By EHT Collaboration& - Astronomers reveal first image of the black hole at the heart of our galaxy (Image link), CC BY 4.0, Link
Lectionary: Trinity
Sunday, Year C
Text: Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31; John 16:12-15
God of Wonders
A
month ago, the first-ever image was assembled of the supermassive black hole at
the center of our Milky Way galaxy so that we could see Sagittarius A*, as the
black hole is called.
An
article about this in The Atlantic starts out,
We live in the inner rim of one of the Milky Way’s spiral
arms, a shimmery curve against inky darkness. Travel for thousands of
light-years in one direction, past countless stars, countless planets, and
countless moons, and you’d reach the outer edge of the Milky Way, where the
last bits of our galaxy give way to the sprawling stillness of the
intergalactic medium. Travel about the same distance in the other direction,
past still more stars and planets and moons, through glittering clouds of dust,
and you’ll end up in the heart of the galaxy, at one of the most mysterious
landmarks in the universe…
Behold Sagittarius A* (pronounced “A-star”), a celestial object that has the
mass of 4 million suns but could fit comfortably within the orbit of Mercury,
the closest planet to the sun…
And still, we are not truly seeing Sagittarius A*, not really. Astronomers
can’t take a real picture—in the way us non-astronomers would consider
it—because black holes are, by definition, invisible. So the photo released
today doesn’t show the black hole itself. Astronomers have captured Sagittarius
A* in silhouette. The image reveals the shadow that the immensely dense black
hole casts against the glowing, super-hot gas swirling around it.[1]
Black holes
are so massive, their gravitational forces so strong, that it collapses space
and time and not even light can escape from it. We can peer right to its edge,
the event horizon, but cannot see into it. What actually happens inside a black
hole is theorized, but we cannot see it.
Still
staying within cosmology, but traversing the timeline, the Big Bang is the most
widely accepted theory to explain the beginning of our universe. At the
beginning of this physical universe, all space, time, energy, and matter was a
single point which rapidly expanded and formed what we can observe and
experience today. Yet science can only observe and explain moments after the
big bang. Before that, we don’t know exactly how things were.
Our reading
from Proverbs 8 tells us that God and Wisdom, frequently associated with and
sometimes equated with the Holy Spirit, were present before any of what we can
observe and explain existed. The immense power that formed the material
universe, the immense power at the center of our galaxy – they are just a
fraction of the power that is in God’s hands. These are huge mysteries to us in
the fields of cosmology and astrophysics, but God knows what came before the
big bang and what happens beyond the event horizon of a black hole.
There was
yet another article in The Atlantic a week ago about what oceanographers
and marine biologists are learning about deep-diving ocean predators. These
marine mammals and fish, which we often see at and near the ocean surface, dive
to 1000, 2000, and even 3000 meters deep. Science and technology are now allowing
us to discover these fascinating facts and slowly reveal the mysteries of the
deep. Some of these mysteries that have been revealed is the richness of
nutrients that are available in very deep layers of the ocean; how many preyed-upon
creatures use swift, deep dives to escape predators; and how certain deep-ocean
biological structures that are found in these species that confounded
scientists in the past are now revealed to be used for deep-diving.[2]
God and the
Holy Spirit works through the discipline of the sciences to allow humankind to
discover new truths about the physical world we inhabit. Yet some things may
forever remain mysteries.
God of Mystery
When we
think about God and the Trinity, it is God’s power, majesty, and mystery that
are often what comes to mind first. We think about hymns like Come, Thou
Almighty King and Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty. And clearly,
God’s power and majesty are demonstrated in the vast expanse and mysteries of Creation
in the past, but also ongoing in the present time.
This is mostly
how ancient peoples thought about deities – powerful, yet distant. Even for the
Israelites, with God among them in the wilderness sanctuary, and later the
Temple, God was not a being that just anyone could approach and have a relationship.
There were priests and Levites, and sometimes prophets, who mediated encounters
between the people and God.
But with the
arrival of Jesus into humanity, as a human being, the entire conception of God
was turned on its head. No longer was God simply “out there” or contained through
mediating layers. No, God became Immanuel: God with us. God literally walked
among humanity in Jesus. But after his physical departure, Jesus promised that
the Spirit would be with us. The very same Spirit that was present at the
beginning, sharing God’s essence, glory, and power; the Spirit that helped form
all of Creation.
Today’s
gospel text reads that the Spirit “will guide [us] into all truth.” When we
hear “truth” we often equate it with “facts.” But we must be careful to
determine what Jesus meant by “truth” here. We know very well that facts can be
manipulated to communicate something that is the very opposite of what is true.
