John 16:12-15
“To Hear or Not to Hear”
June 12, 2022
The first real memory I have of church was when I was around 5 years old. It was not the music that got to me even though it was the first time I heard an organ in person.
It was not that overpowering smell that came from the thing on a chain that the priest was swinging up in the front of the church that I later found out was incense.
It wasn’t all the movement – kneeling then standing then sitting and a pretty steady rotation of those three positions – which actually kept me from getting too antsy.
No, the thing that made the greatest impact with me was when my mom got to stick her fingers in a bowl of water inside the entrance of the church and she made what looked like the letter “t” on herself with the water starting on her forehead and then going down above her stomach and then from her left shoulder to her right shoulder.
And after church I was filled with questions.
It was a big deal to finally get to go to church.
With 5 kids under the age of 6 my parents rarely went anywhere together with all of us.
One of my parents would go to one mass and come home and then it would be the other parent’s turn to go.
Once we got to school age when it was assumed we could sit still long enough or rather kneel, sit, and stand long enough and at least pretend to pay attention, we were expected to get up and be ready to go to mass with one parent or the other every Sunday for the rest of my childhood.
Once my mom explained what the deal was with the water and her sweeping hand, I couldn’t wait to go back the next week and try it for myself.
“In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” was what I was instructed to think about and whisper or say aloud at the appropriate times – with the water at the door or when we got down on one knee before taking our seat in the pew and then once the Mass began, following the priest’s lead up front.
In 1st grade at St. Mary’s School, Sister Mary Leo helped explain the deep theological concept of Trinity to a roomful of fidgety 6-year-olds when she told us that you start with God (The Father) in the highest position and then proceed to Jesus (the Son) near your belly because everyone has a belly and likes to eat and Jesus lived and ate on earth just like we do.
The Holy Spirit part was tougher to grasp and a boy in our class wanted to know why the Holy Spirit got 2 shoulders.
Sister explained it was less about the Holy Spirit being twice as important as God and Jesus, but the sweeping motion was meant to remind us of wind.
Also, that was what made it a cross.
And then Sister Leo added that, all 3 together, make up God – now there’s concept that has taken me more than half a century to wrap my head around – and I still struggle to come to grips with what it means.
What continues to be a comfort is the fact that God is not one single easy to identify entity and maybe the goal is not understanding it all – at least not in this lifetime – but knowing that this way of looking at God – invites us to expand our view of God and never think we know all there is to know about God.
Here in John’s Gospel, Jesus is preparing his disciples for the future when he won’t be there with them.
When Jesus was walking around next to them, they had the chance to encounter God directly while Jesus spoke of God as both a part of him and distinct from him.
He drew the distinction when he addressed his prayers to God and he referred to God as the one who sent him.
The whole concept of the Trinity developed over time.
Ancient followers tried to take what Jesus had to say about the Spirit as a presence that gave him direction and purpose and that this too came from him and from the one he prayed to, God.
Viewing God as three and one is not just confusing for first graders.
Instead of seeing God as “up there,” the Trinity helps us see God as here with us, a presence that is everywhere.
As it says in Acts, God is the one “in whom we live, and move, and have our being.”
In today’s reading we get a sense of Trinity, but John certainly didn’t call it Trinity.
That came over centuries when the church had time to reflect on passages like the one Patti read and, using their lived experiences, developed a concept that could be possibly understood, embraced, and passed on.
When we hear these words, we recognize the God who yearns to be in relation – with the three relationships of the Trinity and then with all humans who are made in the image of God.
We then in turn are meant to be in relationship with each other – which definitely poses a great challenge amid our era when there is so much division, isolation, and an attitude of looking out for number one at all costs.
None of us know all of God and so we try to answer the invitation to be at one with God while God’s indwelling presence is always at the core of who we are.
As we continue to grapple with the Trinity, let us pray these words adapted from those of our UMC New England Conference Bishop Devadhar:
Creator God…
(we are here) in the name of Jesus
who promised that the Spirit
would guide us into all truth.
How our hearts long
for the Spirit of truth
to live within us,
to move among us;
So we beseech you to —
inspire us,
bathe us,
soak us,
shake us
move us
by your Spirit.
How we yearn for peace with justice;
so teach us how to walk with Jesus —
to love our enemies,
to be reconcilers of conflict,
to resist evil in all its forms,
to seek justice,
to heal the broken
to mend the torn,
and to see and repent
of any hurtful way that is in us.
O God,
who is over all
and through all
and in all, (Eph 4:6)
lead us in your truth
through the love of Jesus,
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
now and forever. Amen.