Today is Trinity Sunday and our lessons all talk about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yes, even the first lesson from Genesis. The Hebrew word, “Ruach,” translated here as “wind” also means “Spirit,” so that in other translations the phrase is read, “The Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters.”
And in the second sentence we read, “Then God said…” God spoke the Word, and we know from John’s gospel that Jesus is the Word of God. There have been many debates over exactly what the Trinity is and how it operates. And a lot of time has been spent explaining the individual parts and how they relate to one another.
At one time the Catholics used to say, “It’s a mystery.” Some say it’s like a three leaf clover. Others will tell you it is like the three states of water – steam, liquid, and ice. Time after time people look for new ways to describe it. Ways that will be more accurate more understandable than what has gone before.
The problem is that when we try to explain the Trinity, we get all balled up in technicalities and legalities, none of which is true or right by itself. It’s easier to say that in the Trinity, we have the three necessary ingredients for human kind – Creator (the one who creates all things); Redeemer (the one who redeems the world from sin); and Sustainer (the one who is with us to the end).
One of the explanations I like best is that the Trinity is about relationship. What is important is the relationship that flows between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
I've heard our Bishop say that God (the part we sometimes call “Father”) had a perfect image of himself and that image is what we know as the Son. And when God looks at the Son, he has perfect love for the Son. And that perfect love surrounds them and flows between them and through them and it is the Holy Spirit. Then out of that perfect love shared by the Father and the Son flows creation, and creation reflects back to God his own glory.
In the Holy Trinity, there is a community of mutual love that is not only an example for us, but it reaches out into our lives to empower us to be able to love others more perfectly. It’s easy for us to understand a father and son, but the Holy Spirit is more difficult.
One Baptist minister preached that Christianity is an unfinished religion – that our faith is every bit as much a religion of hope as it is of love. He said that the Holy Spirit continually introduces new forces into the stale world – and those who are open and obedient to the direction of the Spirit pioneer the progress of God’s Kingdom on earth.
That will trouble some people, but the Gospel of John (Chapter 16) tells us: Jesus said to his disciples, “I still have many things to say, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:12-13a) Our faith and our understanding has to grow and mature as the world grows and changes – otherwise we worship a dead faith.
Our Bible is called the living Word of God, because it continues to inform and instruct us. The parables of Jesus live on because they continue to say new things to us. As the world around us changes and our understanding of the universe changes, the living Word of God continues to speak into the new circumstances, if we have the understanding given by the Holy Spirit.
Our God is call a Trinity, because the God of the universe, who will always remain as the ‘divine mystery’ is revealed to us through the flesh of the Son, who is God’s tie to created humanity, and continues to be revealed through the Holy Spirit, who works in us and through us. That Holy Spirit always points the way to Jesus, and Jesus always points the way to God.
What this means for us is that as a community of faith, we must keep up with what the Spirit is doing in today’s world, for the Spirit of God which comes from the Divine Mystery bears the Word of God into our midst in order to empower us for ministry. Father, Son and Holy Spirit – alive and working together to the glory of God the eternal Trinity.
By the Father’s own will he brought us into being, caused us to be born. By the Son’s blood shed on the cross, he redeemed us and paid the price for our sin. By the Spirit’s presence in our life, he guides us and remains with us. The Trinity – three persons, one purpose – to create, redeem and sustain us – to bring us at last into his very presence. We are created in the image of God and we are his forever.
Amen
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