight pause.)

Theologian Richard Rohr— a Franciscan, not a Jesuit (see, now I’m off track)— says this (quote): “God is relational and known in relationship.  Any notion of God not giving, not totally loving, is a theological impossibility.”

“God only and always loves.  You cannot reverse, slow down or limit an overflowing waterwheel of divine compassion and mercy.  God, understanding God, goes in only one direction— toward ever more life and ever more creative love,... a love that is stronger than death” (unquote).  [Slight pause.]

In a couple of minutes you will be invited to recite The Nicene Creed.  (Hey!  It’s Trinity Sunday).  So, in a couple of minutes you will be invited to recite The Nicene Creed.  We Westerners tend to think this Creed or any Creed is about professing statements of belief.  It’s about what we think.  It is not about what we think.  That The Nicene Creed is not about stating a series of beliefs can been seen in the first words (quote): “We believe in one God,...”

In Latin, the original language of this Creed, the word used for “We believe...” is ‘Credo.’  The word ‘Credo’ does not lend itself to any kind of intellectual profession of faith.

You see, ‘Credo’ means I give my heart fully.  There is nothing intellectual about that.  There is movement and motion and action and relationship in giving one’s heart.  But it is not a naming. Credo does not act like a noun.  Credo is not an intellectual concept.

Credo is something to which we can witness and to which we can attest but not something which we can fully or adequately name.  Giving of one’s heart fully is an action and that action can be encompassed and explained only by love and through love and in love.  It is about the action called love.  (Slight pause.)

All that brings be back to the words found in the Gospel (quote): “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now.”  (Slight pause.)

I think Jesus is here addressing our relationship with God.  And, if there is anything relationship demands it is growth.  If there is anything love demands it is growth.  Can we ever fully, intellectually understand love?  No.  Can we grow in love?  Yes.

And I think that is what we are called to do.  We are called to grow in love.  We are called to grow in our love of God and we are called to grow in our love of neighbor.  And that is the real way we can name the Trinity— by understanding that Trinity and love and growth are all not just verbs but never ending verbs, verbs which point to continued growth.  (Slight pause.)  After all, have you not heard?  God is still speaking.  Oh, you’ve heard that, haven’t you?  Amen.

05/26/2013
Trinity Sunday

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Congregational Response and Benediction.  This is an précis of what was said: “This saying is often attributed to G. K. Chesterton (quote): ‘Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.’  I would suggest, rather, that Christianity is something which requires love.  Love requires growth.  Growth requires action.  Christianity is, hence, not something about static statements.  It is about being and doing.  And, to unpack Chesterton, therefore it is something which people hesitate to try.  It is not easy.”

BENEDICTION :May the God of Trinity, Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier, be with us in faith and in love and guide us in truth and peace; and may the blessing of this God be among us and remain with us always.  Amen.