John 14:8-15 | Trinity Sunday-Fathers Day

*Preached at Grace North Church June 18th, 2000.*

In the great Hindu epic The Mahabharata, we read the story of a time when it was very much up in the air as to who would wield power in the universe. Would it be the gods or the demons? It seems that Brahma, the creator of the all things was holding council with the gods, when Vishnu suggested that the gods and the demons join forces in a common effort to obtain ambrosia, the magical elixir that would grant immortality and unlimited power to whoever drank it.

The gods agreed, and apparently, so did the demons, because soon they had uprooted an entire mountain. Then they put the mountain in the ocean, and fixed its point so that it would pivot perfectly on the back of the lord of the great sea turtles.

Then, the great snake Vasuki offered himself to be a cord that wound around the mountain. The gods held the snakes tail on one side of the ocean, and the demons held its head on the other side. Then, taking turns, the god and demons each pulled on the snake and spun the mountain like a top, churning the ocean until, they hoped, it would turn into ambrosia.

The ocean boiled and raged, the water creatures were killed, along with all the wildlife on the spinning mountain. But the gods and demons did not let up. Eventually the ocean turned into butter, then it turned into wine. They were so tired they could not continue, and so they cried out to Vishnu, who infused them with strength and sustained them so they could continue their Herculean effort.

Then suddenly, without the least bit of warning, the ocean turned from wine into the most lethal of all poisons, which paralyzed all the worlds with its fumes. The Lord Shiva knew he would have to act fast, so he chanted a magic mantra, and opening his mouth, he swallowed all of the poison. Taking it into himself, Shiva saved the universe from certain death. The poison lodged in his neck, and his neck is blue even to this very day.

The gods resumed churning the poison waters until another magical transformation occurred. Out of water, a glowing figure, the physician of the gods, arose, holding a white pot, full of the prized magical elixir.

The demons cried out, "It's mine!" and snatched it from the physician of the gods. But before they could drink it, Vishnu assumed the form of the most beautiful of all celestial nymphs and, bewitching the demons with his fabulous physique, they handed him the ambrosia. As soon as Vishnu had the white pot in his hands, he gave it over to the gods to drink. And this they did, refusing any to the demons.

As you can imagine the demons were enraged and there followed the fiercest of battles the world has ever seen. But of course, since they possessed ambrosia, the gods were invincible and the demons were sent packing off into the bowels of the earth.

This is an amazing story, as it shows how the gods and demons were set against each other, and also invites the question, if the demons had gained the ambrosia, would they now be the gods?

But this myth is also intriguing because in one story, we see all three persons of the trimurti, or the Hindu Trinity, all acting out their various roles with aplomb.

Here we see Brahma, the great progenitor of the universe, who presides over the meeting of the gods and to whose authority everyone bows. Here we see Shiva, the great destroyer, who holds in his hands power over life and death, and who sacrifices himself for the salvation of the world by swallowing up all the poison. And here we see Vishnu, the sustainer and trickster, supporting the strength of all involved and pulling a fast one on the demons, which is something that, if you know your Hindu mythology, Vishnu is very good at indeed.

We don't have many myths in which we see all three of these characters acting together, which is why this myth is so extraordinary. Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu are the supreme manifestations of the godhead. Separately they are worthy of worship, but together, there is nothing they cannot accomplish. They all have different functions, and yet they also have in mind the same goal. In Hindu mythology, they are different faces of the one ultimate reality. They are three, and yet they are one. They have different personalities, and yet they are all god. They may be worshipped separately, or together, for in the end they are all one.

It is interesting, as we consider the doctrine of the trinity in our service today, to consider that it is not a concept unique to our faith. The ancient Celts, also envisioned divinity as a trinity. For them god was a virgin, a mother, and an old wise woman. Each face of the goddess performs a different function, and yet they are all one.

