Holy, holy, holy – the mystery of God
Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Matthew 28:16-20
- Does anyone know what this is?
- It’s called a tefillin or a phylactery. It’s a little leather box, that devout followers of Judaism tie around their heads during morning and evening prayers
- It’s a the result of a very literal interpretation of the verses from Deuteronomy that we’ve just read:
6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
- It seems a slightly bizarre sort of thing to believe and to do, but these words are as familiar to devout Jews as the words “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” are to you and I
- In the Jewish faith Deuteronomy 6, starting at verse 4 is known as the “shema” which means “hear”. It is used as a litany, a mantra, a prayer much as we might pray the Lord’s Prayer. The Shema is perhaps the most significant prayer in all of Judaism, and it begins with these words: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.”
- That makes sense, right? Judaism and Christianity are both, famously, monotheistic religions. We believe that there is only one true God. The creator and sustainer of all things. Our Father in heaven. The Lord your God, the Lord is one.
- But then, along comes Jesus.
- And Jesus turns everything on its head.
- It was not Jesus’ miracles, or his great reversal – his challenge to the hierarchy of a society that had lost its humanity, it was not Jesus political influence that got him killed, it was his claim to one-ness with the Father.
Matthew 26:63-66 “The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”
64 “You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?”
“He is worthy of death,” they answered.”
- When the central prayer of your faith proclaims the one-ness of God, how do you cope when Jesus turns up in your life?
- How do you cope when the Holy Spirit turns up in your life?
- And yet, for Jesus’ followers, there was no escaping it. From the earliest days of the faith, Christians, reading from scriptures that name God as “Lord” again, and again, and again, Christians recognised each other by confessing these words: Jesus is
- Jesus is Lord.
- And that same miraculous power that they witnessed in Jesus was poured out in their own lives. The power of the Holy Spirit.
- One God. Three persons.
- I’m pretty sure that no-one has ever truly gotten their head around it. I know that I haven’t
- In fact, I think that’s kind of the point. There’s more going on here than we can possibly understand. There’s a mystery. Something vast and paradoxical and beautiful and relatable and otherworldly and strange and just. Right. There. And forever beyond reach.
- It’s almost like God has touched us, and we can’t quite fully comprehend it, but it is wonderful. In fact it’s exactly like that, because the wonder of God’s love is the centre around which our universe spins.
- And as we reach for God, so too we reach for understanding, even as we realise that our understanding will never hem God in.
- This is the Trinity that words cannot hem in.
- This is the lover who is always more than enough.
- This is our story that will never reach an end.
- This is God.
- This is our love.
- And we try to put it in words, but words are never enough.
- And we, the image of God, try to imagine an image of God’s being. Analogies and metaphors that tell part of the story, but always fall short.
- God is like…
- A three-leafed clover.
- Three states of water
- An egg
- My favourite: traffic light popsicle
- I’ve been in academic circles where people seem to delight in picking holes in these images, but I don’t really see the point. Not even on my most wishful days do I truly believe that God is literally like a traffic light popsicle. But the image helps me reach for the truth: God is bigger and more mysterious than I can imagine. The Father is Lord of all. Jesus is Lord of all. The Holy Spirit is Lord of all. Each is fully God. The Lord my God, the Lord is One.
- “We worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity, neither blending their persons nor dividing their essence.”
- I can see eyes glazing over. It’s a lot to hold in our arms, but when we drop one small part of it, then our faith loses some part of its foundation.
- If our creator is not also our Father, then we lose faith. We are anchorless and lost. But God is the prodigal Father who lets dignity fall in ruins around him as he runs towards us in grace and in love.
- When we let go of the idea that Jesus is God, then we lose hope. If Jesus was not truly God, then he was just another human being. Just like you and me. His dying and rising have no significance in which we should put any faith. To quote St. Paul “19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” And so, with all of the church, we confess that Jesus is Lord. We confess that our redeemer lives.
- If we lose faith in the Holy Spirit, then our love will fall short. Jesus calls us to love God with all of our hearts, and to love our neighbours as ourselves. It is the warming presence of the Holy Spirit that comforts us in our losses. It is the prompting of the Holy Spirit that encourages us to reach out to God in our need. The Holy Spirit is the breath of God who inspires us to share the love we receive from God with all care and compassion.
- The Trinity is a strange idea. In a lot of ways it is an even stranger idea than tying little leather boxes full of tiny scrolls to your forehead while you pray.
- But God is more than just an idea. God is an ever moving circle of love. Of Threeness and oneness. Of ever dancing grace. God is an everlasting king, an unshakeable friend, a brother, a father, a mother, a lover. God is Jesus, who saves us. God is the Spirit who draws us in. God is the Father who loves us. Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God, the Lord is One.
