Known Unknowns

“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we don't know we don't know.”

You remember Donald Rumsfeld. He made this statement in a press briefing in 2002 while speaking about the increasingly unstable situation in post-invasion Afghanistan. The concepts were not original to him, although the phraseology may have been. Depending upon their pre-existing political prejudices, people alternatively jeeringly lampooned or vigorously lauded Rumsfeld’s words. According to Wikipedia, Rumsfeld’s statement “was widely viewed as elusive and indicative of arrogance, whilst at the same time reflecting a profound, almost philosophical truth.” I expect your reaction to hearing it again today is based largely upon your own pre-existing political prejudices. I had some hesitation in triggering that response.

But this is Trinity Sunday. Today is one of the principal feast das of the church. Trinity Sunday. Listen to this excerpt from a 5^th century document of the church commonly known as the Athanasian Creed. It’s in the back of the Book of Common Prayer (p. 864) along with other important historical documents. In some parishes it is the custom to use it in worship on Trinity Sunday. “Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith…. And the Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, or dividing the Substance. [that is, not mixing the three into one, nor dividing the one into three.] For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost…. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible…. And yet there are not three incomprehensibles, but one incomprehensible.” And there’s a lot more in the same vein.

Rumsfeld is sounding pretty cogent. And actually I think Rumsfeld’s statement is directly relevant to Trinity Sunday. “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we don't know we don't know.” Known unknowns. Things that we know we don’t know. Things like calculus, maybe, or the Hebrew language. They are knowable. They are very useful and worth knowing. We know about them, but do not know them. Known unknowns. Things that we know we don’t know. One of the gifts of Trinity Sunday… one of the very important things that the church calendar teaches us by forcing us to celebrate Trinity Sunday is to remind us that living faithfully involves living with “known unknowns.” Trinity Sunday brings us face to face with God as a “known unknown.” On this Trinity Sunday part of my affirmation of faith must be: I believe… I know with certainty that I do not fully know God.

And that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing for me to know that I don’t know everything about God. I know that I do not know how the Trinity really works, for example. If there were ever a known unknown, it’s God as Trinity. It’s important for us to be reminded that we do not fully know God.

There is much that we do know about God. God has revealed a great deal to us. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.” John 3:16 from this morning’s Gospel. Or remember some of the other important highlights of the church calendar. Christmas, Easter, the Transfiguration, Maundy Thursday, Pentecost. These teach us a lot about the nature and will of God. There are plenty of known knowns in the life of faith. Things that we know with confidence about God. Together we will say the Nicene Creed in just a bit, affirming our belief in what the church over the centuries has come to know about God. God desires to be known. God acts in our lives to be with us, to be known by us. But, as human beings this side of the gates of death, we can never fully understand or know or appreciate God’s being and glory. There will always be an element of the known unknown in our experience of God.

Some people act and talk like they do fully know God, maybe better than God knows God’s own self. They need to come to church on Trinity Sunday. All of us are probably guilty of occasional overconfidence with respect to our understanding of God. Some of you may remember my sermon a little while back entitled “My God would never…” I am so confident in my understanding of my God’s will, I know that my God would never do whatever. Part of the message of Trinity Sunday to all of us is to be wary of theological overconfidence. The known knowns, the things we truly know about God are very important, but they are never the whole picture.

On the other hand, Trinity Sunday is an invitation to exploration. We are invited to explore and participate in God’s glory. And there are endless wonders to explore. We can never exhaust the experience of God. That’s another aspect of living with known unknowns. When we hear that God’s mercies are new every morning, it doesn’t mean that today’s mercies are the same as yesterday’s, just folded and ironed for a new day. It means that every day God offers each of us some touch of mercy just for us that is really new… something we have never seen or known before. All of God’s glory is before us: majesty, compassion, wonder, peace, strength, creation… aspects of God offered to us to explore and enter into and experience without end. God is knowable, but never fully known. We are continuously invited to seek out and experience more of God, present with us. I feel a bit sad when someone seems to feel that they have God all figured out. They’ve turned away. If you haven’t discovered something new about the glory of God recently, it isn’t God’s fault. It means you’ve quit looking. Because the glory and mystery of God never end. We know that there are always things—glorious things—yet unknown for us to experience and explore in our life with God. There are always new glories to discover and behold.

So God, whom we know as Trinity incomprehensible, invites us into an endless and ever richer exploration of God with us. That is one way we faithfully respond to God as known unknown. Another way we respond to a God whom we know is beyond our knowing is worship. Trinity Sunday is all about worship. “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his Name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness,” the psalmist says in today’s psalm. In response to God’s majesty, “in the temple of the Lord all are crying, ‘Glory.’” We know that God is glorious and awesome beyond our knowing. And all we can do is sing praise and offer worship.

As an alternative to Psalm 29 for our corporate worship on Trinity Sunday, the lectionary offers us one of the canticles from the Book of Common Prayer, the Benedictus es. They are words of worship addressed to God: