The Trinity

This Sunday we celebrate Trinity Sunday, which is an important part of our Christian tradition, but unlike many other holy days, it celebrates a concept rather than event.  (Other days like this include All Saint’s Day and The Reign of Christ {or Christ the King} Sunday.) The very nature of such an event seems to beg confusion at best and irrelevance at worse for the average lay person.  But I am here to make a case for not only celebrating the Trinity, but also making the effort to see its importance in our life today.
In our worship we refer to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit often enough that it can lose meaning.  The purpose for stating the three parts of the Godhead is a constant reminder that God is a relationship within one entity, through which we experience God in different ways. Yet we must tread lightly here to be careful not to fall into an explanation that can be heretical – against the Church’s teachings.
What is your favorite heresy?  Don’t have one?  Well let me introduce you to Modalism, which we all have probably committed without even knowing it.  Modalism is the (heretical) belief that God is one person who is revealed in three forms or modes.  According to Modalism, during the incarnation, Jesus was simply God acting in one mode or role, and the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was God acting in a different mode.  Hence God does not exist as Father, Son and Holy Spirit at the same time but is one person who has manifested itself in three different ways or modes at various times.
The Trinitarian doctrine adhered to by the Church is that God is one being eternally existing in three persons.  Each person of the Trinity is distinctive and coexistent with the other persons.  Where we get into trouble is when we want to divide and define God in ways we can understand (i.e. Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer) and only focus on the expression rather than the being. There is only one God.
This is important when we think about the Christ.  In our language, “son” is secondary to “father”, indeed the son needs the father in order to be created.  We cannot deny that Jesus refers to God time and again as “Father,” but that might have more to do with our paucity of language than an accurate expression of their relationship.  The Christ is “begotten, not made, one being with the Father” as we say in the Nicene Creed. While incarnate, Jesus needed the connection and support of the other persons of the Godhead to do the work he had been given to do.  He was limited by his mortality, but that does not discount his divinity.  Jesus was (and is) God.
The purpose of this explanation is to help our comprehension of the Islamic stance that God has no son.  If we choose to see the Christ as being of one substance with God, we can agree with the pretext of this idea, which is important if the Greek and Roman pantheons are considered (with the many children the Titans had and the many problems they caused).  There is no “biological reproduction” between the Creator and the Word, and for Christians, we are referring to God with both or either term.  The disagreement does become more than a semantic challenge because Jesus refers to himself as the Son, but, again, he is not a “biological reproduction”. 
The term “Son” is a helpful way for Jesus’ followers to understand the loving relationship that the two persons have.  What it vital for Christians is that God chose to limit God’s self in the form of a human and died as a human.  Of course Islam does not adhere to that belief, but we can choose to find commonality in our differences before being offended.  Islam has at least 99 names for God, so 3 seems paltry in comparison.
Because the relationship within the Trinity is unique, it is difficult if not impossible to explain in human terms, but that does not mean it isn’t real.  More importantly, it offers us the opportunity of a variety of ways to experience God’s presence every day in different and awesome ways.  How do you experience God today?  How was God revealed to you today?  How did you reveal God today? 
WHAT?  Yes, that is where all of these musings are headed – that we help manifest God through our expression and presence in the Godhead, which is only as far away as our breath, should we choose to experience God in that way.  What we do with our hands and feet, eyes, ears and words matter.  They can help bring love and hope to those who are in need of comfort and support. 

So come and share in the work of the Trinity. Support the South Brunswick Walk Against Hunger on Sunday, May 22nd at 12:30 PM at Veteran’s Park.  Come help at the Christ Church Food Pantry on Saturday May 28th at 9:30 AM.  These are parts of all the greater good God is doing in our world today.  Be a part of it!  
In Christ,
Rev. Valerie+

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