TRINITY  C

 May 30,  2010       

 

  Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31. Wisdom speaks; understanding raises her voice now to remind all of her presence with God in and through all creation.

-Mystery is the local of wisdom

 

-wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

 

-I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. Abe Lincoln

 

-Knowledge is horizontal. wisdom is vertical Billy Graham

 

-Time ripens all things...no man is born wise. Cervantes

 

-"You cannot find wisdom if you look only through your human eyes...you must look through    God's eyes..." Gibran 

 

-Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. Oscar Wilde

 

-The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time T.S.Eliot

 

-Silence is a fence around wisdom. Hasidic

 

 

 Psalm 8

 

Romans 5:1-5. The character of our life in our Triune God: reconciled to God through Jesus and boasting in the sufferings of this age that lead us to hope in God's love poured out upon us and among us through the Holy Spirit.

 

John 16:12-15. Jesus speaks of the work of the Holy Spirit, declaring to the disciples all the truth that is his from the Father.

 

-Christians experienced God in three ways. Taken together, their scriptures described God as "Father," the one from whom all things proceed, and as "Son," the incarnate expression of God, and as "Holy Spirit, "in whom we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

-But, and this is key, because Christianity derived from monotheistic Judaism, we did not posit three gods. Instead, we paradoxically believe that each distinct "person" is the whole of God. Whatever is said about one "person" must also be said of all three. (The Nicene Creed is a classical expression of the Doctrine of the Trinity.)

 

-If God is male, than male is God. Mary Daly

 

-the important thing about the Trinity is that all three partners go together, all three are equal, mutually-related, interdependent."

 

-Jesus didn't talk about the Trinity; neither did Paul, not really. It wasn't until the fourth century “ 300 years after Jesus “ that Christian leaders formalized the idea of the Trinity. They did it at the Council of Nicaea in 325. The result? The Nicene Creed. Then some more Christian leaders in the fifth century wrote another creed trying once again to clarify the Trinity for folks, particularly the Jesus part. That Council resulted in the Apostles' Creed.

 

-The word as we know isn’t in the Bible, Jesus didn’t use it and yet now it is the touchstone of orthodoxy. It establishes what it means to be Christian.

 

-This is the only passage of scripture which speaks of the Spirit's particular work in the "world". He will prosecute and bring about the world's conviction. Through the Spirit the world will know about sin, justice and judgment. Rev. Bryan Findlayson
 

-What ever is sacred is relational. The Jehovah’s witnesses, the Christadelphians and others do not believe the doctrine of the Trinity   If we are honest it is something which is more clearly explained in terms of that great Christian word, mystery. It is a mystery of our faith. Bishop Richard Chartres

 

-We experience God in three ways: as something beyond; something among us; and something within us God is more than two men and a bird U.S.Catholic 1990

 

-We understand the trinity the most when we realize we do not understand. 

 

--Holy, Holy, Holy

 

-Trinitarian affirmation:  Yes, Jesus loves me—Yes, Jesus loves me—Yes Jesus loves me,  the bible tells me so. 

 

-TRINITY does not appear in the Bible.  Neither do the most often used explanatory phrases :  from the classical creeds ? "one-in-three," "three-in-one," "one essence," "three persons

 

-idea exists in Paul’s benediction  “Grace of Jesus; love of God and fellowship of  Spirit…

 

-Father-Creator; Christ the Revealer; Spirit our indwelling comforter.

 

-The Trinitarian Doctrine is always under construction. This doctrine became official in 325 AD at Council of Nicaea.

 

-Perhaps poets can serve the Trinity best because they know that truth can at best be told at a slant, between the lines, beyond where words themselves can go

 

-Spiritual growth is an ongoing process.

 

-One of the difficulties of our culture is that we are so goal and destination driven, we miss the joy of the journey"Alice through the looking-glass". We make a practice of believing three contradictory things before breakfast every day. Lewis Carroll

 

The Bible never uses the word Trinity, it is something that we have invented to explain they way in which we think of God

 

-Maybe truth does not change over time, but our perception of it does, thanks to the Holy Spirit who helps us see new parts of God's truth as we are able to accept them.

