Sharing the Glory of God

It’s Trinity Sunday, the only day in the Christian calendar in which we commemorate a church doctrine.  I am sure we have all learned through the years that the Doctrine of the Trinity is to be understood as one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  It is often referred to as “one in three and three in one.” 

While acknowledging its importance, many of us can also resonate with the writer Dorothy Sayers who said, "Of all the Christian dogmas, the doctrine of the Trinity enjoys the greatest reputation for obscurity and remoteness from common experience."  So, if you like a mystery, the Trinity is about the best there is with respect to Christian teaching.

I like what one article has to say about the Trinity:  According to this central mystery there is only one God in three persons: while distinct from one another "it is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds."  In their relation with one another, they are stated to be one in all else, co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial, and "each is God, whole and entire.”  

Accordingly, the whole work of creation and grace is seen as a single operation common to all three divine persons, so that all things are "from the Father", "through the Son" and "in the Holy Spirit.”

In her book, “The Case for God,” the British theologian, Karen Armstrong discusses the doctrine of the Trinity and examines our contemporary understanding of its meaning.  She cites Basil, the bishop of Caesarea in the 4^th Century, who insisted that we could never know God’s “being” or “essence.”  But we could form an idea about the divine “energies” that have translated the ineffable God into human idiom: the incarnate Word and the immanent divine presence within us that scripture calls the Holy Spirit.

Armstrong says the whole point of the doctrine of the Trinity was to stop Christians from thinking about God in rational terms.  Trinity was mythos, mystery.  It spoke a truth that was not accessible to logos, to reason, and it made sense only when translated into practical action.  I hope this is helpful because it goes against our need to prove that something is objectively true.  Mystery is beyond our comprehension until we experience what is revealed.

In our scientific and technological time we like to have proof that something if not everything is true.  But that is not always possible.  For example, we do not know the origin of consciousness, nor do we know how many planets there actually are in the universe.  And we do not know God either fully or objectively.

David Blumenthal wrote an essay titled, Three is not Enough: Jewish Reflections on Trinitarian Thinking.  He questions, "If God's being is plural, why only Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?  Why not Ineffability, Knowability, Intuition, Grace, Judgment, Compassion, Eternity, Awe, Fecundity, and Providence -- all of which are equally integral to the divine whole?  If we, who are complex beyond three, are created in God's Image, God must be complex beyond three… God…relates in many ways and is somehow consistent in who God is.  In a universe in which we are created in God's Image, it cannot be otherwise."

A belief that limits our understanding of God as only Father, Son and Spirit, is not a fully adequate representation of God.  As a doctrine or teaching the Trinity provides us with an historical perception of God.  This is also the case with the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.  What matters, however, is that God is beyond human limitation and understanding.  As we say in the Blessing at the end of our celebration of Holy Eucharist, “The Peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge of the love of God….” This means that God who is infinite, life-giving, and compassionate, is also mystery, beyond our understanding.  

St. Paul wrote in his Letter to the Romans, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,…and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.… Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

The peace of God, while beyond our understanding, is about our relationship with God.  We are in a partnership of reconciliation.  What we know and are assured of is God’s free gift of mercy and love for all people.

God's love “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” is the gift of complete oneness with God in eternal life.  Jesus, as mediator and advocate brings us into relationship with God.  This is our understanding of God, whether or not we believe in the doctrine of the Trinity.  God’s love for us is always present regardless of the circumstances of our lives.

Jesus brings this home in John’s gospel when he tells the disciples, “the Spirit of truth…will guide you into all the truth;… and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”   We live in hope, rejoicing in the mystery of God as we come to know God in our daily lives, carrying out love and compassion in ministering to those in need.  Amen.