With the Church through the ages,
we speak of God as one and triune:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We also speak of God as
Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer
God, Christ, and Spirit
Mother, Friend, and Comforter
Source of Life, Living Word, and Bond of Love,
and in other ways that speak faithfully of
the One on whom our hearts rely,
the fully shared life at the heart of the universe.
We witness to Holy Mystery that is Wholly Love….
A Song of Faith -- United Church of Canada 2006
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose .
Isaiah 55:10-11 NRSVue
I'm a big fan of A Song of Faith, the Statement of Faith by the United Church which is seldom drawn upon for worship or any other communal use in congregations. The challenge is it's length and we have the succinct and familiar "New Creed".
The section which addresses what's often called The Trinitarian Formula begins with respect for tradition before offering other ways of considering God, Three-in-One. Given that the United Church is Canadian, eh?, did we miss out on expressing the Trinity as Solid, Liquid, and Vapour (I would say Gas as the third, but gas in church can be quite unpleasant.)
Maybe this would be too fanciful and not sufficiently descriptive of God's attributes or persons, yet in much of our land we celebrate water in our lakes and rivers, including mist rising off the surface and the transformation of those bodies overnight to an icy surface.
Two Sundays ago (Advent 3) we drove to church along the Bay of Quinte which had just frozen over to a remarkably glassy sheen. We were both delighted by what we saw and found our way to the shore later that day.
We even speak of sublimation, moving from solid to vapour without the liquid stage. There is a mystery to this transition which resonates with the interrelationship of the three persons of God, at least to me.And the vast majority of the world's population has not experienced the wonder which Canadians take for granted.
Okay, using this imagery to speak of the Divine Mystery is a stretch, but as many of you will know, I live to be on the water. As Winter takes hold we love walking or skiing or skating (Ruth the latter) across a frozen lake, more of a challenge in recent decades because of climate change. We have paddled in those shoulder months when ice still lines the shores in remarkable formations. And mist on the water on a Summer morning is mystical.
Today's "outside in" piece of art is a watercolour painting which was a gift from St. Andrew's church in Sudbury as we departed after eleven years. Folk knew that we had explored hither and yon in the region, often as a family of five but also as a couple. While this isn't us in the painting, if could have been. This work is in our family room and I look to it often.
Water is essential to our being and all creatures on the Blue Planet. While humans are "Groundlings" according to Genesis, the earthy work of the Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, we are also Waterlings on a watery Earth. Thanks be to God, Water, Ice, and Vapour.
4 Blessed and holy three,
glorious trinity, wisdom, love, might,
boundless as ocean's tide rolling in fullest pride,
through the world far and wide, let there be light.
God Whose Almighty Word -- Voice United 313
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