And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
I love this section of Matthew. It includes the appearance of John the Baptizer, Jesus’ baptism, the appearance of the Holy Spirit, the calling of the disciples and the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. We’re getting into more familiar territory with these readings, and I can remember reading these bits as I proclaim the Gospel, and struggled through writing sermons.
I often tried to put myself in the place of parts of this narrative. What if it was me who say the wild-eyed John the Baptist? Would I follow him? What if the Holy Spirit alighted on me, and a booming voice said “This is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased”. This is what we believe happens at baptism, without the booming voice. But the sentiment is there. You, dear reader, are God’s beloved, in whom God is well pleased. Love, love, love this.
The accompanied reflection is from Hildegard of Bingen, a mystic who I unsurprisingly struggle with. Her music and lyrics are haunting and beautiful, and her theological writings are harder for me to understand. She’s writing about the nature of the undivided, She writes, “Thus these Three Persons are one God in the one and perfect majesty of Divinity, and the unity of Their Divinity is unbreak-able”, and “It is the Father who begot the Son before the ages; the Son through whom all things were made by the Father when creatures were created; and the Holy Spirit who, in the like-ness of a dove, appeared at the baptism of the Son of God before the end of time.”
When I read about the Trinity, I’m reminded of Trinity Sunday, a day where my tradition celebrates the mystery of the Trinity. It’s a difficult Sunday to preach, because of the nature of the Trinity, which is hard to describe or compare to anything we can understand. I believe I’ve actually preached a few known heresies, without meaning to. I had a priest friend explain that one of the reasons we proclaim the Nicene Creed after the sermon is because it will right a multitude of sins that are unintentionally offered up in sermons.
What the Nicene Creed says about the Trinity is that we believe in one God the Father, one Lord, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life. Three persons, one God. Beyond that I cannot parse out the how or why, and I’m left only with acclaiming, Holy, Holy, Holy.
Having said all of that, I do experience the different persons of God differently. When I look out at a beautiful nature scene, I am aware of God the Father, maker of all things. When I cry or am moved by something or someone, I am aware of God the Holy Spirit, by whom we are sealed at baptism and claimed as God’s. And when I see the hurting or the lost, I see Jesus Christ, God incarnate in every person. I don’t know how it works. It is a mystery.
And on a lighter note, if you’ve never seen these funny videos, here’s a link to a video of two Irish guys trying to get St. Patrick to explain the Trinity, and instead keeps professing heresies (which I’ve used in sermons… ugh..). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQLfgaUoQCw
This morning, I’m thinking about the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and grateful this is one place where I don’t even try to explain or understand. Holy. Holy. Holy.
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