SAVING MYSTERY

Rev. Dr. Mary Lou Howson

John 16:12-15
Romans 8:12-17
Trinity/Memorial Day

May 30, 2010

The summer our son Davy was 14 our family went to Europe. One of the stops we made was the Normandy beaches. Now I knew from previous experience that Jim could spend a lot longer prowling the beaches and cliffs than I could and I already knew that the two of them would spend longer on any battlefield than I could, (and certainly would be prowling the foxholes and trenches.) so I had brought a book. When we reached Omaha Beach I knew there would be a large obelisk with benches in a circle around it – a memorial dedicated to the Americans who had died in the landing. So after I finished my own explorations I sat down there to read and wait.
Before long I was looking at the names listed on the obelisk and I was struck by how different they were. I had grown up near Valley Forge. The chapel there has a book of the names of the American soldiers who died in the Revolution. While there is some diversity to these names, they are mostly British and German with some French. But on this obelisk were Polish manes, Italian, English, German, French, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Russian, Jewish, Hungarian, Spanish – it was as if all of Europe's sons had landed on this beach together, and all member of the same division – the Big Red One. I knew, of course, what a mixed group we were but I had not really comprehended it before.
Of course, black Americans and Japanese Americans were still kept in separate units at that point. Their integration into our armed forces would take longer, and it would be even longer for women to become combat soldiers. But I suspect that whatever strides have been made, occurred sooner because of the experiences of WW II.
Nevertheless we are still working in this country on how to live together in all our differentness, how to value the variety we bring, and how to treat one another with respect and justice. As we know all too well, we have not yet completed the task. Over 60 years later, those whom we consider stranger, are often outcast, denigrated, and ignored – sometimes even scape-goated.
I, for one, do not believe that those who have given their lives for this country – or the lives of loved ones – have done so so that we can continue the old patterns of prejudice and discrimination. I believe that if we have any desire to honor their sacrifices, we will work to build a future that honors the diversity of who we are – even though I recognize that no nation has ever tried to accomplish this before.
But more important, I believe that as followers of Christ we cannot be faithful if we do not seek to build the New Jerusalem in which the lion shall lie down with the lamb and we shall be together in all the magnificent diversity in which God has created.
Over and over again in scripture, God places us in each other's care. Seven of the Ten Commandments tell us how to treat each other. Jesus, when asked what the greatest commandment was answered, the first and great commandment is to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And the second is like unto it, to love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hand all the law and the prophets. He could not and would not pull apart the love of God and neighbor.
Why? Why does he insist that these two loves are so intimately intertwined as to be one?
The reason is rooted in our doctrine of the Trinity. St. Augustine likened the Trinity to three gold rings as opposed to a lump of gold. Love, he said, does not exist without lover and beloved. It is by definition relational. And the love that flows between the two brings such delight that it creates more love. Hence the need for three and not just two. And all three, like the rings, are co-involved. Their existence is interrelated and mutual. Notice that this is not a hierarchical image but rather one of mutuality. This loving mutuality, not solitary ego, is God's very essence.
A modern theologian, Elizabeth Johnson has written (222-223):

The Trinity provides a symbolic picture of totally share life at the heart of the universe. It subverts duality into multiplicity.
Mutual relationship of different equals appears as the ultimate paradigm of personal and social life. The Trinity as pure relationality, moreover epitomizes the connectedness of all
that exists in the universe. Relation encompasses and constitutes the web or reality and, when rightly ordered, forms the matrix for the flourishing of all creatures, both human
beings and the earth.

These concepts Irenaeus, one of the founding fathers of the church, who wrote in the first century after Christ calls such an understanding the "rule of our faith, the foundation of the building and what gives support to our behavior."
If we take seriously our understanding of God as active love out of which all creation, including human beings, are born, into which we are called and from which we are nourished, we must take seriously the belief that God doesn't just hold us individually in the warm, fuzzy feelings of love. Rather God calls us to join in active communion with the Trinity so that divine love flows out into us and through us into all of creation. This loving, mutual exchange is the very communion of the Trinity. It spills out and overflows from the Trinity into all of creation. It is the waters of life, the living water of which Jesus speaks. The water that is for us in all our fullness, emptiness, and diversity. It is, therefore, saving mystery. (Leonardo Boff) We are to live not only in this mystery, but also from it.
Just imagine how both we and the world would be different if we took our Trinitarian theology seriously. Imagine if we opened ourselves to living in communion with God. Imagine if we lived it out in our daily lives – our hopes and joys, our fears and confusion. Imagine if we carried this water of life into our homes and jobs, into our churches and towns. Imagine if we lived so as to embrace others in this saving mystery. Imagine if we could begin to recognize, claim, and share this love that Christ calls the very water of life.

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