"Defining The Divine"
Psalm 29, Isaiah 6: 1-8
June 11, 2006

As I thought about defining the Divine I found myself humming….

What’s love got to do with it?
	Well, maybe I should humm: What’s relationship got to do with it?
		The answer:  EVERYTHING!
			God is in relationship with the mountains, the trees, the waters.
				God is in relationship with the peoples.
					God is in relationship with you and me.

God is here, where are you? Where are your thoughts in this moment?
With whom are you in relationship? For most of us, it might better be said….with what are you in relationship for most of us spend more time doing things and being places and accomplishing and working than in relating to each other. Think on that.

God wants to be in relationship with you, will do whatever necessary to get your attention….for your own well-being. And, for the well being of others. God says to Isaiah…Who will go for us? Who shall I send? Not only in relationship with God but with others…for God.

Who would you go for? Is there anyone for whom you would go out of your way…to tell the truth, to show up, to come along side, to go or to come? An "us" for whom you would be willing to say, no matter what or how hard the assignment: Here I am, send me?

What an amazing God we have that God chose to come and be amongst us as a human being in Jesus to walk the talk with us and show us how to go. And then takes a stand for integrity to show us nothing can separate us from ourselves, each other, our God….not even death. And then, knowing we need coaching but eventually we must make those hard choices on our own and in our own voice be able to say "Here I am!"….God gifts us the Holy Spirit.

God the three in one.
The Trinity.

Hard to explain this concept because the Bible itself doesn’t lay it out or define it. Many are taught the 3-in-1 is like water which can be a gas, a solid, or a liquid but is still always water. Some are taught it’s like the egg with its yolk, white, and shell…it takes all three to be an egg.

But these fall short. Defining the Divine is a bit like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree. Our language has limits and God has none!

So maybe rather than trying to define the Trinity, which at this time in the liturgical year we have with us, we should be focusing on the real essence of the Trinity—the power of relationships.

Whatever the Trinity is, the purpose of God is to bring humans back into whole relationship with God rescuing us from having to try to define ourselves through self-destructive pursuits. That’s worth saying again! How do you define yourself?

How ever we name God, which ever aspect of God we relate to…the thing is: God loves you!

The Trinity is not defined by words that explain it parts, even though we’ve been taught it as represented by a triangle (a sturdy construct but do you know there are no naturally occurring triangles in nature!) The Trinity is best identified with a circle, a dynamic community defined by love. Defining the Divine: a love relationship where we see God face to face, and find our own voice and are able to say…here I am, send me! Send me not only for myself, but for all of us!

Circles are natural, appearing everywhere from the sun and the moon to the earth itself. ….from the womb and the family and the church itself. It just makes sense that we should be thinking of a circle as the paradigm by which we shape our lives and reflect upon our God. The circle shapes our understanding of God’s creative, restorative, and relational nature.

We will never understand the Trinity by trying to define it.

Defining the Divine has nothing to do with words. It’s about joining the circle.

Relationships.