to know is more than to know about

We find ourselves once again approaching the first Sunday after Pentecost, preparing for Trinity Sunday, the day that most parishoners turn off their hearing aids so as not to be confused by the deep (too deep) theological rant coming from the pulpit.  What I'm seeing in the Year B lections, however, is that this Trinity Sunday is full of lessons that call us not to learn more about our Triune God, but instead I think we are called just to know God.

Do you see the difference?

This past Sunday, St. Paul's held a memorial service for Lt. Col. Mark Stratton II, USAF, who was killed in active duty serving in Afghanistan.  During the memorial service, I learned a lot about Lt. Col. Stratton; he was a devoted son, brother, husband, and father; he had always wanted to serve in the USAF; he expected excellence of himself and others, not to look good, but in preparation for what was to come next; he was, as his brother said, "a superhero among us all."  I never met Mark Stratton.  I now know more about him than I ever expected to know, but I did not know him to experience his personality, his gentle spirit, his love of God.

God doesn't care what we know about him.  I'm fairly certain he's not keeping a heresy chart or a checklist of who had all the right knowledge about him.  What God cares about is that we know him, that we experience his love, that we enter into relationship with him through his Son, and that we interact with him by the Spirit.  This, I think, is what Trinity Sunday is all about - coming to know God rather than adding to the list of things we think we know about him.

May God give me the grace this week to speak Him and not about him, and may you be blessed in your relationship with him.  Amen.