In the entirety of the Liturgical Year, this is my least favourite Sunday to preach. Trinity Sunday – a Sunday where we explore the relationship between the three persons of the “Trinity” traditionally named as the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. How does a minister unpack the somewhat complicated and very confusing doctrine that has very little Biblical support and is for the most part a human construct created so that we could find some sort of commonality in how we talk about God. I guess, in a way, it feels like “let’s put God in a box so that we can feel like we have a handle on the immensity of God.” We humans like our boxes.
The Trinitarian doctrine was born of the fact that early Christians, as David Lose points out, “were confronted with the fact that the reality of god revealed in Jesus and after Pentecost didn’t fit into any of their preconceived categories and so all the language usually employed to talk about god needed to be stretched.” So, over several centauries and through several controversies the early Christians created a doctrine that did exactly that – stretched the way we talk about God.…. In case you are interested, here are the key aspects of the Trinity: 1. There is one God – there is only one God, not three separate deities. 2. Three persons – God exists as three distinct, yet co-equal and co-eternal, persons, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 3. Con-substantial – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share the same divine essence or nature. 4. Distinct Persons – each person has unique attributes and roles, but they are equally divine. 5. Eternal – the Trinity exists eternally, before the creation of the world, and continue to exist forever.
Trinitarian Doctrine was also meant to be a way for Christians to describe something that seemed indescribable all the while trying to prove that other people’s thinking was wrong. The First Council of Nicaea, way back in 325 CE, began piecing together a formal doctrine about God as a way of addressing the rising Arianism – this is the school of thought that denied the deity of Christ. Jesus and God were different. So the Council spent time affirming that Jesus the Son was of the same substance (or homoousios) with the Father. Jesus and God were the same. That idea stuck around until 381 CE when it got added to by The Council of Constantinople which affirmed the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Jesus + God+ Spirit = same entity. Clear?
But did the councils pull this idea out of the Bible? Actually, there is very little in our scriptures that is remotely Trinitarian, but the scriptures we choose for today comes close… We see and hear The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost in the great commission: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…” and then we have the benediction that Paul writes in 2 Corinthians – “The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” And we do have that moment in Genesis when God refers to Godself with the plural “our”. So, there is a bit of biblical precedent. But is it enough to shoehorn God into this one metaphor and then set a whole church shaping doctrine on it?
Is God only Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
I discovered Rev. Lizzie McManus- Dail, vicar of an episcolpalian church in Austin, Texas, on instragram on the recommendation of my eldest child, who to my surprise had been following the rev for a while. Father Lizzie, as she calls herself, has written a book call God Didn’t Make Us to Hate Us – a book of 40 devotions to liberate your faith from fear and reconnect with joy. Long title I know, but the book is an absolute gem for reintroducing joy and wonder into faith while not shying away from some of the trickier topics. Imagine my surprise when right in the first section, Father Lizzie starts talking about the Trinity. Let me share one of the bits that caught my attention, she writes: We have so many metaphors and images in the Bible to describe God, but the language we use the most in Christianity is that of Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three persons, one God; three names, one name. It’s a mind scramble for sure. To describe the Holy Trinity is, necessarily, to employ an in sufficient metaphor. Saint Patrick reportedly likened the Trinity to the shamrocks with their three leaves but one stem. Sunday School teachers everywhere talk about the way water can be liquid, vapor and ice but is still equally water. Sometimes the Trinity is likened to the way we as people contain multiple identities like mother, sister and daughter.”[1]
Shamrocks, water/vapor/ice, mother/sister/daughter… these are great metaphors but somehow they don’t capture the essence of the Trinity. Shamrocks have those three leaves sharing on stem, but each of those leaves is distinct from each other, independent so to speak. Ever seen water, vapor and ice together at the same time? Well outside lab experiments and the sauna experience at Thermea? And mother, daughter, sister – I am all three of those things, and more often than not, those identities are at odds with each or at least competing because of the needs of each of the roles. These are not con substantial… sharing the same essence, not co-equal.
God in three persons is not in competition with each other. God is everywhere as God’s whole self, all the time, all at once. God doesn’t send Jesus to do homework, while the Spirit is tasked with making supper all the while God is out in the world doing God’s own thing. God, are you ready for this, is not distinct from Godself. Got it?
So if that is the case, what other metaphor could possibly catch the complexity of the Trinity is a way that is a little less mind splitting?
Think on this for a moment: Father Lizzie says that we know God in the language God gives us that already surpasses metaphor and speech: music. To get technical, as Dr. Jeremy Begbie taught in divinity school, we know the Trinity like we know a chord. A chord is when multiple notes are played at the same time – in this case, three notes. Each note resonates with its own sound and tone, but the sounds of the individual notes are inextricable from the sound of the three notes together. The notes are a community, a nestled-in sound that is at once the sum of its parts, more than the sum of its parts, and its individual parts shining bright.[2]
The Trinity is community. God is community. A mystery of our faith is that God is a Holy Trinity – three distinct persons not in competition with each other and uniquely one God, whose very essence is community. Community where each person brings their own gifts, stills and personality, while being bound to one another to create a whole that works to bring about love and justice in the world. And we are created to be a part of this – not because God is short on companionship – God has God! But rather, we are knitted into this community and are challenged to resonate with our own unique notes so that we might make music with all of God’s beloveds “in noncompetitive, glorifying and glorious harmony.” Our understanding of the Trinity expands and stretches into something that envelopes us in that connection and mystery. God in three persons, pulling us into a true community that moves like the mystery that is music with ebbs and flows, crescendos and decrescendos, with the need of a variety of notes to make it truly interesting.
The Trinity does not exist to exclude us, but to show us the beauty of community. We tried to make it too complicated… God is community – a loving, ever-present, beautiful community that is complicated and yet simple all at the same time – God in three persons, One God – music that is incomplete without us – and so draws us in. Amen.
[1] P. 18
[2] P.18
