Trinity(A)06/11/2017
Alittle boy wants to meet God. He knows it is a long trip to where God lives, so he packs his suitcase with Twinkies and a six pack of root beer and he starts his journey. When he has gone about three blocks, he sees an older woman. She is sitting in the park staring at some pigeons. The boy sits next to her and opens his suitcase. He is about to take a drink from a bottle of root beer when he notices that the woman looks hungry, so he offers her a Twinkie. She gratefully accepts it and smiles at him. Her smile is so pretty that the boy wants to see it again, so he offers her a root beer. Once again she smiles at him. The boy is delighted!
They sit there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never say a word. As it begins to grow dark, the boy realizes how tired he feels and he stands to leave, but before he has gone more than a few steps, he turns around, runs back to the woman and gives her a hug. She gives him her biggest smile ever.
When the boy opens the door to his own house a short time later, his mother is surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asks him, ‘What did you do today that made you so happy?’
He replies, “I had lunch with God.”
Before his mother can respond, he adds, ‘You know what? She’s got the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen!’
Meanwhile the woman, also radiating joy, returns to her home. Her son is stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asks, ‘Mom, what did you do today that made you so happy?’
She replies, ‘I ate Twinkies in the park with God.’
Before her son can respond, she adds, ‘You know, God’s much younger than I expected.’
Intolerance is quickly becoming an accepted way of acting. Fear drives many of us to accept rhetoric, walls being built, and violence without comment. Then again, intolerance isn’t anything new. It seems to be a means by which we can declare our independence and self-sufficiency. It creates an atmosphere in which we can identify friends from enemies. It gives a means by which we can think of ourselves as being good and therefore, righteous. We crave the way things were done in the past because they are predictable and more easily controlled. It is also a human tendencytodesire and demand moralpurity whichprevents us from seeing and accepting the identity that God gives to us. Intolerance originates in us, notinGod.
We hear in our first reading from Exodus, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.’ These five adjectives describe God in a way that we have difficulty fathoming and accepting. God is described as tolerant and unpredictable, offering mercy and kindness, and unconcerned about our being worthy. This way of acting originates inGod and flows naturallyinGod and fromGod. It is for this reason that we speak of God as Trinity: three persons relating freely with each other without fear.
Our goodness is alwaystoo exclusive. Our claim to goodness has a tendency to condemn others who don’t agree with our point of view. Our claim to goodness is intolerant of people who we deem less worthy. When we live inour claim to goodness, we fail to see how beautifulGod’s smile is; we miss seeing how youthfulGodappears.
1