Sermon for Trinity Sunday
May 30, 2010
Texts:  Proverbs 8:1-4,22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

Who is God?????

On this Sunday, of all the Sundays in the Church Year,
Today, on Trinity Sunday
We are called to reflect and pray about who God is,
What we know about God,
How we know God,
And what kind of relationship God has with us.

Yet, this is a task fraught with difficulty
Because trying to know or describe God,
Is not just presumptuous,
It is like trying to draw a circle around infinity. 

As I was thinking and praying about this last night,
An image came to my mind, which helped me,
Think about the impossibility of knowing God.

If you have ever been to Bonnie and Joe Doran’s house,
You might remember the marvelous feature they have in their kitchen
Called a light tube.

This cylinder cut into the roof,
Reflects light into their kitchen workspace,
Decreasing the need for artificial light.

God’s very own light comes down into Bonnie’s kitchen,
Brightening her day and lighting her work.

As marvelous as this light tube is,
If it were the only way to view the outside world,
You would have a very shadowy understanding of what was out there.

Light comes in, but it is very difficult for vision to go out

We are faced with a similarly difficult task in trying to view God.

Our knowledge of God comes from God’s Word,
Both written in the Bible,
And from Jesus Christ, God’s own very Word.

God’s Word comes down to us,
Showing us the Way,
But we can’t see back up to God.

God’s Word to us,
Functions as a kind of light tube for us,
Beaming God’s will and God’s way for us
But giving us only reflected glimpses of God,
Without a complete picture or understanding.

Each of the texts we heard this morning,
Give us a kind of strobe point glance at the God,
Who comes to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

These multiple aspects of God,
Sometimes are reflected to us
As Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer. 

There are also other Biblical texts
That give additional richness and texture
To these reflected glimpses we have of God.

Yet, we are dealing essentially with a mysterious God,
Who will ever and always be beyond our comprehension.

Until that very last day,
When we will see God face to face,
God by necessity, will be shrouded in mystery for us.

Even Moses, saw only the backside of God
As God passed by on the mountain.
And Elijah was only able to experience God in the sheer silence. 

This morning, instead of engaging in the virtually impossible task
Of trying to explain the God’s Trinity to you.
I am going to journey with you into one of our texts,
That gives a brief reflection
Into what maybe the less well known aspects of God.

This text from Proverbs opens with a picture
Of Wisdom calling from the crossroads.

When you hear that description,
What does wisdom calling from the crossroads look like to you?

This picture is not a very familiar one for us,
And one we would not normally associate with God.

But there are some appealing aspects—
Kind of like a mother calling or whistling for her children.

It reminds me of the story June Rice’s children told me
As we were preparing for her funeral this past week.

When June stood outside the door and whistled,
Any Rice child dropped everything and came running.

This Proverbs text is from a type of literature in the Bible
Often referred to as Wisdom literature.
These parts of the Bible are often viewed
As giving us alternate insights into the mystery of God.

This particular text features the appearance of someone
Often referred to as Lady or Woman Wisdom
Or even Madame Wisdom,
As Eugene Peterson calls her in his translation “The Message.”

If you listened carefully to this text from Proverbs this morning,
You might have heard
Female pronouns used to refer to Wisdom
And perhaps you wondered what that was all about,
And whether or not it was significant.

The reason for the use of “she” in referring to Wisdom
Traces back to the original Biblical languages.

In both Hebrew and Greek, the words for Wisdom,
Chokma and Sophia
Are feminine nouns.

Because of this, wisdom, as a character,
Is presumed to have feminine characteristics.

In the Old Testament, Lady Wisdom shows up in a couple of places,
And our particular lesson this morning
Is a classic text which gives glimpses of Wisdom’s relationship to God.

But like most things about God,
These glimpses are shrouded in mystery.

The mystery is heightened because the verses in this passage
That describe how Wisdom is related to God
Have multiple, vague and complex meanings,
Which muddy the picture of God.

Is this accidental???

I think NOT!

This is part and parcel of our seeing only that reflected image of God.

Any time a Biblical text gives a description of the nature of God
The text is usually fuzzy and clouded with interpretation difficulties.

Yet with all its difficulties
This text does tell us something about God
And Wisdom’s role relative to God.

Wisdom calls to people where they are.
Wisdom is not distant from our everyday lives,
But out reaching us on the highways and by-ways
In the middle of town, and in the middle of the mall.

Wisdom is joyful,
Taking delight in the things about her.

And this text places Wisdom
Right next to God
At the beginning of creation.

Wisdom is a master worker,
Brought forth by God
Before any of the other acts of creation

Wisdom is there with God
Taking delight in creation
And delight in the created human beings.

This inter-relationship between Wisdom and God is so tight
That many people believe that this part of Proverbs
Reveals Wisdom as an aspect of God.

Or in other words,
One of the ways in which get a glimpse about the nature of God
Might be through the character of Lady Wisdom, herself.

She gives us clues about the nature of God,
Which enrich the picture of God from the other Biblical texts.

Along this line of thinking,
Some people think that this text
May give us some clues into the feminine aspect of God.

We know from Genesis that God transcends our human stereotypes about gender.

In the First Chapter of Genesis,
We hear that God created humans in the image of God,
In the image of God, they were created, male and female. 

Just maybe Lady Wisdom,
As she is described in this text from Proverbs
Is a rare insight into those attributes of God,
In whose image female humans are created. 

There are other people who believe
That the Old Testament character of Wisdom
Is forerunner for God’s ultimate Word and Wisdom,
As described in the Gospel of John:
Jesus Christ, the Word of God,
Through whom we come to know God.

Why do we care about an ancient text such as this one from Proverbs,
Describing the character of Wisdom,
Who is so enshrouded in mystery?

Why on this Sunday,
Which is traditionally celebrated as Trinity Sunday,
Do we even have a reading focused on the shadowy character of Lady Wisdom.

On this Sunday we take time to think and pray
About the ways in which God reveals Godself to us.

This text from Proverbs and Lady Wisdom, herself
Can reveal to us dimensions of God,
Which give color and texture to the other glimpses
Of God, which we have been given.

These glimpses reveal a God who is not distant from us,
But a God who is in the midst of things,
Calling out to us,
Inviting us to share in wisdom,
Inviting us to come closer.

In this glimpse of God,
We find that God does not shoot wisdom at us from on high.
But rather goes out where all of us can be found.

You might say, God is in our faces,
Calling out to us from the places of our everyday lives.

Lady Wisdom, is in one sense God’s communication to us.
But there is a tension between God coming to us,
Calling us to wisdom,
And our limited human capability to recognize wisdom,
Even when it is offered to us.

This character of Lady Wisdom and her close linkage to God,
Also reveals to us additional aspects of God the Creator,
And may also reflect another dimension of God the Word, God’s only Son,
Given to us to be our Wisdom.

Lady Wisdom shows us God’s care and delight in the overall creation
And particularly in the humans, whom God created in God’s image.

The richness of the language in this text,
Supplements the pictures we have of creation
And God’s creative actions
From the two Genesis accounts.

On this Trinity Sunday,
Maybe it is a good idea for us to be humbled just a bit,
By what we don’t understand and can’t possibly know about God.

Yet at the same time, we can be thankful
For the richness of the Biblical accounts and imagery,
Which present a multi-dimensional picture of God.

Even if we cannot fully know God,
There is good news about God,
In this text from Proverbs,
The good news of a God who wants to be in the midst of us,
And who wants us to share in God’s own wisdom.

The God who wants to be in the midst of us.
Is the same God who sent God’s Son to us
To reveal yet more about God,
And to enrich us with even more of God’s wisdom.