The Watch That Doesn't Tell Time

Homily for Trinity Sunday, Year A
Not too long ago, a famous watch-maker from Switzerland announced the launch of a newly-designed watch that is made partially from metal salvaged from the wreck of the Titanic. The cost: $300,000, and, believe it or not, the initial run of 9 watches sold out in less than 48 hours. But there’s a catch: this luxury watch doesn’t tell time. Instead, there are two dials on the watch that use the latest technology and craftsmanship simply to tell you whether it’s day or night. According to the watchmaker, the watch transcends our typical understanding of time, and, especially if you can afford such a watch, suggests that we don’t need something to tell us what time it is. In the ultimate luxury or foolishness, you can spend over a quarter of a million dollars for a watch that tells you the same thing you can find out by looking out a window for free: whether it’s day or night.

In some ways, this watch can help us understand the most central tenet of our faith, the belief that we celebrate today: the Trinity. Just as this day or night watch can only vaguely tell us what time it is, so too any attempt we make at explaining the Trinity ends up being vague and imprecise and a mere shadow of who God really is. When we look at the watch that doesn’t tell time, we can find out one crucial piece of information – whether it is day or night. But the specifics about what part of day or night it is are shrouded in mystery. The same is true for our understandings of the Trinity. Think of St. Patrick’s famous example of the shamrock, with three leaves on one stem. Or, even better, think of an egg, which is made up of a shell, the white, and the yolk – three distinct realities, none of which is an egg in and of itself, but all of which are necessary to make up an egg. The Trinity is something like this – three distinct persons, none of whom are God in themselves, but all of whom a necessary part of God. That’s definitely part of who God is as a Trinity, but the specifics are shrouded in mystery. To hope to understand everything there is to know about the Trinity would be like being able to give the exact time, down to the millisecond, by looking at the $300,000 day-or-night watch.

But there is an important difference between the Trinity and this timeless watch. With the watch, the whole idea is that people who can afford such a useless timepiece don’t need something to tell them what time it is – they aren’t restrained by the trappings of time. But for us who call ourselves Christian, we can’t just step back and say, “Well, since I’ll never be able to completely understand the Trinity, why even try? If it’s just a mystery, why bother with God at all?” As Christians, we come to know God not by looking at symbols or by theological arguments; as Christians, we come to know God through relationships with people who are made in God’s image, through personal and communal prayer, and by serving one another. The God we meet is not an impersonal God, a vague shadow of a higher being; the God we meet is community of persons, Father, Son, and Spirit; a God of love and relationships. And He truly is a God who transcends time, a God of eternity.