Journey's Weekly Homilies

TRINITY SUNDAY, YEAR A
MAY 29, 2002
HOMILY BY SAM

EXODUS 34:1-10
II CORNITHINANS 13:11-14
JOHN 3:16-18
‘A PICTURE OF GOD’

We read in Exodus of "A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and
abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."  This God who names and
claims us as a community, a God who is claimed and named by us as well
on this day, Trinity Sunday, 2002.  Every time we sign ourselves in the
precious names, creator, redeemer, and spirit-among-us, we remind
ourselves that we belong to this God

Today I want to talk about three things.  First I will talk about the
boldness of our images of the sacred.  Secondly I will talk about the
rich imagery we find in the Exodus reading.  And finally I will speak of
the Trinity and why we sign ourselves in the way we do here at Journey.

I begin with a simple story.  A class of kindergarten children are at
their desks drawing.  The teacher floats from desk to desk and finally
pauses by one little girl.   "What are you drawing?", the teacher asks.
The girl says, "I’m drawing a picture of God".  The teacher says, "Well,
nobody really knows what God looks like".  And the little girl says,
"They will when I’m finished".

Our first point:  Naming God.  It is a bold thing to draw a picture of
God.  Any image is the product of our own imagination and culture,
neglecting other ways in which God may be experienced.  For God is
greater than any one image we can conjure up, transcending time and
culture.

Because none of us knows what God really looks like we are honor a
Jewish tradition in which Gad cannot be named or seen.  In our passage
from Exodus a name that is used, Yahweh.  This is also a refusal to be
named.  When Moses who insists that he must tell the Jewish slaves who
sent him as liberator a name is revealed to him:  ‘I am who I am’.  This
is abbreviated to the initials of the phrase in Hebrew, YHWH.  And that
becomes a name of sorts.

Yet this mysterious, unnamable God is willing to live with us, in us,
through us.  From our experience we may call God by name, tell stories,
develop our beliefs about God.  Though our images can never capture the
fullness of God they are refrigerator drawings, the sacred play of
loving children.  They are perfect in every crude line, every distorted
arc because of the love in which they are drawn, the naïve confidence
that we can relate to God as intimate friend as well as master and
creator.

Our second point.  This unnamable God is described vividly today’s
reading from Exodus.

Moses has been to Mt. Sinai , established a pact, a covenant between God
and people written in stone tablets.  He descends with these tablets,
the commandments of God and finds the people have grown impatient and
created other gods for themselves, gods who will enslave rather than
liberate.  God is angered by this offense and Moses breaks the tablets
in anger at the people. The covenant, the sacred alliance between God
and people, has been violated as soon as it is made.  We have here a
crisis in God’s relationship with people:  how to handle faithlessness.

God first suggests that Moses enter the promised land alone where he
alone will be blessed.  Then God suggests that Moses lead the people to
the land himself but God will have nothing to do with them.

Moses talks with God as "a friend", according to Exodus, asking God to
let the anger cool down.  He refuses to inherit the land apart from the
people and he refuses to enter it without God.  Instead he reminds God
of the promise made to Abraham and begs for forgiveness.  God is touched
by the sincerity of Moses and relents.


In today’s reading God renews the covenant in spite of Israel’s sin.
God inscribes the broken commandments again, and reveals to Moses and to
us the nature of the One who has led them from Egypt.

And today we learn that God is first of all merciful.  The Hebrew term
for mercy is a play on the word "womb".  It suggests creative,
nurturing, maternal love.  This birthing God is also gracious, offering
continued favor and generosity to the people.

We hear that God is faithful and reliable, maintaining the covenant even
when people are unfaithful and unreliable.
This is a God of steadfast love who maintains loyalty and solidarity for
generation after generation.  To continue this reliable love God
forgives, lifting from the people the burden of failure when they do not
keep the covenant.

We have today a complicated story of faithful love, betrayal,
forgiveness, and renewal.  It tells us everything we need to know about
the nature of God.  Central to this story is the commandments.  Why
would a God who really loves us place these kinds of demands?

I have video made from an early seventies home movie.  The camera is
shaking of course and people’s heads do not quite make it into the
frame.  Eventually the camera zooms in on a three-year-old in a little
black swimsuit with a big red heart on the front.  She is toddling
around in the waves at the beach.  Periodically she turns around to
march into deeper waters.  But when she does a pair of long legs appears
to block her advance.  All you can see are the little girl and the legs.
Every time she wanders toward dangerous waters those legs appear again.
The little girl is Seanna and the legs belong to her teenage sister
Maureen.

It is the nature of people to wander occasionally into dangerous waters
where we are sure to destroy ourselves or others.  The commandments
might be seen as the legs of our maternal God preserving and sustaining
us for the time being and later teaching us to swim on our own.  And
though God may be exasperated with continued defiance the legs continue
to be there so we can play in safety.

Our relationship with God is one of love, instruction,  defiance, anger,
forgiveness, and renewal.  These images are of course bound by the
limits of culture and language.  They do not say everything about God
but they say enough to inspire and encourage us in our daily struggles.
And so we sign ourselves today and every time we gather calling on God
in the distinct language of our faith tradition.  The trinity, our third
point.

The usual language for the trinity is, of course, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.  But modern biblical studies and the insights of feminist
scholars have reminded us of the many feminine images of God at the very
heart of the Jewish tradition.  The womb references in today’s passage
from Exodus are one example of this.

To call upon God as Father in our most basic prayer is incomplete in a
very essential way. Invoking God as creator acknowledges that the God
who loves us can be known to us both mother and father.

This God who brings us to birth also lives with us in the solidarity of
covenant, walks with us on our way and protects us from harm.  But
covenant is a two-way street.  It calls for us to be faithful as well,
to not destroy or abuse what God has created.  When we sign ourselves in
the name of the creator we are challenged to be creative, nurturing, and
liberating as well.

When we fall short of this challenge the relationship with God needs to
be mended, and so we call upon Jesus as redeemer.  In the images of the
New Testament he renews and restores the covenant for us as Moses does
with Israel in today’s reading. When we sign ourselves in the name of
the redeemer we commit to offer mercy as we receive mercy from our God.
And through the abiding spirit of Jesus alive in this community we may
be merciful as God is merciful.

And so today we call upon God, Creator, Redeemer, and Spirit-Among-Us, a
God who labors within us and brings us to birth.  This God beyond all
names we may call upon in the language of our hearts, the images of our
desire.  We love God more than we know about God and we pray that our
love will be as God’s love, creating, redeeming, and renewing.