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!”