Lover, Beloved, and Love.

Creativity is born from Relationship.

The God of the Bible is the most relational being in the universe.

Let me say that again,
because I was with my friend Adrian the other day.
Adrian is part of our invisible congregation
and he listens every week.
He said that after five years,
he is just now starting to "get" what I teach.

The God of the Bible 
is the Most Relational Being in the Universe.

Bishop Robert Barron,
once talked about the uniqueness of the Christian God.
God is Love.
And then he paraphrased St. Augustine's Treatise on the Holy Trinity.
The Father is the Lover.
The Son is the Beloved.
And the Holy Spirit is the bond of Love between them.

The Father is the Lover.
The Son is the Beloved.
And the Holy Spirit is the bond of Love between them.

And Jesus says this in this Gospel.
Everything I have is from the Father.
The Father gives it to me.
And the Holy Spirit is going to give it to you.

And St. Athanasius said that out of this relationship
between the members of the Godhead,
there is creativity.
It is like a nuclear reaction.
The interaction
between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
is by nature
a creative force.

God is love.
God is relationship.
And this is different than saying
God loves.
Islam and Judaism say that God loves.
We say 
God is love.

And this love 
was expressed in the story of Creation.
God created Adam.
And Adam was brought into the life of the Trinity.
The Holy Spirit 
breathed into Adam the breath of life.
The relational love of God
entered Adam
so that he could have unbroken fellowship
with the Father and the Son.
But because Adam was made in the Image of God,
he was hardwired for relationship.
And so God made for Adam the Lover,
someone that he could love.
Eve.
And like the Father and the Son,
the bond between Adam and Eve,
the source of their love and their life,
was the Holy Spirit.

They were bonded together in a holy relationship.
And they were naked and unafraid.
They were clothed in the Presence of God.

And they were given a simple command:
name every creature,
be fruitful and multiply,
and tame the wild earth and make it a city
that man and God could live together in.

Be fruitful and multiply:
be creative--not just procreate
but prosper,
develop,
learn,
and become like God.
Be little creators.
This was the purpose of their relationship.
And through the Holy Spirit
they were bonded together,
and to the Father and the Son.

And as you know,
that plan was marred.
And Adam and Eve violated the relationship.
And that violation
meant two things:
the life of the Holy Spirit
was no longer in them,
and because the Holy Spirit withdrew
they would die.

And the trust and protection 
and unity between the man and woman
in the Holy Spirit
was gone.
Adam and Eve
who were once together
Lover,
beloved,
united in Love,
no longer reflected the God head.
It was now about power.

And Adam was forced to fight with the earth,
and he would not bring dominion,
but rather domination to everything.
And Eve would no longer be his helpmate,
but rather his competitor
and she would desire his position
and his status.
And there would be tension
and strife
and pain.
And relationships would become broken and disordered,
and this follows with what was created.
Human creativity would also become disordered.

But God's design in the Holy Trinity,
the restoration of all things in relationship
as Paul says in II Corinthians,
the ministry of Reconcialition
only happens in relationship with God
and the Holy Spirit.

It is all about relationship,
and the human intimacy
that produces children
is central to this reality.

The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity
is expressed most clearly
in the sacrament of Christian marriage.

Holy Matrimony is the binding of one man 
and one woman
into a spiritual bond in the Holy Spirit.
This man and woman
become the Image of God,
and also the image of Christ and the Church.
The Body and Bride of Christ
is now part of the relationship of the Holy Trinity.
The Godhead is not "other" and "out there"
because the Holy Spirit
lives in us.
One of the members of the Godhead
has made us one.
And when believers are one in this sense
with the Father and Son,
the world knows you are a disciple.

Marriage is intended to be a parable of this.
Man and woman
enter into a public covenant 
and that covenant is consecrated
just like the Eucharist
with the presence of the Holy Spirit.
And this sacrament
provides a safe place for creating children anchored in trust.
And this covenant gives a man and a woman the opportunity
to become the image of God:
the Lover,
the Beloved,
united in the Love of the Holy Spirit.
For this to work
the man must lay down his life for the wife,
and the wife must submit her desires to her husband.
This is undoing the curse in the garden.
For some people this is very hard,
and for others less so,
but it is a process.
And when this does happen,
they become one flesh.

Here in Great Britain and Europe,
the culture has uncritically embraced
Marxist social theory.
And so you have churches and Christians 
who have accepted the idea
that marriage is just a social construct
and two people can enter into a committed
sexual relationship
without the sacrament of marriage.
And so you meet Christians who introduce you
to their "partner." 
This is a relationship
that does not reflect the Trinity
or the New Testament.
This is a relationship
rooted the curse in the garden.
It's based on fear,
that at any moment
the other person might leave.
And the children produced in this relationship
exist without the safety and the certainty
that the Holy Spirit and the covenant bring.
It is not the Lover,
and the Beloved,
bound together in love,
to bring a new creation.
It is two sexual beings 
gratifying their desires,
with or without the other,
and possibly, but hopefully not,
producing children.

Same-sex unions are two lovers 
or two beloveds,
two people looking in the mirror at themselves
trying to build a tower to meet their own needs
without God.
This only leads to death.

This is why the church throughout history
has guarded the marriage covenant.
It is the Image of God in the earth.

As I said,
God is the Most Relational Being in the Universe.
And even if you are not married,
God is calling you into the life of the Holy Trinity.
Jesus said the Father 
has given him everything
and that the Holy Spirit
will lead us into everything.

Adam and Eve 
were created to be part of the Life of the Trinity.
God was calling them into that,
that they would become fully human
and produce more offspring who would be fully human.
Fully loved,
fully loving,
fully alive.

So the Holy Trinity
is not a doctrine.
The trinity is an experience.
As Jesus said,
if you abide in me,
and my word abides in you.
How do we abide?
We surrender
and submit ourselves,
like Mary and Jesus did,
to the Holy Spirit.
And the same word
that created all things
then lives in us.
As I have said before,
your inner life determines your creative output.
And you can see 
from what is created
who is tapped into the life of God,
and who is not.
This is why we judge a tree by its fruit.

In a mysterious way,
everyone of us
can enter into the life of the Lover and the Beloved.
We become the Beloved
and the Love and life of God
inspires us
and we create.
And out of this 
holy relationship with God,
we become little creators,
the restored and original plan
God intended for humanity.

Holy Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
live your life in and through us
that we would be transformed and brought into 
the depths of love you intend for us.
May our reconciliation with you
bring healing and wholeness to everything we touch
in this world.

Amen.

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