And we also know that what is not factual, often found as fictional stories,
can communicate truth more effectively than listing dry facts.
Earlier in
the farewell discourse, from which today’s reading is taken, Jesus declared
that he is the truth. In the context of this discourse then, what Jesus states
to his disciples is that the Spirit will guide them into all that Jesus was and
is and will be. Here is the text once more:
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear
them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he
will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will
speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to
come. 14 He will glorify me because he will take
what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the
Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and
declare it to you. (John 16:12-15 NRSV)
God of Love
In this text
there are some things that Jesus couldn’t directly communicate to his
disciples. At some point in the future, additional truths were to be
communicated through the Spirit to them. What the Spirit communicates is the
truth of Jesus. And the truth of Jesus comes from the Father. One of the
primary truths about the Trinity is found here: God’s truth is found primarily
in relationships. Jared Byas, a theology faculty member at Eastern University,
says,
“If we look at all of the instances of truth in the Bible, we
will come away realizing that it’s a relational term, it’s about being honest,
it’s about having integrity.”[3]
There are several
examples in the apostolic church of the Spirit revealing new relational truths
to the church. The first might be the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.[4]
Here the Spirit instructs Philip to go and explain the gospel of Jesus to an
Ethiopian and a eunuch, both categories which likely would have been thought of
as not fully acceptable God. But the Spirit broadens who can enter God’s
family. The eunuch believes, or perhaps more accurately stated, the eunuch
decides that God is trustworthy and is baptized into a relationship with God
and the community of fellow people that have also come to trust in God’s
trustworthiness.
The next
example is Peter and the Roman centurion Cornelius.[5]
Here Peter receives a vision about unclean foods and is commanded to eat. He is
confused until Cornelius comes knocking on the door, and suddenly Peter
understands. He goes to Cornelius’ house, ignores Jewish traditions, and enters
into relationship with a gentile in his house, the household believes, and they
are all baptized into God’s family.
A third
example is found in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, where he writes:
26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through
faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into
Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There
is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer
male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And
if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according
to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29 NRSV)
The idea
that all members of God’s family are on equal ground with one another is a
radically different relational model. That everyone has equal access to God is
revolutionary. That there are no hierarchies of race, nationality, socioeconomics,
or gender was unheard of in ancient Greco-Roman society. And it is still,
unfortunately, rare to see this fully practiced.
The truth of
God, embodied in Jesus’ life and death, and given to the Spirit to communicate
and remind believers across the centuries, is God’s mutual, egalitarian love.
Just as God the Father, Jesus, and the Spirit practices it within the Trinity,
Jesus demonstrated what it looks like with his disciples and in his
interactions with the people he came across daily. The Spirit has been
revealing how this kind of love is to be more fully practiced throughout the
time following Jesus’ ascension through this present time.
Even though
Paul’s declaration to the Galatians was quite egalitarian, in practice slavery,
racism, gender inequality, and caste systems continued to keep their hold. Only
slowly have their grips loosened on societies, and even today we continue to battle
forces that would reverse the progress that love has made.
Experiencing Trinitarian Love
God has made
God’s self known in the power, majesty, beauty, wonder, and mysteries of
Creation. God’s love extends to all creation, but as far as we know right now,
there is only a tiny part of this creation that can respond back to God with love.
In the First
Epistle according to John, we read,
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Those
who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do
not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they
have not seen. 21 The commandment we have from him
is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (1 John
4:19-21 NRSV)
Our response
to God’s love should be to love one another. To love one another is to love as
Jesus loved us. Jesus loved people through words of encouragement, through
healing acts, through providing for needs, and sometimes through rebuke. But in
every case Jesus did what was most needed to help each person and their
communities become the best versions of themselves, to reach the full
potentials of humanity and community that God created them to be.
I think that
might be a good way of understanding how to love as Jesus loved. Love is not
the same as being nice to someone. Love is about building and strengthening
individual and societal relationships. Love is sometimes about repairing and
restoring damaged and broken relationships. Love may have to say difficult
things at times, but it is never harsh. Love might mean we have to engage with
people we find difficult or don’t like, but it is always kind and hopes for the
best.
The Trinity
can’t be explained. But we do have the offer to experience it, if we choose,
when we build and sustain a community that loves as God loves.
[1]
Behold,
the Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy - The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/05/sagittarius-a-black-hole-milky-way/629838/)
[2]
What
Are Ocean Predators Doing So Deep Underwater? - The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/06/ocean-predators-deep-dive/661186/)
