To the relief of many
but the disappointment of many more,
a legendary test was discontinued in 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until then, since 1932, All Souls College in Oxford The unveiling of the word was so highly anticipated Applicants discovered the word In some ways, this is similar So I turned to survivors of the Oxford word test Historian Robin Briggs describes his essay on the word \u201cinnocence\u201d Another applicant, recalling his essay on \u201charmony,\u201d Bravo: I love Crosby Stills Nash and Young! While some strategies may not be especially useful My poetic muse for this morning As most of us know, from popular science The theory contends that 13.8 billion years ago Then for some inexplicable reason Scientists believe they can prove many things Yet,\u00a0the great mystery that remains unsolved, If all the known universe exploded out of The state behind the Big Bang is called the \u201cgenerative nothing,\u201d Ok \u2026 here\u2019s my thinking: The Hebrew scriptures clearly declare the\u00a0unity of God<\/a> So here is where the history of the universe fits in: In the process, as one preacher suggested, And, just as Jesus overturned people\u2019s notion Recently I have been on a Walter Isaacson reading kick, While there were many great ideas in the latter, Derived from the Italian word \u201cto smoke\u201d (fumari<\/em>), In contrast, Da Vinci\u2019s younger contemporary and rival, Da Vinci rejected this approach to painting, This is precisely the technique which delivers While I don\u2019t believe that Jesus is more a fan He didn\u2019t draw bold lines between the pure and impure, Rather, in his ministry he kept blurring the lines, Thus, maybe it was not so much Jack Zipes is a name with which you might not be familiar. A consistent theme in his writings Modern evidence for this appears in Broadway musicals such as In his\u00a0Tolkien Reader[i]<\/strong><\/sup><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>the author of the Lord of the Rings Jesus\u2019 revelation of the Trinity It denies the universal final defeat of human bonding And it denies the universal final defeat of evaporating hope The feast of the Trinity does not celebrate some obscure God doctrine,
required applicants to write
a 3 hour essay on a single noun<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
that each year non-applicants gathered outside the college
waiting for news of \u201cthe word\u201d to waft out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
by flipping over a single sheet of paper
where it sat there, all alone,
like a tiny incendiary device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to my flipping the page of the lectionary
and finding the word Trinity
sitting there like a small TUXO: the abbreviation for
a theological unexploded ordinance
staring me down with a holy grin
daring me to explain this central yet inexplicable mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to see if any of their strategies would be helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
as an exercise in showmanship
to avoid answering the question:
an approach that, unfortunately,
too many preachers have attempted on this feast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
reported that \u201cno matter what word I was given
I would structure my answer using Hegel\u2019s dialectic.
Then, like a chef rummaging through
the back of the refrigerator
searching for unlikely soup ingredients
I added a little from the philosopher Emmanuel Kant
then finally an analysis of the vocal work\u00a0
of Crosby Stills Nash and Young.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately he didn\u2019t get in,
so why follow one failed attempt with another.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
when delving into the mystery of the Trinity,
the tactic of riffing on a theme
rather than explaining the inexplicable
might be more fruitful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
is not Crosby Stills Nash and Young, nor
Hegel, Kant or some other philosopher,
but instead the theory of the Big Bang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
or the hit comedy series of the same name,
the Big Bang is the most widely accepted hypothesis
explaining the origins of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
all the energy in the cosmos
was squeezed inside an inconceivably small space<\/a>
tinier than an atom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
this cosmic seed exploded
expanding in all directions at the speed of light<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
about the birth of the universe from evidence like
its continuing expansion
and the abundance of light elements such as hydrogen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and a fundamental challenge to this theory,\u00a0
is: what existed before the Big Bang?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
an unimaginably dense and hot and tiny seed…
Who planted the seed?
What existed before it?
What lit the fuse?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
so, as one blogger asked:
before the Big Bang, what was nothing doing?
