Shamrocks in Ireland, Fleur-de-lis in New Orleans, mosaics
of three fish swimming in an endless circle on the floors of Palestinian churches, an icon
of three individuals sharing a meal. These are all images we use for the Most Holy
Trinity, that great mystery of our faith.
We use images like these for the Trinity because, honestly, words aren’t
enough. Images attempt to paint for us
a picture of something that is beyond human comprehension. We try to use words like Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, words that are more than words, that attempt to explain the
inexplicable, that is the nature of God.
The Holy Trinity
The Bishops at Nicea did their best in the 4th century,
that’s how we have our Nicene Creed.
Julian of Norwich, the 13th century mystic who just so happens to be my
favorite saint, did her best when she had a vision of something the size of a
hazelnut in God’s hands and described it by saying it had three properties: that God made it, loves it, and preserves
it. Our own church did its best back in
2009 when it approved a resource called Enriching Our Worship, which gave us
some new language for talking about God, substituting Creator, Redeemer,
and Sanctifier for the three traditional names of the Trinity. We do our best, but it’s never really
enough.
Karan Armstrong, a former Roman Catholic nun, wrote a
wonderful book called A History of God, and in it she points out that Scriptures—not just ours, but the Jewish
Tanakh as well as the Muslim Qur'an—are meant to put into human language that
which is ultimately beyond human knowing.
At the end of the day, none of us really does understand who God is, not
fully.
This, though, is the very reason the Trinity is so special and so important. While all three persons dance and move and exist in, through, and around
each other, they speak to each one of us differently, showing us God's grace and Truth. Each one of us has experienced the presence of each person of the Trinity. These persons convey something to us of the majesty and mystery of God and meet us right where we are. Each person of the Trinity does this--and yes, they are persons, not things, because you can’t have a relationship with things!
Anyone who knows what it’s like to hold your child in your
arms knows what it was like for God the Father to create and hold the
world. In times when you have felt lost
and in need of guidance, many of you have leaned on the Father to provide
wisdom. Waylon Jennings had a song I Do
Believe in which he sings “I believe in a loving Father, one I never have to
fear.” God the Parental Figure provides us with comfort and strength, holding us and telling us, as a parent would tell a child, "It's ok. I love you." Such is the love of the First Person of the Trinity.
Anyone who has ever felt pain knows what it was like for
God the Son when he bore it all on the cross.
Jesus Christ provides humanity with the face and voice and touch of God,
and when we are at our lowest points and feel that the world is beating us down
and that we can’t go on we turn to him, to God who knows pain and suffering
just as much, if not more, than we do. I
have had many moments when I have felt I cannot go on, cannot face whatever is
before me, and I ponder that image of Jesus on the ground in the garden,
praying and crying, just as I am on the ground, praying and crying. Knowing that my God, that the Second Person
of the Trinity, has been there and felt what I felt, is enough to give me
strength to carry on.
Anyone who has been moved to tears in a worship service, or anyone who has had his or her heart set on fire, knows the power of God the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Ghost. Or, as one of my parishioners says, the HOLY Ghost, emphasis on the holy.
There’s a great scene in the Robert Duvall film The Apostle, which you
should totally see if you haven’t already.
Duvall is in a church with his parishioners, singing and wailing and
raising their arms and he keeps repeating, “We got Holy Ghost power here
today! We got Holy Ghost power here
today!” That Holy Ghost power manifests
itself in folks dancing and singing with arms outstretched, but it also manifests
itself in the still small voice that speaks to us when we come to the table
and quietly reach out our hands in the hope that we will meet God in our very hands. It
manifests itself in those liminal moments where God breaks through the monotony
of our lives and we just know that God is real.
The Third Person of the Trinity continues to move among us, as she moved
among the apostles on the day of Pentecost, stirring us up and opening our
eyes, hearts, and minds to God’s presence and God’s love and challenging us to
be agents of that love, just as she challenged the prophets back in the day.
Robert Duvall's got Holy Ghost Power in The Apostle (1997).
But the Trinity is more than this. It's not like each person just has one function, and that's it. No, that's called modalism! The Father also sets our hearts on fire, the
Son also creates, the Spirit also feels our pain. Together. As one. How amazing is our God?! In any way, in any circumstance, at any
point in human history, God has broken through (and continues to break through), to speak to us, to
hold us, and to show us how to be people of mercy and love. As Trinity of persons and as Unity of being. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in
the beginning, now, and forever.
The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity is not a day to grill each other on the various heresies of the Trinity. No,on this high holy day we are meant only to bind unto ourselves the strong name of
the Trinity, to bind this day to us forever by power of faith Christ’s
incarnation, to bind unto ourselves the power of the great love of cherubim, to bind unto ourselves the virtues of the starlit heaven, to bind unto ourselves
the power of God to hold and lead. But, if you REALLY want a rundown of those heresies, check out the video at the end of this post!
C'mon, Patrick!!
