Reflections On The Holy Trinity

Throughout human history people have attempted to explain their experience of God. God is known throughout the world and across different religions by many names: God, Lord, Yahweh, Allah, Jehovah, Great Spirit, Creator, Redeemer, and many others.  

On Trinity Sunday, we who are Christians celebrate our understanding of God as three individual persons of one substance. So, what in the world are we doing, what are we trying to say?

Before seeking an answer, I offer a (very) brief history of the doctrine of the Trinity. After Constantine become emperor of Rome and made Christianity the chosen religion, not necessarily a good move, he looked for ways to unify the empire and one way was to have the church agree on its basic understanding of who God is. So, in 325 C.E. he called a council of Bishops in Nicaea and asked them to formulate an understanding of who Jesus is as both human and divine, and how God the Creator, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit related and were all one God. The Bishops complied, what else could they do, and formulated the first part of what we call the Nicene Creed. Forty-nine years later at the Council of Constantinople, the bishops met again to finalize the creed in its present form. This council primarily addressed the Trinity and the co-equal relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This Creed, I believe, does not necessarily define God as God is, but it does give us a way to try and explain our experience of God. We experience God in creation and the beauty and the power of that creation. We experience God as a loving presence, and those of us who are Christians experience that loving presence as Jesus. We also believe that God is Spirit, and that as Spirit is present in our lives and in our world at all times.

Those of us who are “people of the Book,” also have our Scriptures to guide us on our journey to understand our experiences of God and the Holy in our lives. The eighth century B.C. prophet, Isaiah had an experience in the temple that changed his life and through him, the course of history.

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on

 the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

 And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” (Isaiah 6:1-8)

This kind of experience with God can, at times, only be expressed in song or poetry, because we have no words within ourselves to describe the experience:

Canticle 13: A Song of Praise, Book of Common Prayer

         Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers; you are worthy of praise; glory to you.

Glory to you for the radiance of your holy Name; we will praise you and highly exalt you 
for ever.

Glory to you in the splendor of your temple; on the throne of your majesty, glory to you.
Glory to you, seated between the Cherubim; we will praise you and highly exalt you for
ever.
Glory to you, beholding the depths; in the high vault of heaven, glory to you.

Glory to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.

St. Paul tells us in Romans 8:12-17 that we need not fear, because we have received the spirit of adoption and that when we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—

As brothers and sisters with Christ we can hear and understand Jesus words to Nicodemus (recorded in John 3:1-17) that we are born of the spirit as well as of the flesh and that as such we are called to share Jesus message with the world:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

So finally, God the Trinity is about relationship, the interrelationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the Triune God’s relationship with us and our relationship with God and the World.

May our response be that of Isaiah: “here I am; send me!”

           

Love, Joy, Fruit and Baptism

We read in the first letter of John (4:7-21) that “there is no fear in love, but that perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.” As we read in the Gospel of John, 15:9-17, Jesus continues the theme of love over fear as God’s plan for our lives and for our world.

"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you, abide in my love. If you keep my Father’s commandments, you will abide in my love as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

Jesus goes on to remind the disciples, and through them, us, “that we did not choose him, but he chose us and appointed us to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” He gave us these commands so that we might love one another and so that in loving one another our joy would be complete.

Jesus did not give us this good news to hoard, but to share with all of God’s people. Luke, writing in the Acts of the Apostles continues this theme of sharing the Good News.

"While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, "Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." (Acts 10:44-48)

Our commandment from God is to love, to experience joy, to bear much fruit, to baptize and to REPEAT. The love of God is like ripples on a lake: it comes from the Father to the Son and through the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son to us, and from us to all those we meet and through them to the whole world.

Some verses from Ripple (The Grateful Dead, 1970) show us how the message of God flows through us encompassing all that is as it flows out into the whole world.

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine, and my tunes were played on the harp 
unstrung, would you hear my voice come through the music, would you hold it near as
it were your own?