 

-What's your favorite way of talking about the Trinity? Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer? Presence, wisdom, power? Womb of life, word in flesh, brooding spirit? Almighty God, incarnate word, holy comforter? Or my personal favorite: primordial nature, consequent nature, superjective nature? All of these phrases have been used to refer to the Trinity. And just in case you couldn't tell from all those phrases, when we refer to the Trinity, we're talking about God   Kimberleigh Buchanan

 

SERMON                                     TRUTH AT A SLANT

- you speak the truth best when you tell it at a  "slant."  Emily Dickinson  Perhaps poets can serve the Trinity best because they know that truth can at best be told at a slant, between the lines, beyond where words themselves can go.     There's a great sermon there.  Lindy

 

 

-Mystery is the local of wisdom

-wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

-I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. Abe Lincoln

-Knowledge is horizontal. wisdom is vertical Billy Graham

-Time ripens all things...no man is born wise. Cervantes

-"You cannot find wisdom if you look only through your human eyes...you must look through    God's eyes..." Gibran 

-Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. Oscar Wilde

-Silence is a fence around wisdom. Hasidic

-TRINITY Not about God but about our relationship to God!

-People see God every day.  They just don’t recognize him.  Pearl Bailey

-God must be beyond all limiting definitions

-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit mean that the mystery beyond us, the mystery among us, and the mystery within us are all the same mystery.  In a way, the Trinity  is saying something about us and the way we experience God. Buechner

-We understand the trinity the most when we realize we do not understand.

-God is more than two men and a bird U.S.Catholic 1990

-If God is male, than male is God. Mary Daly

- What ever is sacred is relational.

- The Trinitarian Doctrine is always under construction 

--God is above us, beside us, within us.

-our relationship with God will grow, not by trying to fit God into a theological box, but by seeking to embrace the
mystery of a God who is beyond our comprehension and yet within our knowing.

-The trinity does not explain the nature of God but our relationship with God. Whether it be spirit guides,  there is a tremendous search for meaning, direction and purpose in our culture A likeness of the Divine Trinity is observable in the human mind. Aquinas

-I see truth as being more along the lines of 1+1+1=1 (total mathematical nonsense, but a great Trinitarian affirmation!).

-The early church leaders described the Trinity using the term perichoresis (peri-circle resis-dance):  The Trinity was an eternal dance of the Father,

Son and Spirit sharing mutual love, honor, happiness, joy and respect… God’s act of creation means that God is inviting more and more beings into

the eternal dance of Joy.  Sin means that people are stepping out of the dance… stomping on feet instead of moving with grace, rhythm and

-The spirit is what we see with rather than what we see. Yancey    

QUOTES

-"Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man

that can comprehend the triune God!" John Wesley

-Tell me how it is that in this room there are three candles and but one

light, and I will explain to you the mode of the divine existence.John Wesley

 -the more that we find out - the less we seem to know.

- "Truth is not man's discovery, it is God's gift." William Barclay

 

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Deepak Chopra M.D. says it this way, "There seems to be a hole in the middle of everyday life, as if a rock had been thrown through a plate glass window. But instead of a physical hole, one could call this a 'meaning,' hole..."

2. The Associated Press ran a story about a virus that infected a flock of Canada geese. The virus destroyed their navigation system. They flew in circles, became disoriented and got lost. There is an equally devastating consequence that takes place when we lose our spiritual bearings. In the deepest spiritual sense, we don't know where we're going, can't remember our destination, and wind up totally lost. Life becomes a maze and we are ripe for someone or something to come along and fill the void. As the geese were designed with an inner navigational system, we were designed to have a spiritual guidance system. That's part of being created in the image of God. The problem is that our guidance system has failed and left us with a spiritual vacancy -- or in classical theological terms, sin has brought about a malfunction.  Christ promised to his followers a Spirit who would, "...guide you into all truth..."

-In speaking of the Trinity, there always comes a point when words fail us. Supposedly Saint Augustine was walking along the beach one day, puzzling over the doctrine of the Trinity, when he came across a little child who was running back and forth with a bucket, pouring water from the ocean into a hole he had dug in the sand. (I myself remember spending hours of summer days engaged in exactly this activity.) Augustine asked the boy, "What are you doing?" The boy replied, "I'm trying to put the ocean into this hole." Augustine abruptly realized that he had been trying to put an infinite God into his finite mind. So let’s allow the rest of our reflection this morning to be in that place beyond words, imagining that joyful dance and our part in it, in gratitude to the God who invites us into the divine dance with one another. Amen  from magdalenesmusings.blogspot.com

-

 

CHILDREN

 

1.  Egg: shell, white and yoke.  Apple:  tree, fruit and seed. Water, ice, liquid, vapor

2.  Trinity Sunday:   sign of the cross: As one moves through the Sign, one recites, at the forehead, "Lord "; at the stomach, "Jesus Christ", on the right shoulder, "Son of God"; and on the left shoulder, "have mercy on us" followed by a bow.

