It's a mystery

from my sermon on 5/30/10 from John 16:12-15

The Episcopal bishop was asking questions of the confirmation class as bishops are wont to do. Who can explain the Trinity? One boy with a lisp replied, Ith one God in three perthons, Father, Thon and Holy Thpirit. I am sorry, said the bishop, but I didn't understand what you said. Thath okay, said the boy, you're not thuppoth to. Ith a mythery.

Today we recognize our graduation seniors. I have no advice or counsel to give you. Everybody else has done a fine job doing that, so I have none to offer. But since it is also Trinity Sunday, I do want to tell you what God is like. I want to invite you to be embraced by the mystery.

I am uncomfortable with those who have God all figured out...to 3 significant decimal places. Any mystery fully explained ceases to be a mystery.

You seniors are about to enter a time of questioning and exploring. As I read the literature on faith development, this may your most intense time of pondering about God. I love it when you go off to college and then come back and talk with. Pastor Lynn, you say, Prayer is not working for me any more, the words of the Bible have grown silent, and worship seems hollow. And I will say to you, thank God, you've grown disillusioned! You are coming closer to the nature of the true God. I encourage you to ask your questions and leave some old beliefs behind. Because when it comes to understanding God, it's a mystery.

It's why we like sports events. We don't know how it will come out. We stay for the last 2 minutes to see if Kobe can pull it out one more time for the Lakers. It's why we watch Dancing with the stars or American Idol. We don't know how it will end. It's a mystery, and that's attractive.

Scott Peck wrote The Road Less Traveled and many other books about his exploration for a faith a life that matters. He was finally baptized as a Christian. In one of his books he talks about a time when he really struggled. I think he was at a prep school called Andover Newton. He was in crisis, so he went to the smartest person he knew, his math teachter, of course! He laid out his dilemma. The teacher was a sensitive listener. At the end, Scott Peck, asked, What should I do? After a long silence, the teacher responded, "I don't know." Scott Peck said it was the perfect answer. If the smartest person I knew didn't know what was the right thing to do, then it was okay for me not to know. It's a mystery.

There is a danger in trying to capture God by our definitions. God will ever remain beyond our taming or domesticating.

There is also the danger of thinking we know nothing about God. We Christians believe we have a revealing of who God is in Jesus Christ. This One is All God and All Human All at the same time. It's a mystery.

In this passage Jesus is not trying to write a doctrine for the church; he is talking about His relationship with His Father and the Spirit. It is from this passage and some others that the Church came up with the doctrine of the Trinity about the 4th century.

Jesus is giving His farewell speech. He says, I have so much more to say to you. Any parents in the house today? I wonder if this is how you feel. It's seems that just yesterday, this child popped into the world, and you were doing midnight feedings and changing diapers and then you were putting training wheels on the bicycle and then you were handing the keys to the car and now you are sending them off to college. Where did the time go? It's a mystery.

I remember taking our older son Joel off to A & M. We unloaded all of his stuff and put it into his dorm room. Then I hugged him good-bye and got in my car to drive back home. It should be unlawful to drive in this condition. I had to pull off of the highway and cry. I have so much more I wanted to say to you.

Jesus says that what He has to say you cannot bear now. If I were to tell any of you what is going to happen in the next 4 years, you would not be able to bear it. It would be overwhelming. If you were to know what was going to happen ....for better, for worse...no one would get married. If you were to know the joy and the pain, no one would have children. It would be too much. Jesus says that the Spirit will give us what we need in bite sizes. I think AA has it right ....one day at a time.

Jesus says that the Spirit will guide us into all truth. The word for guide is the same as way in I am the way, the truth and the life. The Spirit will lead us in the way...and it is always to a new place, someplace we haven't been before, leaving the old behind, trusting in the leading.

I appreciate those who come back to see me and say, "I don't believe in God any more." I will say to them, "Tell me about this God that you don't believe in." Most of the time, I can say honestly to them, "That's exactly the God I don't believe in too." To encounter fully the presence of God, we will be leaving behind old images and definitions. It is a mystery.

Jesus says that when the Spirit comes, the Spirit will declare to you....3 times...declare, declare, declare. My current working image of God is a pesky God, a God who will not leave us alone, who will keep coming to us until we find our deepest happiness. All God wants is to commune with us, to be one with us, because God by nature as Trinity is community.

One more story of a 30 yr old pastor in S. Africa. He was assigned to be an associate pastor without any formal training for the ministry. His sermons were long and his positions forthright. After 2 years, he finally got to go to seminary. After that experience, he said, I have read theologians, and philosophers, and novelists. Now things are not so clear-cut, so self-evident. I have more questions. Seminary has been more about unlearning. I have less to say and more to listen. It is a mystery.

I have just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's latest book, the Lacuna. A lucuna is part of a manuscript that is missing. She contends that the part that is missing about a spouse, a friend, a situation--what is unknown--is the most interesting part of who we are. There's a lot we don't know about God. It's a mystery...and that is the good news I have to share with you.