06152022 – John 12.
In 1804, Thomas Jefferson had already drafted the Declaration of Independence, he had built Monticello, worked on the Louisanna Purchase, and was nearly halfway through his presidency, when he decided to take on his “one of his most ambitious projects of all” – Jefferson decided to take “a deeper look” at the Early Christian Writings!
According to the thinking of “the time” there were “problematic inconsistencies,” “implausible stories,” and most of all, there was all that “confusing “stuff” about God being “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” It needed to be taken OUT. Seriously. It had to GO.
As an “Enlightenment-era intellectual” who was president, not only of the US… but also of the American Philosophical Society, the HOLY TRINITY just didn’t make sense — how could ONE God exist in THREE persons? It wasn’t plausible.
And this is NOT “an uncommon response” to the Triune God. The “Trinity” (some say) is totally and completely illogical, it’s unmathematical.
We are just creating “unnecessary confusion” by sticking to this poorly constructed math problem?
And of course, the problem – is that Trinity is not “an equation” or a “mathematical theorem” it is about the ways in which we have EXPERIENCED God to be.
“In the beginning,” John wrote, “was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God.”
“Wait, what?
What do you mean the Word was “with” God and the Word “was” God?
Which is it?”
Rather than clarify this “doozy” of an prelude, John goes on to say that “this very same Word of God” — the One who is both “distinct FROM” God and “who IS” God – took on flesh and bones as a teeny-tiny-helpless-baby in middle-of-nowhere Palestine.
That God “the Son” was the loving friend of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, that the Word of God himself died on a cross..
And if all that weren’t complicated enough, we also have to wrestle with our Gospel text in which Jesus talks about the HOLY SPIRIT.
The SPIRIT is the life-giving-breath-of-God, the active-love-of-God, and yet Jesus doesn’t call the Spirit “it,” as though speaking of “an energy,” an “activity,” or a “force.” Nope!
Jesus himself uses a pronoun… to describe this “life-giving force.”
Jesus says “HE” – he will guide you into all the truth.”
This is the SAME Spirit of God that hovered over the waters of chaos in the BEGINNING, transformed both Judges and Prophets of old, the same-Spirit who, Paul tells us, can be grieved by OUR ACTIONS, who SPEAKS in the hearts of faithful people, who TEACHES us to pray, and comes ALONGSIDE US as advocate, leader, comforter, and guide in our time of need.
So with scissors in hand, Jefferson proceeded to dissect the Early Christian Writings to HIS way of thinking and liking. Truly creating his own version.
But there are many who say they cannot blame it. It is hard. It is difficult. It is beyond explanation. It is a mystery. And what are we supposed to do with a mystery?
So there’s this old story maybe worth repeating and retelling…
A nomadic gypsy goes into a little village that has a fountain in the middle of its townsquare. Thirsty from his journey, the man stops, sits, and drinks heartily.
There is a little boy who eyes the stranger and watches him, because after he drinks, he keeps looking into the water and starring into the water as if, somebody was down in the water that he was maybe talking to.
It was curious behavior, demanding further attention.
So, the little boy runs over and he says, “Excuse me but who lives in the water?”
The gypsy smiles at the little boy and says, “GOD lives in the water.”
Can I see him? The little boy asks.
Sure you can. So the stranger picks up the little boy and puts him over the well so he can look deep down into the water.
And the little boy looks deep down into the water – straining his eyes, and watching and waiting. Finally the little boy blurts out, I don’t see anything at all. I only see myself in the water.
The gypsy smiles and says, “Yes that’s where you are going to find God, for he lives in you, yourself, and he lives or resided in each and everyone of us.
It’s kind of a different way of talking about the HOLY TRINITY. We are NOT supposed to be looking for him in the LAWS of NATURE, or in the great books of THEOLOGY or in the PHILOSOPHIES of old. We are NOT supposed to look for the Godhead on the outside of ourselves at all!
If you want to find the Sacred Mystery and Holy Trinity, look within. God made us in his image and likeness and within us all exists the spark of the Triune God.
Don’t look externally, look internally!
Amen.