Anthropologists have offered many theories, but none have really been able to explain exactly why it is that we humans are attracted to the bizarre notion of a triangulated divine coinherence. Each system is, on the surface, polytheistic. Yet upon closer inspection, the divisions between the various gods are revealed to be illusory. They are not three, but one. They are not different, but the same. They are not gods, but God.

Now while the Celtic triple goddess posits divinity as an all-female family, the Christian version of this doctrine is its mirror image. "The Christian trinity," as one clever theologian put it, "is an all-male, single-parent family with a whoosh of vapor."

Now, as a feminist, I share the discomfort many women have with this formulation. It is painful to women that they do not see themselves reflected in divinity. I imagine that if I were an ancient Celt, I might have similar feelings about the triple goddess. But gender in the gods says more about our own society than it does about divinity, of course. Whether our trinity is masculine, as in the Hindu and Christian pantheons, or feminine as in the Celtic mythology is indeed important, but it is the subject of another sermon.

In this one I would like to draw our attention to this odd notion of co-inherence. Now co-inherence is a theological term that describes the ontological enmeshment of beings. Since I can't believe I just said something so obtusely obfuscatory, let me say this in another way. A mother and her unborn baby are arguably two beings, and yet they co-inhere. The baby is not the mother, yet the baby is IN the mother, and the mother's lifeblood is IN the baby.

Just so, Jesus is not the Father, yet Jesus is IN the father, and the father IN Jesus. Jesus said "I and the Father are one." Similarly, the Spirit is not the Father, yet the spirit proceeds FROM the Father, according to the creed. But the really amazing part of this doctrine is that it also extends to us.

If we are members of Christ's body, if in fact, we ARE the body of Christ, which the teachings of the church affirm, then are we not also part of the trinity? The trinity is not some divine assemblage of beings away out there. The trinity is you, too.

What a profound mystery this is! The simple lesson that this doctrine has to offer us is this: God is NOT A BEING. Instead, God is a COMMUNITY OF BEINGS. The Kingdom, or the Community of God IS God. The Community of God includes us all, saints and sinners, angels and demons, deities and mortals. Divisions may be articulated, but upon closer inspection they all dissolve into the One.

Shiva and Father Richard and Jesus and Val and Yahweh and Harvey and Brahma and Phyllis and the Virgin and Patrick and the Holy Spirit and Charlotte and the Crone and even Father John; we are all faces of divinity. We all co-inhere. We are The Community that is called God.

But since a thousand faces are kind of hard to relate to, our faith, along with many others, has settled on three. We have a Father, and we together, we are the Son, the child. Now plenty of folks before Jesus' time called God father, but it was more in the sense of progenitor, as Abraham was called the father of the Jews. But Jesus' genius was that he called God "Abba," or "Dad," and in that instant he invested our imaginations with all the familial emotions that we have towards our own fathers. And this has its good points and its bad points. But the main effect of this was to instantly change our point of reference: God is not aloof, but is intimately bound up in our lives, concerned about our well-being, and willing and able to help us in our struggles. Jesus brought God out of heaven and into our homes. And more than that, he brought us all into the Community of God, into the very life of God himself.

Now we have always been in God. Jesus' action was to simply make us aware of this fact. Jesus said, "The Community of God is spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it." As membe rs of God's Community, we are members of God. And there is no power, on heaven or earth, that can separate us. The Trinity holds a million faces, including yours and mine. But if even three faces is too many, you can let go of them, too. You can simply call it "the community," or you can simply call it "the one," or you can simply call it God. Let us pray.

God of a million faces, who creates, sustains and destroys the worlds, who comforts and redeems and makes all things new, your child Jesus taught us to call you Dad. At this time when we celebrate our fathers, help us understand the intimacy in which you hold us. For you give us life, you guide us with your good counsel, you train us up in the way that we should go, and you stand beside us and support us in our adulthood. Bless all fathers this day, O God, as you constantly bless all those who inhabit your community. For we ask this in the name of the trimurti of your choice, both now and forever. Amen.