Sermon for Trinity Sunday, May 30, 2010
“ I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold… and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God… and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. ”
SUCH PASSAGES in Old or New Testament, with numbers of strange beings fraught with symbolic meaning have always made me wonder, strain for understanding, and shrug. Who are these twenty four elders? Why are there seven lamps described as the seven Spirits of God? How do we understand the four creatures with eyes all over, who looked like a lion, a calf, a man and an eagle?
Heaven seems to be a scene out of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland, Narnia or Middle Earth. Hearing the accounts of the apostle St. John, or of the prophets Isaiah, Daniel and Ezekiel, a nearly consistent picture comes into focus of a great throne room with a crystal clear floor and of massive beings with wheels and eyes, holding it up, with praises constantly going up to Him who sits in that bright seat. God's place. Strange, awe inspiring, confusing, remote and other-worldly. Should we recognize something about this, know the meaning of the numbers, come away more intelligent after hearing the report?
I don't know.
It is comforting to find out that experts are all over the place with their various explanations. I sought out the identity of the 24 elders last night and found that everyone argues, especially with the traditional idea that these somehow are or represent the twelve heads of the tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles. They have crowns to throw down, and they are all in heaven, so we conclude certain things thereby, such as that Judas Iscariot is not one of them. One suggestion, that they are angels, I think must be rejected. Angels don't have crowns in any Biblical reference: crowns are a human thing, and the term ‘elder' is only applied to people. It never specifically states they are all men —could some of the elders be women?
I don't know.
One analyst said that these were Adam and his descendants through Jacob, plus Abel who died without offspring by his brother Cain's hand. If you want an answer to this puzzle, you'll have to ask someone besides me. You see, this is why Bible studies of the Book of Revelation generally run out of students—the meanings of such mysteries can't be authoritatively taught.
We just don't know.
I was asked about the Millennium lately by a pastor friend and again I had to bow down my lack of knowledge and say it mystifies me. These are the thousand years mentioned in Revelation chapter 20 after Christ rides out on the white horse and destroys his enemies on Earth, chains Satan in an abyss and rules the creation for 1,000 years, and then lets Satan go, only to destroy him again and finally throw him into the lake of fire with the demons and the damned. Some saints live with Jesus in that time, and others don't rise up until after the Millennium. It's my least favorite passage of revelatory Scripture, because I just can't put it together to mean what I want to mean by it. It's not tidy or readily explainable—at least not by me.
So St. John's Revelation, as a Bible study, quickly finds the limits of my understanding more than it reveals the identities of such beings as the elders or explains the Millennium.
Likewise the seraphim are wondrous creatures, sometimes seen with wheels, as in Ezekiel's vision, and with eyes all over, and sometimes with four faces on each or with a different head on each. The four faces or heads have led some to identify the four Gospel writers and see the seraphim in symbolic connection to them, one saying that the lion has to do with St. Matthew's view of Christ as the lion of Judah, the Jewish king; Mark seeing Christ as an ox or servant of the Father; Luke seeing Jesus in human terms, with details of His birth and family life; and John likening Him to an eagle, soaring in the heavens as God. The trouble with this theory is that the Church has long used these symbols for the four evangelists, but assigning completely different animals to the four writers, and not always the same designation.
I am sure that going to heaven is a baffling event for a prophet and that reporting heavenly things never seen on Earth in human language can't be an exact science. It's like explaining the flavor of blue, or the texture of happiness. And yet these fellows experienced something and have to tell us about it. If they understand more than they tell us about what they saw, they're not telling us.
And there is a reason for that. I can finally say with certainty: what we aren't told is okay for us not to understand. There are mysteries that are still sealed up from us, and things yet to be revealed. God said so. And that is a great relief to me, the Bible teacher. I can say, “I just don't know,” with divine authority. One great trouble with some church teachers in the past and present has been trying to explain and define the things we aren't given explanations or definitions for, like the manner in which Christ enters the Eucharist, or how many angels might dance on the head of a pin. Or prove the pre-tribulation rapture.
Until Jesus revealed to His befuddled followers the nature of God, no one on Earth understood that there is a Trinity of Persons and Unity of God at one in the same time. But Jesus is clear in telling us that He is God's unique Son, and that He and the Father are one, but not identical as Persons. He also tells us that the Holy Spirit is also God, and at the same time keeps the ancient Mosaic proclamation intact: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” Deut 6:4 How can God be Three distinct Persons and still One God? The mystery of Trinity confounds everyone who considers the doctrine. We find nothing like that on Earth in terms of beings that are three and one.
I often comfort our hungry intellects, minds that rev like race engines with their clutches not engaged, by saying that God is not a duality , like yin-yang philosophies portray him as good and evil, dark and light for divine symbols. He is not both a thing and its opposite. God is One.
But in every one thing we encounter on Earth, we also find threes. Every object in space has three dimensions or it can't exist as an object. Every point in time comes along a path from past, through present into future. Every element has its solid, liquid or gaseous state. And human beings are described as having body, soul and spirit. So not only does the divine nature comes by threes, His creation reflects something of a triune nature back to Him, in His image it would seem.
The baffling scenes of God's throne room, even in the Old Testament, come back with a clue for us, that the worship in heaven like our opening hymn today, sings “Holy, holy, holy:” three times holy. Many clues in the Old Testament are given to denote the Son of God as apart from the Father, and the Spirit of God is spoken of openly, if without full understanding, by the prophets, even in the second verse of the Bible.
Yet no one put it all together until Jesus showed His followers this profound truth, and almost at the end of His earthly life. “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matt 28:18-20
But I will leave the further explanation of Trinity to our recitation of the Athanasian Creed. As to the 24 elders, the 7 lamps, the 4 seraphim: I am blissfully ignorant regarding further meaning of these things. I don't have to know, and neither do you. If someone tells you they have the final word on these mysteries, get out your salt.
And it's okay for us not to understand some things fully. As in the mystery of evil— why would an angel choose to oppose God forever, knowing he can't win —some things are better not to know. But what we are given , we believe.
Faith is taking something on, without fully understanding it, without being able to quiet our mental gymnastics with facts and definitions and logical dimensions, closing arguments, unanimous opinion, closure around a mental accomplishment.
Faith leaves room for God.
Faith gives us spiritual muscles that our minds aren't able to flex.
Faith says, “I don't know who the elders are, but I believe John saw them cast their crowns.” “I don't know the meaning of the seven lamps and Seven Spirits of God, but I know they're still there and I will see them and be given understanding later.”
What we do know is that God is Father, Son and Spirit. We know He is only One God, not three.
Faith takes in the apparent contradiction because of the witnesses and their credentials. The rest we'll leave to heaven.
Let's stand and recite now, together, in faith, if without total comprehension, the mystery of the Athanasian Creed.
PFH+