Christ the King Epiphany Church, Wilbraham

The Rev. Martha S. Sipe

May 31, 2026 / Holy Trinity

One Sunday afternoon, a little boy went to visit his grandmother with his family.  She asked her grandson what he had learned in Sunday School that morning.  The boy was ready with a reply:  “We learned that God is everywhere.”  “That’s wonderful,” said his grandmother who was very happy that her daughter and family had begun to go to church.  The little boy, seeing that he had a good audience in his grandmother, decided to keep the conversation going.  “Is God in the oven?” he asked.  “Yes,” replied the grandmother, smiling.  “How about in the cupboard?”  “Why, yes,” said the grandmother.  “Well, how about in the fridge,” asked the grandson.  “Sure,” said the grandmother.  “Even when the door is closed and the light is off?” he asked.  “Oh yes,” she replied, “God is with us even in those places that feel dark and alone.”  “How about in the sugar bowl?” pressed the budding theologian, as he took the lid off the bowl.  “Of course,” answered the grandmother.  And with that, the boy slammed the bowl shut and announced triumphantly:  “Got him!”

Sure, that little boy had a pretty primitive understanding of the presence of God.  But so do we all, even the greatest theologians among us.  Without realizing it, we often fall into the trap of believing that God is small enough to be put into a tidy box of our own making.  Unthinkingly, we act as if we can control God.  And Christians sometimes naively believe that we’ve got access to the absolute truth of who God is and who God is not, who God favors and who God does not.  But today as we ponder the Holy Trinity – the name with which we try to capture the unfathomable dimensions of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – today we are reminded that God is much larger than a sugar bowl, much larger and greater than a box of our own making, much larger, much greater, more complex, and more merciful than we will ever be able to comprehend.  The Trinity is, in fact, a mystery.

A word of caution is needed, however.  A mystery is not the same thing as a puzzle.  Puzzles can be solved.  Not all of us can solve every puzzle, as I became acutely aware sitting on the beach with my quotefalls puzzles a couple of weeks ago.  I pride myself with being pretty good at solving them, but one I just could not crack without peeking at the answers.  Nevertheless, every puzzle can, eventually, be figured out . . . by someone, anyway.  But mysteries are different.  They cannot ever be figured out.  By anyone.  When the church has traditionally described something as a mystery (and the Trinity has always been considered a mystery), we needn’t spend too much energy trying to figure it out or explain it.  No one else has ever been able to explain it – why should we think we’re going to?

But the good news is that it doesn’t matter.  Mysteries are not meant to be explained – they are meant to be experienced.  Think about the mysterious experience of falling in love.  I suppose you could say that scientists can explain it.  I looked it up, and this is what I read about the science of falling in love: “Falling in love is a highly orchestrated neurological and hormonal process.  Driven by primal survival instincts, your brain shifts through distinct chemical stages—from the initial dopamine-fueled rush of attraction to deep oxytocin bonding—effectively rewiring your nervous system to prioritize a single person.”  That explains it all, right?  Well, not really.  It’s a mystery – and you have to feel it to understand.  Or think about the mystery of childbirth.  We can learn everything there is to know about the science of reproduction, and yet we won’t really know about the mystery of birth unless we experience it.

In the same way, our faith is not about explanations.  It is about experiencing a relationship with the living God.  Consider the mystery of Jesus’ presence in Holy Communion.  That is not something that can be explained, not by adults or children, pastors or theologians.  We experience Jesus Christ, risen and present with us in the sacrament of Communion, because of our relationship with him – at whatever level that relationship is.  Thank goodness we don’t have to understand it to experience it!  And it’s the same with the mystery of the Holy Trinity.  Before there ever was a “doctrine,” a Christian teaching called the Trinity, people experienced God in ways that were too large, too great, and too complex to be contained within the constraints of just one understanding of who God is.  The doctrine of the Holy Trinity was not meant to baffle us, to test us, or to challenge our faith.  Instead, it discloses to us that there is so much knowledge and so much love in God that it flows over into three different personalities:  the Father, our creator; the Son, our redeemer; and the Holy Spirit, who sustains us and gives us life. 

God truly is a mystery, even beyond the mystery of being Three-in-One.  God is here (e.g., in the sugar bowl); yet, God is everywhere.  God is mighty; yet, God is tender.  God is just; yet, God has mercy.  God is spirit; yet, God took on flesh in Jesus Christ.  God is in Christ; yet, Christ is in us.  God is Spirit, and the Spirit blows where it wills; yet, the Spirit abides in our hearts.  And yes, of course, God is one; yet, God is three.  This is the mystery of God.  It cannot be explained – only experienced.

The mystery of God is so big, so awesome, so holy that our limited minds can never grasp the wholeness of it.  And yet, God has given us the capacity to appreciate and embrace the Holy One.  It is more important for us to celebrate the mystery than it is for us to understand it.  It is more important to respond to the mystery of God than it is to explain it.  And it is more important to live into the mystery that God loves you and me and that God can and will use us to bring healing and hope to our homes, to our neighbors, and to the whole world.

Do you understand the doctrine of the Trinity?  I don’t.  And if you came today, hoping that I would explain it to you, I’ll make sure you get a refund for your price of admission.  God is not a puzzle to be solved.  God is a holy mystery that we are privileged to experience and to which we are invited to respond with wonder and worship and gratitude that overflows into generosity.

May this community always be one in which you experience the mystery of the unfathomable breadth and depth of God’s power and love.  And may it also always be a place where you hear the invitation to respond with your own breadth and depth of love for God and for God’s whole and holy creation.