It's a hand-me-down, the thoughts are broken, perhaps they're better left unsung.
I don't know, don't really care Let there be songs to fill the air.
Ripple in still water, when there is no pebble tossed, nor wind to blow.

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty, if your cup is full may it be again,
Let it be known there is a fountain that was not made by the hands of men.

You who choose to lead must follow. . . If I knew the way I would take you home.

Ripple in still water, when there is no pebble tossed, nor wind to blow.

May we, like Jesus, bear much fruit, and may the love of God flow out through us!

I Will Pour Out My Spirit

Before his Ascension, Jesus made a promise to his disciples, which I believe is a promise to us as well. “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait there for the promise of the Father. This is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." (From Acts 1:1-11)

Last Sunday was the Feast of Pentecost, the day we Christians celebrate the fulfillment of that promise. Luke continues the story in the Book of Acts like this:

When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. (From Acts 2:1-21)

Luke goes on to explain that there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem and that each of them heard in their own language the disciples proclaiming the marvelous acts of God. Many in the crowd were amazed and astonished at what this might mean, but there were others, there always are, who sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’" What a great opening for Peter to proclaim the Gospel and share with them the good news of God’s continuing presence in the world through the Holy Spirit.

But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o'clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

Peter explains that God’s spirit is given to all people: old and young, male and female, friend and stranger. And we who receive God’s Holy Spirit will see not only what is, but we will have visions and dreams of what can be when we proclaim the good news of God’s Kingdom and prophesy about the justice and peace that accompanies that Kingdom.

In 2004, Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town in South Africa, wrote a book entitled God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for our Time. In this book Bishop Tutu proclaims that “God Believes in us, God loves us as we are, and that God loves our enemies.” When we are filled with the Holy Spirit of which Peter speaks, we receive faith and courage to do God’s will on Earth and we become part of God’s dream. Our part of God’s dream is to “love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength and to love our neighbor as our self.   

God’s Dream is that we love God, love our neighbor and love ourselves.

           

“All You Need Is Love”

Since the development of human speech, poets, prophets, preachers and performers have been talking about, singing about and proclaiming love. In the 1960’s we heard “All you need is love” and “I love him, I love him and where he goes I’ll follow,” and many other songs and poems about love. Of course, the Bible proclaims love in many of its various books: Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” and Luke 10:27-28, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

About 100 A.D., a teacher of the Johanine School (1 John 4:7-21) proclaimed,

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

The teacher goes on to proclaim that, “as God is so are we in this world.” That is, if God is love, then we too are love in this world!” And after God’ promise, the challenge: “those (of you) who say, I love God, and hate your brothers or sisters are liars. For those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” “The commandment we have from God is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

And who are our brothers and sisters? I believe they are the same people Jesus describes as neighbor in his parable of the Good Samaritan related in Luke 10:29-37.  I share with you a “Southern Version” of that Parable, as told to me by the protagonist who I will call “Reverend Bob.”

In the late 1960’s Rev. Bob was pastor of a small, Southern, rural Methodist church. He was invited to lead the devotion at a Klan Rally. He was picked up, blindfolded and driven into the mountains where the paved road turned into a dirt road. At the end of the dirt road he was lead down a foot path to the circle where the cross was burning, at which point the blind fold was removed. He began to preach, telling a story of a black man who drove his car into a ditch. Amid cheers and applause, Rev. Bob told of the local Methodist preacher, Baptist preacher and Police Chief who stopped, looked over the situation and drove on. And then . . . a Klansman stopped, saw the man and helped him to the hospital. The cheers turned to boos.  The fire was extinguished and Rev. Bob was left alone in the mountains in the dark. Slowly he found his way back to the paved road where a member of his congregation picked him up and took him back to his car.

Who is our neighbor? Who are our brothers and sisters? I believe Micah, John, Jesus and Reverend Bob help us see who they are.

“May we seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves.”