TRINITY SUNDAY 2019

Today the church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Trinity or Trinity Sunday. Many a well-meaning theologian has tried to explain away the Trinity of God throughout the centuries only to find themselves caught by philosophy, reason, or nature. The best we can hope to do is say the Trinity is a mystery, folks, and that’s okay. For it is often in mysteries, that we gain the most wisdom and find new knowledge every day.

I may not be able to explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity but there are other triune mysteries whose stories can teach us much about ourselves and about God.

Once upon a time very long ago,
there were three sisters who lived together in a field.
These sisters were quite different from one another in their size
and also in their way they dressed.
One of the three was a little sister,
so young that she could only crawl at first,
and she was dressed in green.
The second of the three wore a frock of bright yellow,
and she had a way of running off by herself when the sun shone
and the soft wind blew in her face.
The third was the eldest sister,
always standing very straight and tall above the other sisters
and trying to guard them.
She wore a pale green shawl,
and she had long, yellow hair
that tossed about her head in the breezes.
There was only one way in which the three sisters were alike.
They loved one another dearly,
and they were never separated.
They were sure that they would not be able to live apart.

After a while,
 a stranger came to the field of the three sisters,
a little Iroquois boy.
He was as straight as an arrow
and as fearless as the eagle that circled the sky above his head.
He knew the way of talking to the birds
and the small brothers of the earth,
the shrew, the chipmunk, and the young foxes.
And the three sisters,
the one who was just able to crawl,
the one in the yellow frock,
and the one with the flowing hair,
were very much interested in the strange boy.
They watched him fit his arrow in his bow,
saw him carve a bowl with his stone knife,
and wondered where he went at night.

Late in the summer of the first coming of the boy to their field,
one of the three sisters disappeared.
This was the youngest sister in green,
the sister who could only creep.
She was scarcely able to stand alone in the field
unless she had a stick to which she clung.
Her sisters mourned for her until the fall,
but she did not return.

Once more the boy came to the field of the three sisters.
He came to gather reeds at the edge of a stream nearby
to make arrow shafts.
The two sisters who were left watched him
and gazed with wonder at the prints of his moccasins in the earth
that marked his trail.
That night the second of the sisters left,
the one who was dressed in yellow
and who always wanted to run away.
She left no mark of her going,
but it may have been that she set her feet
in the moccasin tracks of the little boy.

Now there was but one of the sisters left.
Tall and straight she stood in the field
not once bowing her head with sorrow,
but it seemed to her that she could not live there alone.

The days grew shorter and the nights were colder.
Her green shawl faded and grew thin and old.
Her hair,
once long and golden,
was now tangled by the wind.

Day and night she sighed for her sisters to return to her,
but they did not hear her.
When she tried to call to them
her voice was low and plaintive like the wind.

One day when it was the season of the harvest,
the little boy heard the crying of the third sister
who had been left to mourn there in the field.
He felt sorry for her,
and he took her in his arms
and carried her to the lodge of his father and mother.
Oh what a surprise awaited her there!

Her two lost sisters were there in the lodge,
safe and very glad to see her.
They had been curious about the boy,
and they had gone home with him to see how and where he lived. They had liked his warm cave so well
that they had decided now that winter was coming on
to stay with him and his family.
And decided to do all they could to be useful.

The little sister in green,
now quite grown up,
was helping to keep the dinner pot full.

The sister in yellow sat on the shelf drying herself,
for she planned to fill the dinner pot later.

The third sister joined them,
ready to grind meal for the boys entire family.

And the three were never separated again.
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This is a story well known to many of the ancient tribes of North America. Although each telling has its variants the tale is meant to give us knowledge and teach us to respect the mysteries of the land. The Three Sister’s are the basic crops of native life.

The youngest sister, the one in green who only crawls, She is the squash, whose great vines shield the soil as she creeps along the ground spreading her fruits around the mound.

The second sister, the one who moves with the wind and the sun, she is the bean, who spreads her tendrils toward the sun climbing whatever sturdy stalk she may find.

The eldest sister, the one with flowing yellow hair, she is the maize, or corn, who stands the tallest, unbending in the wind.

They were always planted together because they always helped each other, Grown from one mound,  they formed the basis of native cuisine.

The corn provided a stalk for the beans to grow on. This kept the beans from growing along the ground where they were susceptible to being eaten or moisture rot. The vines of the beans also helped support the corn, keeping it from bending too easily in the wind and providing much-needed nitrogen to the soil. The squash was shaded from the scorching heat by the shadow of the stalk and leaves growing skyward. It only crawled, but as it spread it’s leaves kept weeds from growing up and choking its sisters and the shade it provided kept the soil moist and fertile.  Although they were three very different crops in the field, they formed one living being always supporting each other by their love and helping each other to grow.

In the harvest, they become the sustainers of life. The squash can feed in the early months. The beans are dried and cooked in the winter. And the corn is ground to meal,
providing daily bread for the whole year long.  Together in the field, they give life to each other, and out of the field, it is only together that they give life to the family. This knowledge was a mystery sustained by myth and legend and only recently understood by science.

So is it with the Trinity, three in one an example to us of the community in love. The God who stands tall and sturdy when we are in need of strength to live by faith and hope and not to be so easily tossed by the winds of change. The God who teaches us to climb toward the sun and to be lead by the breath of God following in the steps of Jesus, the boy who came to the garden to teach us how to live. The God who shields us “hiding us under the shadow of His wings” as the psalmist says and protecting us from danger, And the God who becomes our sustainer, providing for us through our darkest times. God giving of Godself in sacrifice to feed our weary souls.

It may be a mystery, but that’s okay. We can see this mystery move throughout creation and continue to show us how to live the sacramental life with each other and invites us to dig into the soil of this mystery to find the fruits of wisdom.

Each day there is an opportunity for a new harvest. Come and learn Come and see Come and be fed.  AMEN.