Hello friends.
This is Mark Gladman,
Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighborhood monkey and dogs.
Welcome to Day 16 in our series,
God Is.
Just for a moment,
I invite you to bring yourself fully into this moment,
This reflection.
Right here and right now.
And as you do.
.
.
Take a nice deep breath in.
And out.
And just see yourself for a moment with a connection to all things.
Our connection with one another?
Your connection with the divine?
Your connection with the world around you.
And the interdependent relationships.
That make life possible for everything.
In the world and albeit further across the universe.
And I share this as our opening today because.
.
.
I've been thinking about.
Trinity.
Now that's a dangerous thing to do.
Because the moment you say Trinity.
.
.
It's possible that everything just becomes really complicated really quickly.
In the Christian tradition,
People have struggled to try and explain and understand Trinity for the last,
Well,
Over 1,
500 years.
Three persons.
One guard.
Eternal generation.
Precession.
Perichoresis or divine dance.
All the things that we try and use to explain Trinity,
The apple pie,
The three-leaf clover,
H2O as ice water and steam,
All the things.
And before you know it,
You've actually turned God into a theological mathematics problem.
But I'd like to suggest to you today that right at its very core,
The idea of Trinity is really,
Really simple.
Trinity,
Without going into the maths or trying to explain it,
Is that God is God.
Relationship.
And I want you to understand that when I say this,
I'm not saying that.
.
.
Relationship is something that God does.
I'm saying relationship is something that God is.
Before there was a universe,
There was love.
That before there were stars there was communion.
Before there were human beings capable of loving one another.
There was already relationship at the heart of reality.
And that's quite a heavy thought,
Maybe even more heavy than the way we try and explain Trinity in other ways.
And I think one of the reasons it's heavy is because.
.
.
It means relationship.
Isn't an optional extra that we've added into existence.
But relationship actually is or was or and still is being woven into the fabric of creation because relationship is woven into the very being of God's self.
When you start looking at it like this.
.
.
Some of the things that we normally think of as spiritual problems begin to look very different.
Loneliness,
Isolation.
The need to be sane.
Those achings we have to belong,
The desire to give of ourselves to something that's bigger and beyond ourselves.
I think all of these things and others like them are signs that we are creatures who've been made in the image of a God who is at its core,
Or his core,
Or her core,
Or their core.
Relational and I think that's why Isolation.
Becomes unbearable for human beings.
That's why love.
Feels like we've come home in some way.
This is why we often look at our friendships and think of them as holy or sacred grounds.
It's why a lot of us engage in hospitality and it's almost like a sacrament.
It's why things like forgiveness.
And communion.
Matter.
It's why sitting just gently and quietly beside someone who's suffering.
Can sometimes be more sacred than having the right words to say to someone.
Because of relationship issues.
Is what God is.
Then every genuine movement towards communion is somehow participating.
In the life of God.
And I'm not sure I can explain that,
And quite frankly,
I don't think I need to.
All I need to do is notice the person in front of me,
The person that I usually overlook.
The person whose presence interrupts my plans,
The person that I find difficult,
The person I love,
The person who loves me.
Even the stranger or the neighbor.
Or the world itself.
Maybe it's because God is encountered through.
.
.
Relationships.
And that's why Jesus keeps bringing us back to love.
To the love of God.
And the love of our neighbour.
Saying that all of the law and all of the prophets hang.
On those two things.
To love God and to love neighbor,
But to do it.
As though the two things were never.
Separable.
That to love God is to love our neighbour and to love our neighbour is.
To love God.
And if God is love,
Then.
.
.
Maybe we move towards God by learning how to love.
Which makes today this day I'm walking into.
Not just another moment of existence,
It makes it a very practical thing.
Moment.
Who's in front of me.
And based on who or what's in front of me,
What would love look like here?
Here,
Right now.
Because if God is relationship.
Then this relationship,
Whatever it looks like,
Is a place that is beautiful,
Soft and nutritious soil.
Of holy ground.
And may grace,
Peace,
And love be with us.
As we learn how to enter this divine dance of love today and always.
Until tomorrow,
Friends.
Bye for now.
