Delivered on Sunday 03 June 2007 in St George's Chapel

The Trinity

In Through the Looking Glass, just before her encounter with the Lion and the Unicorn, Alice comes across the White King, who is waiting for a messenger. The King turns to Alice and says:

'Just look along the road, and tell me if you can see ... [the messenger].'
'I see nobody on the road,' said Alice.
'I only wish I had such eyes,' the King remarked in a fretful tone. 'To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too! Why, it's as much as I can do to see real people, by this light!'

Of course, Lewis is making a logical joke, as he so often does. When Alice says that she can see nobody, she is not saying that she can see a person - real or otherwise. What the King hears, though, is that she can see an imaginary person by the name of Nobody. It's an example of language confusion. The collect for Peace, at Morning Prayer, is another good example. There we pray 'O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord'. Why, I wondered as a child, did God have a particular preference for Concord. There's an example of a language confusion that arises from new uses of old words. Then there are cultural differences: if an American tells you that she has put her suitcase in the trunk you have to just stop a second to realise that this has nothing whatsoever to do with a magic trick involving an elephant. And then there are those phrases that we all use and we all know what we mean, and yet not exactly. One such phrase is 'Mind your 'P's and 'Q's'. We all know that means that we should be circumspect but what are those Ps and Qs? I'm not sure there is a definitive answer but I like the suggestion that in public houses beer was served by Pints and Quarts and bills marked up accordingly with a P or a Q. So to mind your Ps and Qs was to mind your alcohol consumption - might be a better tack for the latest Government initiative than most of the dull phrasing heard in the past week.

Anyway, why am telling you all this? Why am I telling you that there are various kinds of language confusions? Quite simply because I believe the word 'God' is another fine example of language confusion. Let me explain what I mean. Depending on the cultural and linguistic context the word God can mean a variety of different things. To one person God is one of a number of gods; to another God is the only God. To one person God is all-powerful; to another the suffering in the world would suggest that God is not all-powerful. To one person God is Allah; to another God is Haile Selassie. The word 'God' can be used in many different ways. And the fact that there is this potential language confusion was not lost on Moses.

You will remember that Moses was out in the wilderness minding his father-in-law's sheep when a nearby bush spontaneously combusted. And out of the bush, Moses heard a voice saying: 'I have seen my people's misery and now I am sending you to lead my people out of Egypt and into a land flowing with milk and honey'. Now Moses was a quick thinker. He knew that if he were to go the people of Israel and say 'Listen up! God has told me to take you all on a very long walk', they would turn around and say 'what do you mean by 'God', what is God's name?' So Moses - with what I can only imagine to have been extreme courage - asked 'What's your name?' And out of the bush came this helpful answer: 'I AM that I am. Tell them that I AM has sent you to them'. Well, it's an odd name but then God wasn't going to have a name like any old Tom, Dick or Harry. But what we have here is a clearing up of potential language confusion. What is God's name? I AM! What has God done? He has brought his people out of slavery into a land flowing with milk and honey. In name and action the word 'God' takes on meaning - the word 'God' moves from a soggy mass of possibilities to a solid specific object of worship.

You're probably thinking to yourselves: all that has to do with Judaism; nothing to do with us! But it does and especially if, like me, you think that Christianity is a sect of Judaism. At the very least the two religious languages are very close cousins. Clearly Jesus thought so too. Remember the disciples would have known that Moses story; they would have known that God's name is I AM. So their ears will have pricked up when they heard Jesus say I AM the good shepherd; I AM the true vine; and I AM the way. In Jesus we find the word 'God' taking on layer upon layer of new meaning. For in Jesus we see God made man. Those layers of meaning continue to build, until we have further answers to our two questions. What has God done? He has rescued his people but he has also raised Jesus from the dead. And what is God's name? Just as mysteriously as 'I AM' we learn to identify God as 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit'. On Trinity Sunday we celebrate a moment of introduction - it's our own burning bush episode. We humbly ask 'And what's your name?' The answer comes back 'I AM Father Son and Holy Spirit'.

By now a lot of the language confusion has evaporated. When we use the word 'God' we know something of his action and something of who he is. We do not know everything. We are invited to worship the Trinity but we not expected to fully understand him. The matter is too complex and all we can get is the occasional glimpse. That message is brought home to us in our chapel. If you allow your gaze to be directed to the ceiling and to the very East end, behind me, you will probably be able - just - to see a ceiling boss poking out from behind a large stone moulding. That boss, that you can only glimpse, is a representation of the Trinity. And the stone that blocks your view: a bishop's mitre. Even the Church with all its technical language will never unravel the extent of the mystery that is God, the Holy Trinity.

May we obediently learn, with our whole heart, soul and strength, to worship the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit. Amen.