Trinity Sunday – the Sunday following Pentecost Sunday - is an often-overlooked Sunday in the liturgical calendar. Perhaps it is overlooked because we are baffled by the mystery of the Trinity.
How are we to understand the mystery of the Trinity – the three-in-one? God is three yet one!? How can that be? We can’t figure out how to wrap our minds around the idea.
Perhaps the problem is in our language.
Trinity refers three. We speak of God as Father, the creator, and of Jesus the Son who was God-in-the-flesh and of the Spirit who was poured out on the disciples at Pentecost. We find references to each in the teachings of Jesus (particularly John 14-17) and in the writings of Paul (e.g., Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 2, Galatians 5). Ephesians 1:3-14 identifies the role each plays in God’s eternal redemptive purpose (Ephesians 1:3-6, the role of God the Father; 1:7-12, the role of the Son, 1:13-14, the role of the Spirit). These references indicate the concept of God as three-in-one developed during the early New Testament era.
Our trouble begins with the word “one.” Because we think of trinity in numerical terms, i.e., three, we naturally think of one in numerical terms. The term “one” does not refer to a numerical value. Rather, it refers to a relationship. More specifically, it refers to a kind of and quality of relationship.
The three live together in a relationship marked by oneness. Another way of expressing the idea is that the three live together in unity. The theological term used to describe the Trinity is “unity in diversity, expressed in community.” Unity or oneness is what is meant by the term one. Diversity refers to the three – each unique and different, yet bound inseparably together in unity and oneness.
That which binds the three together as one is their shared character of self-giving love. As the author of 1 John wrote, “God is love,” 1 John 4:8. The character of God the Father is that of self-giving love as is the character of the Son as is the character of the Spirit.
Because of their mutual character, the three members of the Godhead live together in a dance of other-focused love. (The early church fathers used the Greek word for dance to speak of the relationship of the Godhead.) Their dance is life-giving and joy-filled. Their dance is what led to the creation of the world and of us humans made in their likeness. We were created as an act of love. We were created to live in relationship with them and thereby to participate in their dance of love. We were created with the capacity to share their character of self-giving love and, thereby, to participate in their quality of life. In keeping with their character, each has given themselves to grow us in the likeness of Christ, empowering us to love as they love.
In John 17, Jesus prayed that we, his followers, would be one “as we are one,” John 17:11. Our oneness as his followers is patterned after and reflects the oneness of the Godhead – a oneness of character, a oneness of love.
The Trinity – the three-in-one – is not a mystery to be understood and explained. Rather, it points us to a relationship from which we came and for which we were created – a relationship governed by the self-giving love of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
May we join the life-giving, joy-filled dance of the three-in-one as we
grow in and live out of the likeness of Christ.
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