Incomprehensible

The scriptures referred to are Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, Psalm 8, Romans 5:1-5, and John 16:12-15.

Do you understand quantum physics? I am fascinated by the subject and I've read many articles about it but I cannot say I comprehend it. What about calculus? While I did really well in algebra and especially geometry, when I got to calculus I almost flunked. There is something humbling about knowing that your understanding has limits. And there are scientists who point out that we might never understand some things about the universe. That is, we might get to a point where we discover things that our brains simply cannot comprehend. For scientists, the explanation is that our brains did not evolve to do science. Our brains are designed to help us survive. So they help us determine whether or not we should eat something, or whether we should fight or flee or befriend or mate with someone. They help us with finding or making shelter, making tools, keeping our offspring alive, and cooperating with others in a group. The fact that we can also analyze stars and subatomic particles is remarkable. But we are finite and scientists think there will come a point at which we will encounter things that our brains cannot process. On top of that, mathematician Kurt Godel proved that all mathematical systems are incomplete, and that means so are the hard sciences that depend on them. Thus science can never discover all truths.

And yet when it comes to God, many people think the creator of this complex reality should be easy to grasp. In particular, I have met people who not only have problems understanding the Trinity but seem to be offended by the doctrine. They regard it as an unnecessary complication invented by theologians. But really the Trinity is not so much an explanation of God's nature as a name for the paradox we encounter in God.

The earliest Christians were all monotheistic Jews. Unlike the Greeks, Romans and just about every other culture, they believed in one God, full stop. He created the world and everything in it; he made the covenant with Abraham; he liberated the Israelites from slavery in Egypt; he gave them the law, he gave them a land and he gave them a kingdom under David and his descendants. God alone was to be worshiped.

But then the disciples spent 3 ½ years living with, traveling with, working with, listening to and observing Jesus. They concluded rightly that he was the Messiah, God's anointed prophet, priest and king. But then he got executed. In the words of the two disciples going to Emmaus, “...we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:21) Notice that they use the past tense. They never anticipated that God would allow his Messiah to die at the hands of his enemies, especially when he hadn't even established a kingdom of God.

But then Jesus rose from the dead. Before his crucifixion, Jesus had demonstrated mastery over weather, water, wine, demons, disease, and disability. But now he showed himself to be triumphant over death as well. The disciples had to rethink who Jesus was: not just a man used by God but God become man.

Among the things that influenced this were passages in the Hebrew Bible such as today's reading from Proverbs. Wisdom is personified and depicted as acting alongside God in creating the world. (Proverbs 8:30) The passage is poetic but it is the Word of God and there is truth in its concept of an aspect of God existing with God and working with God. And indeed Paul writes, “But to those who are called, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:24, emphasis mine) In the same vein, John uses the Greek and Jewish philosophical concept of the logos, the reason that underpins all creation, to start his gospel. “In the beginning was the Word (logos), and the Word was with God and the Word was God...Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.” (John 1:1, 14) John ties the Genesis account of God creating the world by simply speaking with the idea that Jesus is the Word or expression of God. And Hebrews puts it this way: “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:1-3) Just as an honest person's word reveals who he is, so Jesus Christ, God's Incarnate Word, reveals who God is.

OK, but how did Jews go from believing in God and the Son of God to adding the Holy Spirit to the Godhead? The Spirit of God is spoken of in the very first chapter of the first book in the Bible. Genesis starts with “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2) So the Spirit is also shown as participating in creation. In fact the Spirit can be seen as God's power in action.

The Spirit also empowers people to do what God wants. The first individual of whom this is said is Joseph. Pharaoh describes him as “one in whom the Spirit of God is present.” (Genesis 41:38) Joseph's spiritually granted gift is interpreting dreams. In Exodus God fills the artisans, the men who are to build the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant, with his Spirit. (Exodus 31:1-11) When Moses chooses 70 elders to shoulder the burden of administration with him, we are told, “And the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to them, and he took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but did not do so again.” (Numbers 11:25) This starts the tradition of the Spirit anointing leaders and kings of God's people as well as prophets. The Holy Spirit is not a mindless force but acts for God and speaks for God through those whom he calls.