And what does any of this have to do with Trinity Sunday?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
before the New Testament, before Jesus,
His Jewish forebearers did not believe in a Trinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and, while sometimes God sends an\u00a0Angel<\/a>,
and there is Old Testament language about the\u00a0Sons of God<\/a>,
Jewish scholars and teachers consistently reject
Christian teaching about the Trinity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
consider Jesus as the Big Bang behind this mystery;
all of the theological density and energy
previous to that in Judaism
was metaphorically compressed into a divine singularity
which Jesus exploded in an ever-expanding revelation
radiating in all directions at the speed of God.
So the divine universe we now proclaim as Trinity was revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus actually \u201ccomplicates<\/a>\u201d God.\u00a0\u00a0He continues,
\u201cMany people thought they had a good grasp\u00a0
of whom God was and what God is up to.
Then came Jesus
and listening to [him], watching him [minister,]
dying on the cross and rising from the dead
people had to \u2026 start revising
and complexifying their notions of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of whom God loved,
who was invited into his peaceable Kingdom,
and how we were to live driven by charity and not rules,
so Jesus\u2019 Trinity revelation
subverted images of divinity and sacred authority
with a God-head revealed
in an eternal dance of mutuality and interdependence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
first having read \u2013 or more accurately listened to \u2013
his autobiography of Einstein,
and now launching into his autobiography of Ben Franklin,
having just completed his\u00a0autobiography of Da Vinci<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
one of the most revelatory passages for me
was Isaacson\u2019s description of Da Vinci\u2019s deployment
of the painting style known as \u201csfumato.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
this technique avoids distinctive or harsh outlines, and instead
employs a careful blurring, blending and smudging
that delivers a smoky atmospheric effect to a painting;
it is an effect on full display in Da Vinci\u2019s Mona Lisa<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a kid by the name of Michelangelo,
used sharp, delineated outlines in his paintings,
so obvious in his breathtaking Sistine Chapel masterpiece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
arguing that one’s sense of sight
does not perceive a world of hard lines and clear separations,
but images that are more
fused, blurred, indistinct and hazy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
such an air of mystery to the Mona Lisa<\/em>
with its eerie background,
sheer head veil,
and disarming smile.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of Leonardo\u2019s style than that of Michelangelo,
his familial approach to God
and parallel approach to people
displayed what might be considered
a kind of sacred sfumato technique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
saints and sinners,
the able-bodied and the infirm,
Jews and Gentiles,
women and men,
or himself, his heavenly Father, and his abiding Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
something quite upsetting to many teachers of the law
who expended considerable energies
reenforcing and intensifying social and religious boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
that Jesus complicated other images of salvation
or long standing images of God
as much as he subverted them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He taught German at the University of Minnesota
specializing in fairy tales.
His unique perspectives in these studies
is revealed in the titles of his many publications, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
is that this apparently innocuous genre of writings
which generations deem appropriate for feeding their offspring
are in fact a powerful form of discourse
capable of destabilizing attitudes and behaviors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Into the Woods<\/em>, with its seditious text:
witches can be right, giants can be good
Or Shrek, in the riotous showstopper,
\u201cLet your freak flag fly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 one of the 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century’s most powerful crafters
of timeless fairy tales \u2013 wrote that a fairy tale
\u201cdoes not deny the existence of \u2026 sorrow and failure:
the possibility of these is necessary
to the joy of the deliverance;
[rather] in the face of much evidence
it denies universal final defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
precisely does just that:
it denies the universal final defeat of Resurrection
and the hope of those who believe in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
proclaiming that we are all children of a single parent God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
in the face of so much personal and societal brokenness,
as the Holy Spirit continues to lavish its gifts
upon all those willing to collaborate
in anointing this bruised and hurting world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
but is a summons to live like the Trinity:
as a community of interdependence and love,
a community that rejects dominance and embraces mutuality,
a community that models subversive inclusivity,
a community that embraces the mission that the\u00a0poet, Malcolm Guite, evokes<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n