περιχώρησις, an untranslatable word*

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Readings Here

This Sunday is

Set apart in the liturgical year

To contemplate a doctrine

This is the only time in the liturgical year

Set aside for that purpose

I suppose that is how foundational

the mystery of the Holy Trinity

is to our understanding of God.

I counted in this week’s worship aide

12 times

where we invoke

God in the classic Trinitarian formula

We know we should care

But it isn’t unreasonable to ask…

Why should we care???

I've heard it said that the greatest truth 

revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures

is that we are made in the image and likeness of God

And that the greatest truth

revealed in the New Testament

is that the God in whose image and likeness we are made

is a Trinitarian God of Love.

We human beings say a lot of things about God

We’ve been doing it since the beginning

We can’t help it

...to be human is to ask questions…to wonder why...how

...to be human is to desire to know…

It is in our nature to question and contemplate

And because we can never pin God all the way down

We continue to speak…

…to nibble around the mystery

I suggest that our faith gives us a base metaphor for God

By that I mean the metaphor that is

the least wrong;)

or better yet ‘the least incomplete’

That base metaphor is God is Love

 And Edith Stein (St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) added to it by saying

God is Love

And love is goodness giving itself away

So on this Trinity Sunday

As we continue to nibble

around the mystery of God

we can hang on to

Our base metaphor (and its addendum)

God is Love

And Love is goodness giving itself away

The funny thing about love

It is always “in-between”

It doesn’t exist

except in a relationship open to giving and receiving

I have also read 

That the best place to gaze

into the life and meaning of the Holy Trinity

Is sitting before

Rublev’s Icon of the Holy Trinity

  

Icons in the Orthodox tradition

are theology communicated through painted images

Primary theology

The tradition uses the language of encounter

"praying with the icons...

"entering the icons

"opening oneself to the mystery revealed...

Icons are said to be windows or doorways

And so…Where words fall short

…Which is everywhere when it comes to God

Icons are well suited

To pick up some of the slack

My hope is that this icon…this 14th century image…

might help us to answer the “why should I care?” question

The three faces are identical…

The figures are enclosed in a circle…

All the figures wear a blue garment (color of heaven)…

But each wears an additional color…

Unity and diversity

The Spirit, with a green robe representing new life…

I think of all our cold and rain…

And how this Spring’s new life has been unfolding in slow motion…
My black walnuts the last to unfold their green

NEW LIFE…Fresh new life

The figure to the right represents the Holy Spirit

The Spirit touches the table…

I think of our prayer over the bread and wine

“Let your Spirit come upon these gifts and make them holy…

Behind the figure is the mountain.

Mountains are places in the Scripture where we encounter God

Places where heaven and earth touch

Think of Moses on Sinai

And of Jesus transfigured

When did I last feel touched and filled by the Holy Spirit?

When did I last sense heaven and earth in the same place?

There is something about the slant of the figure’s head

And the peak of the mountain

That draws our gaze up and to the left to the central figure

The figure of Christ

The brown garment Evokes an earthiness

The gold stipe…Royalty

Two fingers touch the table

Is he blessing the cup?

The cup is central

It is our cup.  A shared cup…

Of blessing…of joy…of suffering…

There is a tree…

We are to recall the story of

Of the hospitality of Abraham and Sarah

Under the Oak at Mamre

They welcomed and fed three strangers…angels

Who announced the coming of a son.

But the tree might also be a cross.

Or the tree of Life in the Book of Revelation

That we read about a couple weeks ago…

A tree for the healing of the nations

Hospitality…Suffering…Healing…

The Christ figure

And the tree as well

Pushes the gaze to the left

To the figure of God the Father

A blue garment covered in shimmering Gold

Two hands grasp a staff

…an authority over heaven and earth

Behind the figure is a house

A dwelling place

“There is a place prepared for you in my father’s house…”

There is a circular movement

The gazes, the postures, the composition

There is an energy

But the circle is not a closed one

Not just a happy family of three-in-one

Self sufficient in their eternal joy

There is an open-ness

Try to see the icon in three dimensions

The one gazing is invited in

The opening at the bottom is for us

The Spirit draws us in

And we move around the giving and receiving love that is God

The love that is goodness giving itself away

God's love beckons us

to know ourselves IN GOD

The Greek word for the the dynamism of this image is

Perichoresis (περιχώρησις)

Which means a kind of dance…a folk dance

A round dance of love

I listened to an interview with the great cellist Yo Yo Ma

Earlier this week

And He said  “Music Happens Between the Notes”

Which…this week…sounded perfectly Trinitarian;)

Music happens between notes

Love happens between persons

This image

nibbles around the mystery of 

The fullness of God 

it encompasses the whole dynamic exchange of love

Father, Son and Holy Spirit

So why should we care?

Being made in the image and likeness

Of a God

Who is love

Who is, in fact unknowable outside of relationship

Being an image of that God

Makes demands on us

I walk into a conversation

I enter it

I am free

To bring hospitality

or

to share in the joy or suffering of another

or

to share my own with another

I am free 
to participate in whatever healing might look like in that moment 
and in that communion of people

...OR NOT

That is the implicit demand of being made

In God’s image and likeness

The challenge is always the question:

Am I love?

How well do my relationships mirror the Trinity?

Do I participate in the exchange?

Am I goodness giving itself away?

Am I open to receiving another's goodness?

The challenge is the question
and we keep asking

In the name of the Father

And of the Son

And of the Holy Spirit