Numbers are interesting, even fascinating. Numbers can be fun. We mark our lives by numbers -- anniversaries, birthdays, remembrances. They matter. They mean something. And, as you know, numbers are important in the Bible. Biblical numerology is fascinating. You know the usual suspects -- 12, for the twelve tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples, 7 as the number of perfection. 666 as the number of the beast! 40 years in the wilderness for the escaping Jews and 40 days in the wilderness for Jesus, 153 fish that the disciples managed to catch once they cast the net on the other side of the boat in John 21. Numbers in the Bible invite imagination and inquiry when it comes to interpretation. They provoke pondering and puzzling for the sake of proclamation, or at least they should. So of course, when it comes to the Trinity, and the number three, we should probe deeply the possibilities for why God chose to reveal God’s self in this way and with this numerical representation.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. This eternal relationship with the Triune God - is the one thing that will make you or me happy. We have a lot of misconceptions about what will make us happy. It happened that a cat died and since it was a good cat, it went to heaven. Now, St. Martin de Porres takes care of animal’s heaven - at least the section for cats and mice. Being very kind to small creatures, St. Martin asked the cat if he had any special requests. The cat replied, "All my life I slept on hard surfaces. I want a nice fluffy blanket." After the cat came a group of mice. St. Martin asked them what they wanted. The head mouse replied immediately. "We had tough lives on earth," he said, “everyone was always chasing us. We want roller skates." So St. Martin outfitted them with tiny skates. A few weeks passed and St. Martin checked up on the cat. The cat was the picture of happiness. "My blanket is so comfortable," he said, "that I never want to leave it." Then he added, "By the way, thanks for the Meals on Wheels!"
Well, as this story illustrates, it is easy to have misconceptions about what will make us happy in heaven. Unlike those mice, we probably don't imagine speedy roller skates, but we might think of other things: nice food, comfortable surroundings, good friends, beautiful music. Those things are great and in some way they might be part of heaven, but this Sunday Jesus tells us what we really need to be happy. To survive we need things like food, clothes and shelter, but to really be happy we need something more. Jesus says to us, "I have much more to tell you." To be happy you and I need knowledge, truth. Aristotle - who is considered the world's greatest philosopher - began his study of human psychology with this statement, "All men by nature desire to know." We delight, he said, in the knowledge that comes to us through our senses - sight, hearing, taste, touch.
We humans have an insatiable desire to know.. Other people have different interests: the various Wars, railways, stamps, archaeology and so on. Many people today have become political junkies, gathering news about elections, polls and politicians. Some can't find out enough about movie stars and sports people. And all of us - let's be honest - find it hard to resist a juicy bit of gossip. We want to know. Of course, we hunger for more than random facts. If we start reading a good novel, pretty soon we have a hard time putting it down. Even though the characters are fictional, we want to know what happens to them. Look at Game of Thrones which millions download the moment an episode becomes available. And even if we know how a story turns out, we can experience great delight in re-reading it. We discover new insights.. And I am hardly alone. I've talked to other people who have seen certain movies, over and over. They know the plot by heart, and even the dialogue but each time they experience a new joy of discovery. I think heaven will be something like that. Our relationship with the Trinity will involve a continual joy of discovery. With the Holy Spirit, we enter a relationship with Jesus and the Father. It is the greatest voyage of discovery anyone can undertake.
God has given each of us an insatiable desire to know. When all is said and done, only one can satisfy that hunger. This Sunday he says, "I have much more to tell you." Now, that's an understatement! But Jesus adds, "you cannot bear it now." We need the Holy Spirit - the "Spirit of truth."
Odd numbers? The number three? Well, thus enters a disquieting disequilibrium. A lack of control. When you have three, the dynamics change. You are forced to share a conversation, to be attentive to another besides the one right in front of you. You have to listen to more than one person. Perhaps at the same time. You have to adjudicate feelings and responses and reactions that have doubled. That’s the problem and promise of three. Yet God saw it fit to express God’s self with three, in three, and through three. I think this says something about God. And about how we should view the Trinity. Maybe God likes disequilibrium. Maybe God thinks that’s what relationships are all about. Maybe God embraces and invites imbalance. Maybe this is essential to God’s character. There always seems to be a third angle to consider, another perspective to ponder. We are awfully accomplished at focusing on what’s in front of us. That’s easy. One on one is a lot simpler that one on two. That takes more work. When all of a sudden comes the third interpretation, the third view that upends or causes enough uncertainty to send us into questioning, wonder, even doubt.
So that is the invitation today: Come to Jesus. He is the wisdom, at the Father's side, that fashioned the universe - including such creatures as you and me. He has placed in our hearts a desire to know. We can pervert that desire, but we can also accept his offer: "I have much more to tell you." Jesus - who has always existed as the Wisdom at the Father's side - has much more to tell us. He alone can satisfy our desire to know - by bestowing the Spirit of truth, making possible an eternal relation with the Trinity. Come to Jesus. By the power of the Holy Spirit, come to Jesus - eternal wisdom, at the Father's side.