Trinity Sunday
Rev. Amy Welin: Once upon a time, in the olden days, I was in a confirmation class with a bunch of rowdy kids in New Jersey. One of our required topics was the Trinity. We were sixth and seventh graders, prone to giggling and clowning around, especially when we had something serious to discuss. I imagine that our teacher cringed as she anticipated our reaction to Trinitarian theology. Alas, shamrocks were not in season, and with a certain desperation, she used a can of Three in One Oil to explain the Trinity to us. One God, three ways that God operates. Unfortunately, this was a class that the pastor chose to sit in for observation. And then he reprimanded her for teaching heresy to us, because the Triune God is three persons in one substance (instead of one substance with three functions). Who knew?
We learned two things. First, heresy is easy to accomplish and is rather interesting. Second, publicly scolding the Sunday School volunteer is not a good idea.
It is unlikely that many members of that class recall how to explain or even to define the Trinity. (Even the church nerd in me cannot fully grasp the mystery of the Holy Trinity). Most of our other lessons have faded from my memory. But I have a vivid recollection of the woman who taught us about our faith, because her love for God and for us was so profound. She wanted us to know about God, and she was willing to do almost anything to teach us, because she knew that it would give meaning to our lives. For her, it was all about the relationship.
I have grown up to be a preacher who loves the Trinity. I see symmetry in threes. I try to do things in threes. In my garden, the flowers are in triads. There are often three points in my sermons (and our ushers know that, so they begin to shift in their seats when I get to the third). Still, I find it nearly impossible to preach a coherent twelve-minute sermon on the God who is One and Three at the same time. The math and the logic are impossible, and no one completely understands the Trinity. Aside from saying that I have experienced God as Father and as Son and as Holy Spirit, I dare not interpret the mystery. And I daresay that many Christians do not find that the doctrine of the Trinity holds much meaning any more. Does anyone here sit up at night and ponder the Trinity? (I think no one’s hand will go up in response to this . . .)
Which is interesting, since in the fourth century, the theology of the Trinity captivated people’s imaginations so deeply that Christians went to war over it. Bishop Athanasius was dragged out of his pulpit in Alexandria over a Trinitarian controversy. The Arians in the Roman Empire fought battles over Trinitarian theology. Perhaps because thinking about God as Three persons in One was so challenging, the church councils of Constantinople, Chalcedon and Nicaea were all called over the issue of how the One God could be a Trinity.
Religious conflict over the Trinity is not just the stuff of ancient history. In our time, some political turmoil in Africa is exacerbated by the conflict between Trinitarian theology and the radical monotheism of Islam. In some places, the Christian theology of the Trinity is considered blasphemy.
We in the West are so used to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that they do not impress or fascinate us any more. Since Don McLean sang about them 40 years ago, who has noticed? What can God as Three in One say to us, especially when we do not feel inclined to be theologians?
I think that the key to the mystery, and the reason we should continue to observe the holy day devoted to the Trinity, is that the Trinity is all about relationship. The significance of the Trinity is precisely that God is in relationship. God is not all alone up in the heavens. God is in relationship, in the way that we were created to be in relationship. And the Trinity is actually three-in-one plus one: God invites us to be in this kind of relationship even now. The relationship of the three members of the Trinity is a community of equals. Father, Son and Spirit are three persons who share themselves fully with each other. They are individuals who are also completely interdependent. They love each other completely, and their love changes the world. When they have a bad day, it is not due to argument, but because some outside event causes them to suffer for love. They are always together. They do not quit. And they long to include us in their love.
It is all about relationship.
And isn’t that what we want to be part of in a church community? In relationship with other people who respect us as individuals and share life with us. In relationship with people who love us and who treat us as equals. In community with people who want to know our names, share our sufferings as well as our joys, and use the energy generated by our worship to transform the world.
Happy Trinity Sunday, my friends. Remember: it is all about relationship.