3. Trinity Sunday: Of the children who comes forward for the children's time, have one of

their parents come forward with you. Ask the child what their

relationship is to this adult. Then ask the spouse to stand up and say

what their relationship is to this adult. Then have the parents stand up

and say what their relationship. Ask if there are any other

relationships people have (neighbor, tennis partner, brownie leader,

etc.) Then ask the children if all these people were talking about the

same one person. It is the same with God. Father, Son, Spirit are three

ways we can relate to our one God. God's divine presence in our lives is

so big we need a number of different ways to describe the experience.

-Show the common symbols that represent the Trinity.  Christian Symbols  Discuss each.

 

 

PRAYER PHRASES

.....we confess to the littleness of our ideas about You.

----in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we pray.

---Ps. 139

----counseling Spirit; teach us to understand what God wants us to know; guide us in the way of truth; open our mouths to speak the plain, powerful message of Chris; inhabit us and make us to see, to know and to cling to the truth that come from God   Willimon

 

"If you haven't seen http://www.textweek.com/  you're missing a great resource for ministers."

 home

mailto:ablack3@twcny.rr.com

 

-

QUOTES

-"Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man

that can comprehend the triune God!" John Wesley

-Tell me how it is that in this room there are three candles and but one

light, and I will explain to you the mode of the divine existence.John Wesley

 -the more that we find out - the less we seem to know.

- "Truth is not man's discovery, it is God's gift." William Barclay

 

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Deepak Chopra M.D. says it this way, "There seems to be a hole in the middle of everyday life, as if a rock had been thrown through a plate glass window. But instead of a physical hole, one could call this a 'meaning,' hole..."

2. The Associated Press ran a story about a virus that infected a flock of Canada geese. The virus destroyed their navigation system. They flew in circles, became disoriented and got lost. There is an equally devastating consequence that takes place when we lose our spiritual bearings. In the deepest spiritual sense, we don't know where we're going, can't remember our destination, and wind up totally lost. Life becomes a maze and we are ripe for someone or something to come along and fill the void. As the geese were designed with an inner navigational system, we were designed to have a spiritual guidance system. That's part of being created in the image of God. The problem is that our guidance system has failed and left us with a spiritual vacancy -- or in classical theological terms, sin has brought about a malfunction.  Christ promised to his followers a Spirit who would, "...guide you into all truth..."

-In speaking of the Trinity, there always comes a point when words fail us. Supposedly Saint Augustine was walking along the beach one day, puzzling over the doctrine of the Trinity, when he came across a little child who was running back and forth with a bucket, pouring water from the ocean into a hole he had dug in the sand. (I myself remember spending hours of summer days engaged in exactly this activity.) Augustine asked the boy, "What are you doing?" The boy replied, "I'm trying to put the ocean into this hole." Augustine abruptly realized that he had been trying to put an infinite God into his finite mind. So let’s allow the rest of our reflection this morning to be in that place beyond words, imagining that joyful dance and our part in it, in gratitude to the God who invites us into the divine dance with one another. Amen  from magdalenesmusings.blogspot.com

-

 

CHILDREN

 

1.  Egg: shell, white and yoke.  Apple:  tree, fruit and seed. Water, ice, liquid, vapor

2.  Trinity Sunday:   sign of the cross: As one moves through the Sign, one recites, at the forehead, "Lord "; at the stomach, "Jesus Christ", on the right shoulder, "Son of God"; and on the left shoulder, "have mercy on us" followed by a bow.

3. Trinity Sunday: Of the children who comes forward for the children's time, have one of

their parents come forward with you. Ask the child what their

relationship is to this adult. Then ask the spouse to stand up and say

what their relationship is to this adult. Then have the parents stand up

and say what their relationship. Ask if there are any other

relationships people have (neighbor, tennis partner, brownie leader,

etc.) Then ask the children if all these people were talking about the

same one person. It is the same with God. Father, Son, Spirit are three

ways we can relate to our one God. God's divine presence in our lives is

so big we need a number of different ways to describe the experience.

 

PRAYER PHRASES

- counseling Spirit; teach us to understand what God wants us to know; guide us in the way of truth; open our mouths to speak the plain, powerful message of Chris; inhabit us and make us to see, to know and to cling to the truth that come from God   Willimon

 

"If you haven't seen http://www.textweek.com/  you're missing a great resource for ministers."

 home

mailto:ablack3@twcny.rr.com