Where do we go to find God? Or more importantly, where does God find us? Last week we celebrated the great feast of Pentecost, completing the 50-day Easter Season as we awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit, just as the apostles did 2000 years ago. Today we move into what the church calls ordinary time. This is a longer season which will take us all the way to the feast of Christ the King and is really not ordinary in the sense of how we might understand that word, but an opportunity to reflect on and deepen our understanding of our faith.

Today is the feast of the Holy Trinity. God’s pronouns are to the best of our understanding “they,” and together, these three manifestations of God model for us the ideal relationship: perfect union, companionship and mutual support. And they share that with us: abundantly!

I ran into Holy Wisdom this week while I was grocery shopping. She was listening attentively to an elderly man and not rushing him. I encountered her again as my lawyer used her expertise to help me update my will. She showed up again at the dinner table as my son shared his thoughts on the current political climate and revealed a depth of thought and understanding that I didn’t know was there. I witnessed it in a group of young people putting on a meaningful play, and I witnessed it in spades yesterday as I saw on television, an estimated 11 million Americans march for justice and truth. And she shows up here at St. Matthias, unfailingly, week after week.

Continuing on from last week’s readings about the coming of the Holy Spirit, today’s reading from Proverbs presents us with the image of the Holy Spirit as Lady Wisdom, the feminine manifestation of God. And she is not limited in her reach: Wisdom cries out “on the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads… beside the gates…at the entrance of thePortals:” she appears anywhere and everywhere, calling us always to the fullness of life. She reminds us that she was here at the beginning of creation: “When there were no depths, I was brought forth”. Interestingly, the Hebrew verb for “brought forth” can be translated as “whirl, dance or writhe.” Can we imagine Wisdom whirling, dancing, writhing? She tells us in verse 30 that she was alongside the Creator as a Master Worker. In other words, Wisdom is saying “you can trust me, I have been with God from the very beginning”. In verses 30-31, Wisdom goes even further saying “I was daily his delight, rejoicing with him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.” Wisdom is not stern judgement or rigid conformity. Holy Wisdom is joyous laughter, dance and play, and Holy Wisdom rejoices in us, in humanity. How glorious is that?

And the passage tells us that those who would be found by Holy Wisdom do not need to separate themselves from the world. God is not ‘owned’ by the Chrisian Church or by any other organization for that matter. Holy Wisdom’s fingerprints are all over God’s creation because Wisdom was there when God’s creation began. Just as the trained eye can see evidence of an individual architect in the design of a particular building or a trained ear can hear the patterns of a particular composer in a piece of music, so “The heavens are telling the Glory of God, “ as John Calvin put it, “Wherever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory”.

This passage is about Wisdom’s identity. It shows where she was, where she showed up, and the manner of her companionship with God. What are the ways in which Holy Wisdom dwells in you? In what ways do you support God. How do you participate in the creative process of God’s work in the world? What do you create? What relationships do you help to grow? What part of the wisdom of God are you willing to give room to? I witnessed it this week in people of all ages: in acts of kindness, skills being put to use, small acts of generosity, large acts of public witness.

Without Holy Wisdom, God is distant and Christ is a man who lived on this earth 2000 years ago. But with Holy Wisdom, Christ is present now, the Gospel is a living force, and the Church is animated to be the presence of God in the world.

One way of understanding the Trinity is to consider these three aspects of God and how they are in relationship with one another: The very first words in the Bible are “God created the heaven and the earth” so we know that God is a Creator. As Jesus, God became a human being for a time to experience firsthand what it is like to be one of God’s own creatures. Having lived on the earth for thirty-three years, God had a firsthand understanding of humanity and knew that we needed to experience God in a very personal and direct way, so God came to us as the Holy Spirit. One God who has shown up for us in three different ways. Three manifestations of one God who are intrinsically interconnected. 

The doctrine of the Trinity demonstrates that we are all called to be in communion with one another.  We are created for community.  This is why human beings will always find ways to be in community:  if not in church, in clubs, at hockey games, concerts, social gatherings, etc.  The Trinity teaches us that we need this; we are communal people.  We can’t do life on our own.  Amen.

 

 

 

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