A sermon by Fr. Davenport ©
Church of the Ascension and S. Agnes, Washington, D.C.
26 May 2002
Genesis, 1:1-2:3
2 Corinthians, 13:5-14
Matthew, 28:16-20
Our country spent the second half of the 20th century fighting the evil excesses of collectivist socialism. The Soviet Union has collapsed, and now globalism disseminates American values more efficiently and prolifically than ever. Indeed, more and more of the world embraces individualism; it is happening even in China and Japan. While the citizens of these nations might benefit from it, we might be concerned that individualism has become too strong in our country. A few years ago, Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone reported much evidence that
fewer and fewer contemporary Americans are unionizing, voting, rallying around shared causes, participating in religious services, inviting each other over, or doing much of anything collectively. In fact, when we do occasionally gather -- for twelve-step support encounters and the like -- it's most often only as an excuse to focus on ourselves in the presence of an audience. Supper eaten with friends or family has given way to supper gobbled in solitude, with only the glow of the television screen for companionship. (1)
Circumstances are probably not as grim as Putnam describes, but he does make us question our national reverence for self-reliance and rugged individualism. He helps us to appreciate the value of strong communities and collective activities. He argues,
School performance, public health, crime rates, clinical depression, tax compliance, philanthropy, race relations, community development, census returns, teen suicide, economic productivity, campaign finance, even simple human happiness - all are demonstrably affected by how (and whether) we connect with our family and friends and neighbors and co-workers. (2)
We might counter that religiosity in America appears to be strengthening, and while not contesting that, Putnam responds that "some of the forms of religion that have grown in recent decades are unusually inward-looking." (3) Nevertheless, for all of his sharp criticism of our culture, Putnam is hardly a collectivist. He believes that the social upheaval of the 1960s had the benefit of unraveling "the fetters of intrusive togetherness." His point is we have to balance between excessive individualism and excessive collectivism.
Surprisingly, Putnam's research shows that the greater the diversity in a community, the greater unity; or to put it another way, the greater the tolerance, the greater the social connectedness. Clearly, that is our hope for the Church, enormous diversity existing in loving unity. That is our hope for the Church because the Church, the body of Christ, ought to reflect the reality of God. And God, in himself, is unity in diversity, and diversity in unity: including, not excluding; inviting, not rejecting. Human society should reflect, and inevitably does reflect, to some degree, our understanding of God. We do become what we worship. "Some sort of degradation of [humanity] lies buried within every deformation in our idea of God." (4) A warped vision of God will warp our humanity. Therefore, our doctrine of God, the Holy Trinity, is of the greatest importance. We must not take it lightly or casually. Rather, we revere it. The doctrine of the Trinity shows us both what we hope to be and what we are. We came from God, and we hope to return to have eternal union in him. The work of Christ, the purpose of his Church, is to renew us, and to perfect us, in God's image.
"And God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. . .' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Gn 1:26,27) This is a beautiful and strangely comforting idea, but it does leave us wondering whether every individual human being is in God's image, or whether somehow human community reflects God's image. Is man individually or corporately made in God's image? A case can be made for both interpretations, and both are probably true. Genesis assures us that we are right to try to apprehend and to understand, albeit in a very limited way, the nature of God by analogies from human experience. We can use human analogies to describe God because of our certainty that "man is made in God's image" and because of the authority of Jesus, who repeatedly described God, and our relationship with him, in terms of human relationships. "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will you Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" (Mt 7:11) (5)
S. Augustine's analogies of the Trinity are the most well-known. In comparing God to an individual human being, he argues that God - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost - is like an individual's memory, his understanding, and his will: three faculties of the same person; and also he likens God to an individual's mind, his self-knowledge, and his self-love. Augustine also describes God in terms of corporate humanity, that is in terms of human relations between separate individuals. He suggests that the Holy Trinity is like a lover, his beloved, and the love that flows between them. (6) These are helpful ways to think about God, but all of these analogies have serious flaws. S. Gregory Nazianzus, one of the greatest early fathers, warns us: "It is difficult to conceive God but to define him in words is an impossibility." (7) Or as we sung today: "the Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, the Holy Ghost incomprehensible." We have to approach the Trinity in great humility.
It is increasingly popular in the Church to refer to God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. While somewhat helpful, its value is quite limited, and indeed it may be dangerous. The attempt to describe the three persons of the Holy Trinity by assigning a function to each is flat-out wrong. Each of the three persons of God functions in all of the divine activities. The Father creates with the Son and the Holy Ghost. The Son redeems with the Father and the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost sanctifies with the Father and the Son. So the best way to understand God is not by the functions of the three persons, but by their relation.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost is language that emphasizes the personal nature of God and the mutual indwelling of the persons of God. Persons can not be persons without other persons. Individuals must exist in community in order to be persons. "The personal is constituted by personal relatedness." (8) There is no 'I' without 'you.' There is no being without relation to the other. While God is not three, he is essentially social, and that means that human beings are essentially social and that our perfection requires other people. We will not be perfect alone, but only by giving ourselves to one another as the Father gives himself fully to the Son and the Holy Ghost, as the Son gives himself fully to the Father and the Holy Ghost, as the Holy Ghost gives himself fully to the Father and the Son.
Yet, the primary reason why we have to refer to God as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost is that that is how God has revealed himself to humanity through history. Even in the Old Testament there is mention not only of God as Father and the Spirit of God, but there are also numerous references to son of God. The New Testament, of course, is quite clear that Jesus is the Son of the Father, and that after the Son has returned to the Father, the Holy Spirit comes to guide and strengthen the Church. The Old and the New Testaments record God working in history. The Bible describes the self-giving love of the Father who gives his only Son for us, the self-giving of the Son who suffers for us and gives his life for us, the self-giving of the Holy Spirit who now gives us life and allows us to enter God's love.
The creation story in Genesis tends to make us think of God's power as controlling and dominating. If we were God, we think of being able to exert our own will, to control all things, and to glorify ourselves. Yet real power, the power of God, the power that created the universe, is of an entirely different order, a whole different logic. As Richard Niebuhr says, "God's power is made perfect in weakness, and he exercises sovereignty more through crosses than through thrones." (9) In Christ, in his suffering, in his meekness, in his death, in the mass, God shows us that he is self-giving love, and self-giving love creates community; it unites people - in the Church and throughout existence. God is not the will-to-power, not the power of domination and control, not self-enhancing power, but God is the will-to-fellowship, the power of love and freedom, the power of self-sacrifice. (10) God shares his love and his glory, and does not seek it for himself. That is what he is, and we want to be part of him.
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
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