And this brings us to the early church. As we read last week in Acts, what was remarkable was the Spirit being poured out on, not just the apostles, but all the believers. In the previous chapter we are told that the body of believers at that time included not just the Twelve but also “the women, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers...a gathering of about 120 people...” (Acts 1:14-15) Which makes sense since there is a list of more than 16 groups of people hearing the gospel in their own language. (Acts 2:8-11) Were the Spirit only given to the Twelve they'd have to speak two languages at once. But there were ten dozen Christians preaching the gospel in ways that everyone present could understand.

The point is that the Spirit is no longer given just to leaders but to all who come to Jesus. In fact we see a phenomenon in Acts where when a new group accepts Jesus they speak in tongues. We see it when Peter is sent to preach to a family of Gentiles (Acts 10:46) and when Paul baptizes a group in Ephesus who had previously only received the baptism of John. (Acts 19:6) These may have been one-time manifestations, as with the 70 elders, because the only place where we hear of people continuing to speak in tongues is in 1 Corinthians.

But the Spirit does not just produce miraculous signs. In the lives of those who are in Christ the Spirit produces qualities Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) Because what the Spirit is ultimately doing is making us more Christlike. The 8^th chapter of Romans is devoted to all the ways in which the Spirit works in Christians to conform them to the image of the Son of God.

And so that was the third way that the early Christians experienced God: as the Holy Spirit, God within us. So they knew God as creator, and as the crucified and risen Jesus, and as the Spirit who was transforming them and equipping them to become the children of God. And yet they remained monotheists. They affirmed that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, but there is only one God. How does that work?

For the first three hundred years Christians tried to come up with ways to explain it. Some of these ideas were rejected but what the church decided on was not really an explanation of how God is three persons and yet one God. What they decided on was to preserve the paradox of the reality they experienced. And they called this paradox the Trinity: one God in three persons acting always in total unity of thought, will and love.

Science occasionally has to accept paradoxes, especially in quantum physics, which concerns the basic building blocks of reality. For instance, physicists could not decide if light was a particle or a wave. When they did experiments to determine if light was a particle, it indeed functioned like a particle. But when they did experiments to see if light was a wave, it functioned like a wave. It defied their neat categories and labels. So they finally accepted that it was both. What was pertinent was how you approached it.

And we can do the same with the Triune God. We can approach God as the Creator who made everything and is ultimately in charge. We can approach God as Jesus, the one who understands what it is to live and die as one of us but who also triumphs over sin and the sorrows that afflict us, including death. We can approach God as the Spirit within us who gives us spiritual gifts and strength and encouragement and leads us to the truth.

You don't need to understand the internal combustion engine to drive a car. You don't need to understand your smartphone to use its many functions. Heck, scientists don't even understand what consciousness is. How do 3 pounds of gelatinous fat, firing sparks of low level electricity, give rise to intelligence and personality and a sense of being an individual self? We don't know. But we use our brains nevertheless. So why do we feel we must or even can understand the exact nature of God? As someone said, a god small enough for your brain to fully comprehend would not be big enough to handle your problems.

I experience God the Creator every time I look at the night sky, or read about the human body, or watch a documentary on the marvelous ways nature works. I experience God the Son when I face problems in my life, knowing Jesus did as well, or when I am on the verge of losing hope, knowing he had a moment when he felt abandoned by God, or when I again fail to live up to his commandments, knowing he forgave the sins of all who came and asked for healing and help, or when I remember how dark it was in his tomb before the stone was rolled away and he came out into the light of Easter morning bringing his eternal life to all who believe. I experience God the Spirit when a thought or insight comes to me from I know not where, or when I suddenly find the words to defend the faith, or to impart a word of comfort or wisdom to someone who comes to me for help, or when I am at my lowest and find a strength that was not there before.

The real mystery is, as the Psalmist asks, “What is mankind, that you should notice them? What is humanity, that you should care for them?” (Psalm 8:4) Why does the God who is greater than our grandest conceptions of him spare any thought for us? Why did he reveal his Word to us? Why did he send his Son to save us? Why does he send his Spirit to transform us? The answer to all these puzzling questions is the biggest mystery of all: his divine love. And the only proper response to God's incomprehensible and gracious love is “Thank you!”