Trinity

Every year, on the Sunday after Pentecost, (this year May 26th) the church celebrates the uniquely Christian doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity is a doctrine of the church that is not really spelled out in the Bible. Biblically speaking, we have to take scriptures from various places and use them to interpret one another.

           For centuries the church has tried to explain the mystical union of Three in One, One in Three, in an effort to understand the trinitarian unity of God. How will we explain or understand this mystical union?

           Traditionally, the explanation has fallen into one of two camps.

1.    By Function. In this model we stress what each part of the Godhead does. God creates, Jesus redeems, the Spirit empowers. Some action is associated with each.

2.    By Relation: In this model we may say Father (or Parent) for God, Son for Jesus and Holy Spirit. I’m sure you have heard: In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are related to one another.

In seminary we were asked to write an essay on our understanding of the Trinity. Thinking I was being very creative, I wrote from the perspective of being one person, yet functioning in different roles in different relationships. (See what I did there?) I explained I was a husband, father, and son and in each of those relationships I had a different function. The truth is there were many other relationships in which I functioned differently as well: student, brother, friend, etc.  It made sense to me that I was always one person, even in all these different relationships where I was expected to live out different functions. It was my attempt to understand the mystery of Three in One, One in Three.

A classmate came up with a more poetic, creative explanation. I wish it were mine, but alas it is not. He imagined God has a Harley Davidson motorcycle, Jesus as the rider, and the distinctive roar of the engine as the Holy Spirit, all of it working together driving life forward, together as one. The necessity of all three with their roles to play. If you don’t know, I ride a Harley Davidson, so it struck chord with me.

But it also raised a better question. Should we worry about understanding the Trinity? Or would we better serve to experience the Trinity? The beauty of the mystical union is that it can probably never be explained …but it can be experienced. 

Peace!

Dave