By Revd Chrys M Tremththanmor
I was warned, before I was ordained, that preachers all dread preaching on Trinity Sunday. Theologians throughout the centuries have tried to understand how God can be three and also one at the same time. Last year I got around this by having Chris Ward preach at our Team Service on Trinity Sunday. This year, however, there was no escape. So I sat down at my computer and reminded myself what theologians have said about the Trinity.
During my research, I discovered that there have been many attempts to explain the Trinity in images. Here are a few ideas:
St. Patrick from Ireland used the example of a wild plant the Shamrock which has three leaves but actually consists of only one leaf. Each of the bits of the three bits of the leaf are an essential part of the leaf, but the leaf is greater than just the three parts. This is what led to a joke in one film that God is like a clover, ‘small, green, and split three ways.’
A triangle has three sides, yet it is not three sides but one triangle. Anselm compared the trinity to the River Nile. A river like the Nile has a source, it has a stream and it has an estuary. It is all the same water and yet it is in three very different looking stages.
Tertullian said to compare the doctrine of the Trinity to a tree. A tree can have three very different parts Roots : Trunk: Fruit: Three forms of water steam, water, ice.
Some have said that it is like a man who is a father, a son, and a husband. He has three different roles but is one person.
The Bible actually doesn’t help us very much when it comes to the Trinity. The word ‘trinity’ itself is never used, nor do we have any verses which state ‘God is three in one.’ But there are plenty of verses which mention ‘Father, Son, Holy Spirit.’ We need only think of Jesus’ baptism, when the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus in the form of a dove and the Father declares, ‘This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And in our Gospel reading this morning we had Jesus telling his disciples to make more disciples, and to baptise them ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’
So it’s been left to later theologians to try to explain the Trinity. I sat through several lectures at theological college in which the professor talked in terms of ‘economic’ and ‘immanent’ Trinity. If your eyes glazed over at these words, then join the club.
All of these images I used earlier have their limitations. And their critics. A lot of feminist theologians, for example, don’t like the Father, Son, Holy Spirit combination. They say this makes God overtly masculine, whereas God doesn’t have a sex. Instead we are offered formulations such as ‘Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.’
The problem with this rewrite of language, and the images I offered earlier, is that something important is lost. ‘Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier’ seems to reduce God to what he does, rather than who he is.
And I think that’s the core of the Trinity. Let’s not worry about how it works, God as Three in One. That’s beyond human minds to comprehend. Let’s accept that our mysterious God is somehow both One, yet three persons at the same time. What does that idea of God tell us about God, and about us, the human beings which he created?
God, within himself, in community. Within Godself there are three persons who interact. There are three persons who interact in love. One illustration of the Trinity which I do like is that perhaps it is like a dance. The Trinity is like a dance between three people, each holding hands, and as they dance around in circle they are forever both leading and following each other. The three persons of the Trinity are always graciously giving way to each other, letting the other lead, letting the other follow.
In this way, God is perhaps modelling how human community is meant to operate. God is already in community. God is not alone. Within the Trinity there are bonds of love, constant interaction between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, like that dance I mentioned. No one demands top position, and each is willing to either lead or follow.
So we, who are made in the image of God, are called to also exist in community. We are also made to live in communities of love. Within those communities, there are times that we are called to follow. There are also times when we are called to lead. But whether we follow or lead, we should do so graciously. Like that dance, we should seek to follow or to lead in the spirit of self-giving love. Amen.