In
one of my favorite movies, “Shakespeare in Love,” several characters in
different situations say, “I don’t know.
It’s a mystery.” I find myself joining their refrain, today—Trinity
Sunday. Did you realize today is
Trinity Sunday? It’s written on the front of the bulletin, posted on the sign
outside, and there are several clues planted in our worship service. On Trinity Sunday, especially, we may
wonder “What is the Trinity? What exactly does it mean?” And I am tempted to reply. “I don’t’ know. It’s a mystery.” The Trinity is a mystery—a holy
mystery—for the Trinity is God.
And we humans can never completely understand or explain God.
But
there are some things we know for certain about God—the Three-in-One. Although the song we sang earlier says,
“God, in 3 person, blessed Trinity,” God is not 3 people. “Persons” is the English translation
for a Greek term used 2000 years ago—a term from a philosophy about the world
that we 21st century Americans don’t share.
We
know that although 2 of the 3 traditional terms for the members of the Trinity—Father,
Son, & Holy Spirit—Father and Son—are masculine, God is not male. In the patriarchal culture in which our
faith was birthed and nurtured, God the powerful creator, protector, and
preserver, whose presence and work is over
us was referred to as Father. But
Isaiah uses the image of a nursing mother who will not forsake her hungry infant
to refer to God the parent. And
Jesus likens God to a mother hen, gathering her chicks under her wing. The 1st member of the
Trinity is not male, and we don’t have to use masculine images or pronouns to
refer to God, the One who is above
us.
Introducing
Jesus, the Son, the gospel writer John speaks of the “Word” that was God and
was with God in the beginning. We don’t have to use masculine images or
pronouns to refer to God the One who is with
us and for us.
When
the early church spoke of the “Spirit” they used a word that is masculine in
Latin—the language of ancient church theology, feminine in Hebrew—the language
of the Old Testament, and neuter in Greek—the language of the New
Testament. The 3rd
member in the Trinity is not male and we do not have to use male pronouns or
language to describe God, the one who is among
us and in us.[1]
The
Trinity is a mystery but we do know that God is relational. The early Christians spoke of God who
created the world, who has sovereign power over all that is as God the
Father. They could have used a
term of political or military power, but instead they used a relational term—father. In a patriarchal society, the father
did indeed have all power over the members of the household—but the father is
also one who shows love and compassion for those in his household. Jesus
referred to himself as the Son of God—yet another relational term. In a patriarchal society, the son is
the one who inherits what is the Father’s. In today’s text Paul tells the church in Rome that we
Christians are adopted into God’s family—another relational term. We enjoy a familial relationship with
God the Father—an intimate, tender relationship best characterized with the
joyous cry, “Abba/ Daddy!” We share in the inheritance and the blessing
bestowed on the beloved Son—our sibling.
It is his Spirit living in us and testifying through us that draws us
into this family relationship with God. Now this family metaphor works for
those of us who grew up in loving families. But what if you don’t have good memories of healthy
parent-child or sibling-sibling relationships?
God
is still relational. When the
early Christians spoke of God becoming human and living among us as Jesus, they
referred to him as “the eternal ‘Word’ that was with God from the foundation of
the world[2]
suggesting an eternal and intimate relationship between Creator and Word. The
author of the 1st creation story in Genesis tells us that God’s
Spirit moved over the chaos that God was bringing order to and breathed life
into the world God was creating—suggesting an eternal and intimate relationship
between Creator and Spirit.
Creator, Word, and Spirit are a community of equals who share all that
they are and have in their communion with each other. Each lives with and for the others in mutual openness and in
self-giving love and support for each other.[3]
Each wills and does the same thing—seeking relationship with the humans God
created—but in different ways. God
the powerful and just Ruler of the world creates us in the image of God so that
we are drawn to God. God the
loving Reconciler and Savior bridges the chasms we create between us and God—chasms
caused by our selfishness, our apathy, our refusal to love. God the ever-present Renewer and
Transformer of human life constantly moves in us and among us to draw us back
to God. They are one God with one
will working in 3 different ways.[4]
Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit; Ruler, Reconciler, & Renewer; Creator, Redeemer,
& Sustainer—each triplet of terms represents the same Three-In-One in
joyful fellowship with one another—the same Three-In-One seeking fellowship
with us.
The
most basic human need is the need to belong. That is why people seek friendship. Created in the image of
God—the relational Three-in-One—we are truly who and what we are created to be
when we enjoy loving relationships with God and with one another. And that is
what God, the Sustainer empowers us—the church—to offer: community, loving
relationships formed within the context of our faith; community, loving
relationships nurtured in our fellowship as we worship and study and serve the
Three-in-One together.
Fluid,
not solid; dynamic, not static; equal, not hierarchical; an ensemble, not a
lead with supporting cast, the Trinity reminds me of 3 dancers—holding hands,
dancing together in harmonious, joyful freedom. I remember standing in a Baskin Robbins Ice Cream
store one hot summer afternoon trying to decide what flavor my one scoop would
be when a young mother walked in with her 2 year-old daughter. Up on her tippy toes, the little girl
was beaming. Her mom asked, “What
kind of ice cream do you want?” “I
like ice cream,” she sang. Her mom
asked, “Do you want chocolate?” “I
like chocolate. I like chocolate.”
And she twirled around. Do
you want strawberry?” “I like
strawberry. I like strawberry.”
And she danced over to the ice cream case and back to her mom. “Do you want something totally
different?” “I like different! I
like different!” And she jumped and spun on her feet when she landed.
Ice
cream—3 choices—and one child, dancing in joyful exhuberance—this is my Trinity
image. God, the mysterious
Three-in-One, offering each of us a scoop of the delicious ice cream of life;
God, the mysterious Three-in-One, reaching out to take the hand of each one of
us and twirling us around as we join the dance of harmonious, joyful freedom to
love. How can it be? I don’t know—It’s a mystery.
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