The Rev. Joseph Farnes
All Saints, Boise
Trinity Sunday, Year A
When I was in school, it wasn’t until I started taking a foreign language that I really began to grasp the grammar of the English language. I was a smart enough kid that when I would do my English homework in elementary school and junior high, that I could pick up the gist of the grammar lesson, but I didn’t fully understand what participles, gerunds, infinitives, independent and subordinate clauses, appositives, and all the rest really meant. When I had to start comprehending German grammar, I was able to compare it to what I had kind-of, halfway known from English grammar.
One of those was the concept of grammatical gender. English doesn’t really do grammatical gender – sure, we might call a boat or a car “she”, but non-living stuff doesn’t have a gender in English unless we give it one. Living beings get “he” or “she” but stuff tends to get the pronoun “it”, unless we’re really amping up its importance, giving it personhood. Think of Idaho’s state song (which, I know, no one really knows): “Here we have Idaho… winning her way to fame.”
German on the other hand, has three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. This candle on the altar? It’s feminine. Die Kerze. Water? It’s grammatically neuter. Das Wasser. The altar here? It’s masculine. Der Altar. Things have a gender in German. And you use the pronoun that matches the grammatical gender. So the candle is “she” and the altar is “he” and the water is “it”. That took time to get used to thinking about gender differently and learning how to use pronouns correctly.
Today, the concepts of gender and pronouns have left the abstract realm of grammar and entered into our politics as of late. Suddenly grammar has become a flashpoint of conflict over social change around the concept of gender, and even the word “pronouns” generates a lot of anger from certain folks in our society. It’s a lot of energy to waste being angry about someone else’s pronouns. The anger about someone else using he, she, or they as a pronoun is really a lot of wasted energy.
Pronouns are a tiny glimpse into who someone is. Pronouns like he or she, we, I, or you, pronouns only hint at who or what they’re referring to. There’s a greater depth under the surface. There’s much more to a person than their pronouns – why spend so much time being angry that they’ve discerned that one pronoun fits them better than another?
Think of the pronoun we often use with God: “he” or “him.” Yet we wouldn’t say that God is male. All of humanity was made in the image and likeness of God. All gender is reflected in God. But grammatically, we have historically used “he”.
Even when a better translation would be “they.” You know why? Because in this passage in Genesis, the word for “God”, in Hebrew “Elohim,” is plural. The –im ending shows that it’s plural. And then in that line about humankind being made in our image… plural again. Over time, Hebrew began to shift and make the plural “Elohim” singular. It looks plural, it sounds plural, but grammatically became singular.
Much like our use of the word “they.” When we don’t know someone’s pronouns, we use they. “Someone left their jacket here. I hope they come back to get it!” See? “They” can be singular, too!
Yet there is a challenge to using “they” – we don’t want to sound like polytheists who believe in more than one God! We only believe in one God. Not multiples. Even though we believe in the Trinity, that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are each different persons of the Trinity yet one God. Only one God, yet three distinct persons.
Because the pronouns “he” or “they” don’t get at the heart of the mystery of God. There is more to God than a pronoun, or grammar, or words. There is mystery, an inner life of God that we wish to be part of, intimately united forever.
On this Trinity Sunday, I cannot offer you a compelling and complete explanation of God. If I could reduce God to concepts and pronouns, then I wouldn’t be talking about God anymore but rather my idea of God. There is mystery at the heart of God, and that mystery is beautiful.
That mystery is at the heart of the word “Trinity”. All the theological debates about the Trinity should try to safeguard the mystery, the integrity of God’s own being – God is not a concept or an idea to be defended, but someone to be loved, cherished, a Trinity of persons with whom we share a relationship with all creation.
And God has told us about God’s own self. Words like mercy, justice, compassion, gentleness, strength, wisdom, these are words that touch on who God is, deep down.
The words we use for God say a lot about us. Do we use words to defend God as if God were an idea that has to be understood perfectly to be worthwhile? Do we use words to bring others into relationship with God, or do we use words to keep the “wrong” kind of people out?
And the words we use for others say a lot about us. Are we willing to listen to others, maybe even set aside our assumptions about the world, just for a moment, to listen? Can we use words that they have discerned, deep down, words that reflect more who they are?
Can we listen for the mystery that is God the most holy Trinity, and can we listen for the mystery that is the human being, who is made in the image of God?
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.