Hymn Suggestions:
ELW 734 God Whose Farm is All Creation
ELW 412 Come Join the Dance of Trinity
ELW 735 Mothering God You Gave Me Birth
New hymn: When the Morning Stars Sang
(by William Beckstrand copyright 2022, based on Job 38)
Trinity Sunday offers us a sweeping perspective that is simultaneously humbling and full of esteem. The passage from Proverbs about the architectural work of the Spirit in the figure of Woman Wisdom makes me think of the grand questions put to Job, “Where were you when I …?” Each question in Job 38 and following is a grand assertion of the will and choice of the Creator to create. The list of things created that have no immediate relevance to human life also celebrates the existence of these other creatures as expressions of God’s pure delight. Job helps us see that not all creation is here simply for human utility but is part of the wonder of creative love. The passage from Proverbs, however, definitely and beautifully portrays God’s crafting of creation in a more poetic manner than just to say something about intelligent design.
Speaking of “poetic,” it is helpful for me to remember that the Greek word for creator is “poietes” and the word for the thing created is the “poiema.” Get it? God is the poet, and creation and you are the poem of God. That word play is not just a semantic exercise to me. It is an ontological truth: it describes reality at a depth we need. You are a work of God’s beauty, so is the earth! Don’t forget it! Treat each and both with the dignity, reverence, and delight they deserve! Every person you meet, in all of human diversity, is part of the grand poem of God. Tell them! Every rainforest, every aquifer, ocean current, mountain range, glacier, jet stream and watershed, are beautiful and amazing stanzas in God’s poem of grace. Protect them!
That is what strikes me with this “simul” perspective I hear in today’s lessons. These passages invite us to see humans not only as ‘merely’ creature, but also ‘esteemed’ by God (Psalm 8). Both are true. Then again, to see humans as the marvelous handiwork of Wisdom, and yet so insanely stupid that we destroy the very foundations of the architecture that Divine Wisdom designed (Proverbs 8). It amazes me that after all the study and careful scientific research into the beauty and necessity of God’s systems that provide clean air and water; we now have people in our own communities and governments actively choosing to “reconsider” whether pollution is harmful to human life. I don’t understand that choice. To reconsider proven science is not wisdom at all. Will we also reconsider whether tobacco and nicotine are harmful and contribute to lung cancer and other disease? What else will policy makers and revisers reconsider in order to ignore hard science and the call to protect and keep the creation of God and promote instead a selfish grab for more? PFAS in water supplies? As people of faith equally at home in theology and ecology, we see through the duplicity and the mendacity of reconsidering.
This ‘simul’ perspective puts me in my place – a good place. I can acknowledge that I am merely part of the vast, diverse universe. But then again, I am truly part of this awesome, intricate and beautiful world in which we are honored and called to earth stewardship (Genesis 1&2), called to advocacy (Matthew 25), and called to action (Luke 10). It is not enough to have right thoughts, theology, or even affection for creation and one another if we don’t also act in accordance with our faith. Trinity Sunday might be a day to try and preach doctrine about the mystery of the One in Three and the Three in One; or rather it is a Sunday declarative of praise resulting in commitment.
I recommend using the alternative prayer of the day for this Sunday, which enjoins us to praise the God of heaven and earth, the Author of creation, to enjoy the presence of the life giving Word, and to follow the Wisdom of the Spirit. As the hymn ELW 412 proclaims, this Sunday is for joining the dance of Trinity, and finding our place empowered by the living presence of Christ who remains with us, but also to find our place exuberantly delighting with the Spirit of Wisdom in the beauty of creation. This is a Sunday to choose to delight in the inhabitants of the world, to turn back the foolishness and sin that injures and destroys. The praise and delight of this Sunday leads to recommitment and action on Monday.
I love Mark's connection between the "architectural work of the Spirit in the Wisdom Woman" and the work of science, coupled with the delight God takes in all of God's creations apart from their human utility. And I can't stop thinking about the implications Mark pointed out of the Greek word for creation, poeima, or poem -- and of God as poeites, or poet. In this light, the human trajectory of destroying "the very foundations of the architecture that Divine Wisdom designed (Proverbs 8), is a flashing neon stupidity. Thank you, Mark, for caling us into Trinity Sunday as a day of praise and delight that recommits us to action!