Trinity.C.25
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
The Rev. Melanie McCarley

A few years ago (three, to be precise), presumably in honor of Trinity Sunday, one of our parishioners (thank you, John Day) sent me a clip from the film “Nuns on the Run” which “explains” the Holy Trinity.

Picture this: two fugitives, posing as nuns, are on the lam. One of the two “nuns” winds up teaching a class of high schoolers. Lo and behold, on the curriculum for the day is an explanation of the Holy Trinity. The other fugitive, who happens to be Catholic, makes an attempt to explain this mystery to his compatriot who is to put the information into the form of a lecture, appropriate for high schoolers. What follows is a discussion about the Trinity and its respective roles. The fugitive who will be explaining this theological conundrum to a host of high schoolers assembles his compatriot’s thoughts in a logical format and proceeds to practice, saying: “Let me try and summarize this: God’s Son moonlights as a Holy Ghost, a Holy Spirit and a dove and they all send each other even though they’re all one and the same thing.” “Got it” says the friend. “Wait a minute,” says the other would-be nun, “What I said, does that make any sense to you?” “Well, no.” replies the friend. “But it makes no sense to anybody. That’s why you have to believe it. That’s why you have to have faith. If it made sense it wouldn’t be religion, would it?”

The Triune God is a mystery. Oh, we have models, a shamrock, egg and an apple all work, but ultimately, the Trinity is an entity that can’t really be explained—at least not from a rational point of view. The nuns on the run are correct, The Holy Trinity doesn’t make sense—at least not in the logical and scientific sense of the word. But then again, science itself doesn’t always make sense either.

An article in National Geographic, was published in 2022 whose headline reads: “New experiment hints that a particle breaks the known laws of physics.” Turns out, that a muon, a heavier sibling of an electron, throws the “Standard Model” of particle physics into chaos. Hang in there with me for a moment—and rather like the nuns on the run, I will attempt to explain.

The Standard Model was developed in the 1970s. Succinctly put, the Standard Model is humankind’s best mathematical explanation for how all the particles in the universe behave. Everything. The Standard Model is arguably the most successful scientific theory we have. It’s capable of stunningly accurate predictions of how the universe’s fundamental particles behave. Problem is—the muon doesn’t always behave in accordance with the Standard Model. It doesn’t make sense. It refuses to conform. It hints that the universe may contain unseen particles and forces beyond our current grasp.* It’s a mystery. There is, it seems, still a great deal about this world that we do not understand.

In our first lesson this morning Wisdom (The Holy Spirit) speaks to the people and says: “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of long ago. … I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. …. When God established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the mountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.”

The Triune God is a mystery. It’s a wonder—these three persons of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit working in concert with one another to bring about creation, life, redemption and finally a new creation.

If there is a message in the eighth chapter of Proverbs, it is this: Listen, pay attention, and be aware of wonder. The world is more than you imagine it to be. I suspect that the author of today’s psalm would agree. Beginning with the fourth verse we read: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses, what is man that you should be mindful of him?”

From the psalmist’s perspective, the wonders of the universe are humbling. However, the psalmist’s goal isn’t to make us feel like nothing—the goal is to help us think about God, about creation and their relation one to another. The goal of the psalmist is to open our hearts and minds to wonder. The psalmist continues: “You have made man but little lower than the angels; you adorn him with glory and honor; you give him mastery over the works of your hand; you put all things under his feet…”

One of the questions we are asked in the Baptismal Covenant reads “Will you cherish the wonderous works of God, and protect and restore the beauty and integrity of all creation?” In this question is an invitation to wonder.

There is so very much the universe contains that offers us the opportunity to contemplate the mystery of God. There is so much to learn, to see and to accomplish. My hope for ourselves, like the psalmist, us that we will nurture within ourselves the gift of wonder, joy and praise. That we will see in everything from the stars overhead to the beetles, fungi and protozoa underfoot that there is both joy and mystery in all that this world holds. Not simply are we to wonder at those things which are seen by the eye and understood by the mind—but we are to delight in things, such as the muon, whose full nature is still as yet to be disclosed. What’s more, my hope for all of us here, is not only that he should find ourselves delighted by creation; but that we should also find ourselves challenged to be stewards of all things created by God—things both great and almost infinitely small—things beyond our reach, and perhaps even our understanding. By doing this, we will become partners with God, and like the psalmist people who look, listen and rejoices in the wonder of God and the Universe that God has made. In the name of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

• https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/ultra-precise-experim... by Michael Greshko, April 7, 2021