May 22, 2016, Trinity Sunday

There are many ways that people have tried to explain the trinity. It is difficult because the trinity has simply been revealed to us, but not explained to us. Scripture hints at it. It took the church hundreds of years before we could agree on what we believe, and even then we aren’t of one mind. We recite the Nicene Creed and we only half believe it, and we certainly don’t understand.

Many explanations include various persons of the trinity. Water is one thing, yet it can be steam or liquid or solid. An ancient image from the early church fathers was to consider a burning coal – it creates heat and light and the coal itself is on fire. There is also the analogy of a human person who can have many roles: parent, spouse, sister or brother. All of these images fail to describe God. Any picture or analogy we use will only capture an aspect of God, and miss much of the truth. Our words fail us.

An ancient way to understand the trinity is to consider the relationships of the persons of the trinity. The Father creates the Son out of love and the Son loves the Father. The love between them is the Holy Spirit. The image of God reveals the nature of God as a being in relationship. It even goes on to describe God’s motivation in creating and saving the world. God creates to have an object of love. God saves us because of love for us.

Whether or not this picture is helpful, it does remind us that God seeks to be in a relationship of love with us. How important is this to us personally? I suspect that we are uncomfortable with a too familiar connection with God.  We are grateful to be forgiven. We seek to have God intervene in our lives. A relationship of love seems difficult or even impossible. What could we bring that God could need? How do we maintain our end of the relationship?

This is the difficulty of our sanctification. We know that God desires our perfection. We know we are far from perfect. I think most of us are willing to settle for trusting that God will continue to love us and all will work out in the end. There is always a part of us that is like the Israelites in the wilderness, afraid to approach God, urging Moses to go on ahead on their behalf.

We forget how much and how deeply God loves us. We forget that God’s love reaches out to us no matter what we’ve done or what we think we deserve. If only we can set aside our pride, our shame, our worries – or whatever it is that keeps us from God – perhaps we can connect and live into this love that God desires for us.

The most intimate connection with God is prayer. We open our hearts and minds to God. If we are willing, we can open everything to God. If we are willing, we can let God open all the locked and hidden places in our heart.

But this is not the beginning. It is not where we need to start. We only need to begin at the beginning. St. Benedict, and many other wise saint’s remind us that we are not seeking perfection in prayer, only the act in all its imperfection. There are many techniques and many paths to prayer. The most important thing is to do it.

I am a core member to a group in the diocese called “Pray First.” We came together with only an intention to help people to enter into relationship with God in everyday life. We want to encourage the ongoing life of prayer in every moment, and also the sense of the presence of God in every moment. At some level, we are seeking the impossible. Who can know God? Who could possibly sense the presence of God in each moment?

We are only seeking to help people to become aware. We hope to help people at least begin every task – every meeting, every chore, every conversation, with the sense of the presence of God. Two simple words – Pray First.

If we can begin with prayer, we open ourselves to the opportunity of joining God in whatever we are beginning. We are inviting God to join us in our work, in our planning, in our tasks, in our relationships. Instead of the mad rush to get through our list of things to do, we can walk with God. Instead of anxiety about what we have to get right, we can invite God to help us discern what is right. Instead of trying to convince other people to think like us, we can invite God to help us understand one another.

There are difficulties with this. We cannot assume every other person we encounter will share our faith. We might have to pray silently. Most of the time we may have no idea what we need or what to seek. We may only be able to invite God into our presence (which is really acknowledging that God is already present.) Sometimes, we will have no words and we will seek God in the silence.

The difference will be that we will know God is with us. We will begin to live as if God is part of what we are doing. Not that we arrogantly believe that God will simply bless all our plans. In fact, this opens us to the possibility of more complication and difficulty as we become aware of different possibilities and commitments. God seeks to be in relationship with us. That same love will make us seek relationships of love with our neighbor.

This will change us. We will not understand more. We may be aware of more. We may sense more of what we need and what we can let go of. We may sense more of what feeds our soul. Perhaps God is not as interested in our understanding as in our response. God wants to know us through love – and not through our head. God wants our love, and that is enough.