Perfection

Today is Trinity Sunday, one of the most notoriously difficult days on which to preach within the church year. The Trinity is perhaps the church’s most fundamental doctrine about the nature of God. But since it is God that we are talking about, every attempt to describe the Trinity using human word and language is limited at best and more likely outright heresy. So I thought I would begin by using pictures, not words. If you heard my sermon a few weeks ago you’ll understand when I say that I have not yet found this spring’s lady’s slippers, but the trillium are blooming out at Fields Pond. This is a trillium on our leaflet cover today. It is there as a symbol for the Trinity, much like the shamrock St. Patrick is said to have used to illustrate the Trinity.

The legend goes that the pagans of Ireland were angry at Patrick’s missionary efforts and demanded that he prove that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are Three Persons, yet one Essence. Patrick’s eyes lighted upon a shamrock growing nearby. He plucked a leaf, demanding of his opponents whether or not he held up one leaf or three leaves. If one leaf, then why three lobes of equal size? If three leaves, then why only one stem? His accusers were silenced, for they could not explain. "And if you cannot explain so simple a mystery as the shamrock," he asked, "How can you hope to understand one so profound as the Holy Trinity?" The story is undoubtedly legend, not fact. But it is still interesting to note that Patrick did not use the shamrock to explain or define the Trinity. He used it to lead the pagans to acknowledge that the Trinity could exist as an unexplainable mystery.

I’ve been reading up on church symbolism this week as I’ve been preparing the Instructed Eucharist. You’ll find in your leaflet an insert that shows many of the symbols that are used to represent the Trinity. This page comes from a classic book, published in the 30’s, on church symbolism. Here is the book’s description of Figure 1:

"The equilateral triangle, with its apex upward is one of the oldest of the Trinity emblems. Its sides are equal, its angles equal, and it carries with it the idea of unity, because it has three sides and three angles which are identical to one another in every respect, and yet are three distinct sides and angles. They are combined so as to form not three figures, but one figure. The equality of the three distinct sides and angles expresses the equality of the three distinct Persons. Their union, resulting in but one figure, suggests the one and inseparable Divine Essence. Later the circle, emblematic of the idea of eternity, was combined in various ways with the equilateral triangle, which was done in order to bear witness to the eternity of the Trinity." [Church Symbolism, by F. R. Webber]

Which got me thinking about perfection. The equilateral triangle has three equal sides, three equal angles. For this symbol to truly represent the Trinity, it is important that the three sides and the three angles be perfectly equal, "identical to one another in every respect". Is this drawing a perfect equilateral triangle? Is it really perfect? It looks like it is hand drawn. It’s very neatly done, but is it perfect? Even if it is off by only a fraction of a millimeter, it is a failed representation of the Trinity. This book was published in 1938. No doubt we could do better now using precise computer measuring and drafting tools. Today we could certainly generate a "perfect" equilateral triangle. Perfect?

I was also reminded of perfection in a completely different context this week. Stephen Jay Gould died on Monday. As a geology student in the late 70’s I read technical scientific papers by Gould and Ethridge on "punctuated equilibrium", their theory on the nature of evolutionary change. I can’t say I enjoyed them much. But later in life I have very much enjoyed reading books and essays Gould wrote for a more general audience. He had a wonderfully lively and engaging way of taking scientific method and theory and applying them to a very wide range of topics. Like his essay titled "Losing the Edge" which begins, "I wish to propose a new kind of explanation for the oldest chestnut of the hot stove league—the most widely discussed trend in the history of baseball statistics: the extinction of the .400 hitter." As a paleontologist, Gould was an expert on extinction.

But in a postscript to that same essay on baseball, he talks about perfection. It was the fifth game of the World Series in 1956—the New York Yankees versus the Brooklyn Dodgers. Yankee pitcher Don Larsen had retired 26 batters straight. If you follow baseball at all, you know what that means. It means that, in the World Series, Larsen was on the brink of a perfect game. The count was one ball and two strikes on the 27^th batter. One strike away from a perfect game. Larsen’s next pitch was high and outside. Close, but technically, a ball high and outside. The batter let it go. The umpire, without hesitation, called it a strike. Strike three.  A perfect game.

Gould contends that the umpire was right. "A batter may not take a close pitch with so much on the line. Context matters. Truth is a circumstance, not a spot. It was a strike—a strike high and outside."

But was it a perfect game? One way or another the pitcher got out every batter he faced; no batter reached base. In baseball, that defines a perfect game. But was it really a perfect game?

I think deep down most of us would like to achieve perfection. To have the perfect job, to find the perfect cup of coffee, to experience the perfect marriage, to get a perfect night’s sleep, to have the perfect lawn, to be the perfect father. When we say things like, "I never said I was perfect," or "After all, nobody’s perfect," we say them with the underlying implication that it really would be nice to be perfect. The subject wouldn't have come up at all if we didn't imagine that it really would have been possible to be perfect, at least in that situation.  Most children expect their parents to be perfect; it is unsettling to discover they are not.  Even though they know better, most congregations expect their priest to be perfect, or at least to never be imperfect. Most clergy probably expect their congregations to be perfect, too. We all yearn so much to be perfect that we end up re-defining perfection in a way that it seems to come within our grasp. If we cannot bring ourselves to perfect, we will bring perfection to us.  It is a perfect equilateral triangle… within the resolution of our computer’s printer. It is a perfect marriage, if it is the best we could have realistically hoped for. It was a perfect game, as baseball defines a perfect game.

In little ways and big ways we expend a lot of time and energy trying to achieve perfection, trying to make ourselves perfect or searching for perfection out there somewhere to grab on to. We will never succeed. A pitcher will never pitch a truly perfect game. What would that be? Every single pitch perfectly placed? Within what margin or error?  Human beings will never draw a perfect equilateral triangle. No human relationship will ever be perfect.

But the Trinity is perfect. Among other things, the Trinity is a perfect relationship, a perfect community… a perfect community of three equal but interdependent Persons.  God is perfect. Only God is perfect. Only by God’s grace may we know perfection. The Prayer Book speaks often of perfection.  The Prayer Books speaks of perfect freedom, perfect love, perfect remission of our sins, perfect peace, perfect rest, to live in perfect charity with the world. These are what we ask for in our prayers.  Perfect freedom, perfect love, perfect peace…  these are what we pray God may grant us through Jesus Christ our Lord who "stretched out his arms upon the cross and offered himself, in obedience to God’s will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world."

A perfect sacrifice for the whole world. By that perfect sacrifice we are given perfect communion with God. Communion with God's perfection.

Do not seek to be a perfect person. Seek to be a Godly one. As we draw closer and closer to God, more and more of God’s perfection will shine and grow and inspire our lives.

There is a special blessing that is said over the congregation at the end of a burial service. It comes from the conclusion of the Book of Hebrews:

"May the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

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