The Trinity
1992 (Year C) 14 June / Trinity Sunday
St Peter de Beauvoir Town
Some of you have seen a video I have, and really everybody here ought to see it. It’s of worship in black Catholic churches in America. In one part of it a black priest is preaching on the Old Testament reading we’ve had today. He’s dressed in the most amazing chasuble you’ve ever seen in all your life, waving his arms about, full of confidence, not stuck with all his words in front of him like me. He makes a great play with the last sentence. ‘And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then said, ‘Here I am! Send me’.
What he actually does is say it three or four times, getting louder each time, and eventually all the congregation are clapping and shouting ‘Amen!’.
You can actually feel the closeness of God as you watch him and the excitement which this nearness brings. And it’s much, much more than just a skilful preacher whipping up fervour and feeling in those who are listening to him. Of course he plays the audience for all he’s worth massaging them and using the words tremendously skilfully. He says as much later on, ‘I’ve often said, you can’t have Fire in the Pews’, he tells us,’ if there’s ice in the pulpit.’ It’s all powerful stuff, but the power isn’t a false power. And as you watch it doesn’t feel as if he’s playing games with people. It’s authentic. It’s powerful and it touches us deep down precisely because it is the reality of God. And what’s more, it’s awe-inspiring for it comes from deep inside us all for that is where God has chosen to dwell.
And today is the feast day of God. The Holy Blessed and undivided Trinity. It’s the celebration in our year of God. No themes, no other thoughts. God, pure and simple.
The trouble is that whenever anybody begins to think about God one of two things happen. Some people just freeze and are unable even to string two words together, you’ve met them! Others behave as if a cork’s popped out of their mouths, which has been stuck there for ages, and they simply can’t stop talking. You’ve met them as well – they’re much worse! All of them, I think are trying too hard to understand or explain their faith. Whenever we talk about God, pure and simple, we all try to make words fit things they never could or will be able to.
Now the writer of Isaiah made a better attempt than most. He told a story. It was the story of a vision he’d had, in which the Creator of the whole cosmos, the Lord of Hosts asks, ‘Whom shall I send? and who will go for us?’ He didn’t go into great detail about the nature and form of God, yet in the story he’s managed to convey his belief that God is above all things, that God is able to reconcile all things to himself and that there was a continuing relationship with the people he had created. All in a few lines. And my goodness me it’s powerful stuff and all fantastically exciting.
Our experience of God ranges from exciting, awesome wonder at the immensity and power – people are literally stuck dumb – to the intimacy that human lovers might share. It ranges from complete otherness and sense of separation, to the closeness of the most intimate friend.
People have recognised from the beginning, that whenever we talk about God we are talking about something which joins us together (it makes religious conflict all the more tragic). God makes us more than we would otherwise be. The one who inspires and leads us on and is literally everywhere. ‘Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or wither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, thou art there! ... If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there thy hand shall lead me ... If I say, let the darkness cover me, and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to thee, the night is as bright as the day; for the darkness is as light with thee.’
The experience of God, enlightens, enfolds and empowers creation. God spoke and it was. God held out his arms and gathered together all that was made. God still breathes life into creation and sustains it. These are the records of our encounters with the Divine. And we give thanks to God as we see the Divine leading us on and bringing us into all truth. We rejoice in our knowledge and awareness of God and look forward to the time when words will be superfluous and we will simply rest in the arms of the Divine.
These are some of our experiences and our hopes of God. But they are only some! There is one that Isaiah grasped and the black priest milked for all he was worth. The God who creates, share’s intimacies and unites us all, is at the same one who has allowed himself to be dependent on us. ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ There can be no other response than, ‘Here I am, send me!’ AMEN