Readings: Isaiah 6:1-8; John 3:1-9
A Reflection to follow the Gospel Reading: see “A Curious Man (John 3:1-17)” by Margaret B. Hess Christian Century, May 14, 1997, p. 475, http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=668
Sermon
Have you, like Nicodemus, been driven by your curiosity, your insatiable desire to figure out who this man Jesus really is for you?
In other gospel stories, we hear Jesus probing this curiosity in his disciples.
Jesus said, who do people say that I am?
And his disciples answered: some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead; others say Elijah, or another of the old prophets.
And Jesus answered, But who do you say that I am? …
And, there’s a theological legend floating around, which imagines Peter’s answer as a little different from the biblical one:
And Peter said, "Thou art one persona of the Holy Trinity – the Logos, existing in the Father from the beginning of time as His rationality and then along with the also pre-existent Holy Ghost, by an act of the Father’s will, being generated as a co-equal, inseparable and interpenetrating member of the Trinity; each persona an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer simple.”
And Jesus answered, "What??!!"
Of course, that wasn’t the answer the Gospel writers tell us Peter or Martha gave – thank goodness. But, there are times when one might be forgiven for thinking that some theologians consider it to be the answer Peter and Martha should have given! As I prepared for this morning’s sermon, a friend urged me to steer clear of the doctrine of the Trinity – it’s a nonsense he reminded me. And, as I continued my preparation, his words kept reverberating as I encountered more and more attempts to rationalize and explain that which really cannot be explained. Theological gobbledygook and mathematical gymnastics (“the trinity is more like multiplication 1x1x1 than addition 1+1+1”) each vied for attention and was discarded as I pondered where to focus our thoughts this morning. It all seemed a long way away from the gospel encounter between Nicodemus and Jesus.
The trouble with – the nonsense of – the Trinity is that in attempting to explore and explain who and what God is, theological tradition has tied itself in knots – complicating and destroying the heart of what it was trying to do. A doctrine which, at its best, invited people into the depths of unknowable holy mystery has become at its worst, a litmus test for ‘correct belief’ for ‘proper’ Christians. Some would say that unless the correct and exact Trinitarian formula (God as Father Son and Holy Spirit) is used within every service of worship –– then it’s not truly Christian.
In his recent book The Future of Faith, Harvey Cox suggests we’ve reached a point in Christianity, where there’s been a major theological swing “away from a more belief-and-doctrinal formulation of religion into a more experiential [and] practical … understanding.”[1] He argues that the Christian church is moving away from what he calls the Age of Belief to a new phase, the Age of the Spirit. Cox contends that this Age of the Spirit is closer to how things were in the first centuries of the Early Church. He points out “that for roughly the first 300 years, early Christianity was [not a belief-movement but] a faith movement. They didn’t have creeds until the early fourth century, until Constantine. They didn’t have hierarchies. There was an enormous variety of different expressions of Christianity... Then, around the early fourth century, with Constantine in particular, there was a massive movement toward hierarchy, a clerical elite, and a creed. ... insisted upon not by the bishops, not by the pope but by the emperor. [Constantine wanted something that would bring the empire together - a uniform expression of Christianity, the formulation of a creed, became an imperial project.] This creedal, doctrinal, hierarchical understanding of what it means to be Christian was a pattern set under Constantine and held for many centuries.[2] And, Harvey Cox argues, it is out of this pattern we are now breaking into an Age of the Spirit.
When we are no longer in Christendom – no longer in a place where Christianity authorizes imperial power; the old weekly recited Nicene or Apostles Creeds with their intricate propositions of belief in one God the Father Almighty, one only-begotten Son and a Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son[3] can appear a nonsense. When we are in this new/old phase, this Age of the Spirit, Jesus’ question ‘who do you say that I am’ enters different territory – opening other possibilities – ones enlivened by the Spirit, whose dancing and constant presence we celebrated last Sunday.
In the Age of the Spirit, rather than attempting to define and seek uniformity, we join Nicodemus entering that curious questioning space of unknowing, where we trust the experience of the Spirit – which, like wind “blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.’
So, maybe the probing and curious questions for today will not be about defining the Trinity – but about how in our busy, demanding lives we can make space to recognise the Spirit at work – about how we might participate with the Spirit in bringing about justice, peace and love in this complex, complicated world in which we live.
Rev. Dr. Nancy Kraft, a North American Lutheran preacher suggests that her favourite definition of God is: as a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. She points out that “Our Trinitarian understanding of God isn’t the only way God is experienced in the world. For us Christians, it is our center, but there are other centers for other peoples. And while our centers may be different, often our circles overlap so that those of us who have moved far from the center may find ourselves in more than one circle at the same time.
Way back before the Nicene Creed told us what we have to believe about God, the metaphor of the dance was used to describe [what we call] the Triune God. It’s a dynamic faith image. It’s relational, it moves, it grows, it includes. [God-ness inviting us to dance within the Holy Mystery – some of us dancing close around the center, some way out on the fringes, some weaving in and out – but all of us in the dance][4] – all of us held by “the music, the movement of God’s energy and art”[5].
Some of us call that participating in the Trinity – I think Jesus called it being born again in the Spirit. Perhaps that’s what Harvey Cox is talking about in this new Age of the Spirit. What we call it, is probably not that important. Much more important is how we live this new reality… “Born again? The mere thought of it sweeps through us and sends us reeling. You mean to tell us that our lives might be different?”[6] That’s far from a nonsense!
[1] Bob Abernethy’s September 15, 2009 interview in Cambridge, Massachusetts with theologian Harvey Cox: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/september-25-2009/harvey-cox-extended-interview/4342/ accessed 2 June 2012
[2] Abernethy interview
[3] Nicene Creed
[5] “Creation sings! And we are in the music, the movement of God’s energy and art” Shirley Murray
[6] A Curious Man (John 3:1-17) by Margaret B. Hess Christian Century, May 14, 1997, p. 475, http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=668
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