Trinity - Three-In-One-God
Matthew 28:18-20: “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”
Today is what we call Trinity Sunday - a day set aside to recognize and celebrate the Doctrine of the Trinity, our unique Three-In-One God. Now, there is an old preacher’s joke that preacher’s should not try and preach on Trinity Sunday because, talk about the Trinity too long, and you’re likely to accidentally find yourself preaching heresies. It can be hard to talk about a “Three-In-One” God - how can our God be three persons but also One being?
It’s important to remember that all language we use for God is a metaphor. In our earthly lives, with our limited understanding and vocabulary, we will never fully understand, know, or be able to articulate the truly vast nature of our God. All of our language falls short, even as we do our best to know, share, and love God until that day we know in full.
Three-In-One: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Love, Beloved, and Love itself. However you describe God, we claim that God is simultaneous One and Three. This isn’t a math lesson - it is a metaphor to get to the mystery of our God.
A mystery that today won’t come with lengthy exposition. It won’t come with diagrams and explanations and stories about clovers…Sometimes mystery is best left to the language of poetry, the language of wonder, the language of music. And so today, as we briefly explore the mystery of our Triune God, we will sing.
Let us sing “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty,” vs. 1, 3, 4, UMH 64
God - Creator, Parent, Godhead
Genesis 1:1-3: “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
One of the primary metaphors that we use for the Godhead, the head of the Trinity, is God as Creator. Genesis gives us several images of God creating - God speaking and it is so. God getting down in the mud, and shaping us with a potter’s hand. God breathing into us - and there is life.
If you want to know who God is - look at the beautiful natural world. Look at the mountains and oceans, the valleys and streams, the deep of the ocean, the wonder of space. Our God is an artist, painting beauty and diversity with every stroke.
Also, if you want to know who God is - look to your fellow neighbor, made in the image of God - meaning that have great capacity for beauty and great capacity for Love.
Another metaphor that we use for God is Father - Mother - Parent. Mother is often related to creator imagery, the one who gave us and all of creation birth. Father is how Jesus referred to God - his father. Jesus said in Matthew, “And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father, the one in heaven.” Parent is all-encompassing. Our heavenly parent is everything a parent should be - loving unconditionally, guiding, protecting, never abandoning.
Let us sing, “This Is My Father’s World,” UMH 144
Jesus - God Enfleshed, Savior, Teacher, Friend
Matthew 1:23: “‘Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’”
John 3:16-17: “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.”
How do you summarize who Jesus is? To the followers of Christ, Jesus is everything. He is the Christ, the Messiah, the one who came to save all creation from sin and death through a new covenant.
He is our teacher, a Rabbi, summarizing all the law and prophets and giving us the command to love one another.
He is our friend and brother who walks with us through this road of life.
Jesus is Lord to whom one day every knee shall bow.
Jesus is the Resurrected one, whom the grave and all the powers of Hell could not hold.
Jesus is fully human, and fully divine. He is Emmanuel - “God with us.” That God loved the world, all of creation, humanity, us - so much, that God, through Jesus, took on flesh - became one of us, to know the totality of the human experience, to be one of us…
There are many titles for Jesus - and at the end of the day, they all come down to “God with us.”
Let us sing “O How I Love Jesus,” vs. 1 & 3, UMH 170
Spirit - Wind, Fire, Abiding Presence
John 14:26: “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.”
The Holy Spirit is the most enigmatic of the members of the Trinity, hardest to pin down and to describe. Metaphors abound.
The Spirit is the mist that hovered over the deep before creation.
The Spirit is the very breath that God breathed into our lungs.
The Spirit is the still small voice that spoke to Elijah.
The Spirit is Lady Wisdom, Sophia, what all followers of God should heed and seek.
The Spirit is the tongues of flames that touched the disciples at Pentecost.
The Spirit is our advocate, interceding when we have signs too deep for words.
The Spirit reminds us of Jesus’s words, guides us, moves through us, works with us, empowers us to live out our faith.
The Spirit is there whenever there is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
The Holy Spirit is God at work in this world - in, through, with, and despite us - with us forever and always.
Let us sing “O Spirit of the Living God,” vs. 1-3, UMH 539
Trinity - Dancing with the Divine
2 Corinthians 13:11-13: “Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Be restored; listen to my appeal; agree with one another; live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
We have, extremely briefly, talked about who God is in the persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I would like, to conclude our reflection on the mystery of the Trinity, by offering one of my favorite metaphors for our Triune God: perfect relationship
God is in such perfect relationship with Godself, that there is no distinction between the three persons who make up the Trinity.
There is an ancient way, from the fourth century to describe this perfect relationship of the Trinity: perichoresis which means “circle dance.” The members of the Trinity are dancing with one another. And they’re not just dancing together - they ARE the dance. God, Son, Holy Spirit - a divine dance. As the three persons of the Trinity dance together, you can no longer see any lines where they differ, they become a blur of unimaginable beauty, awe, and wonder.
It’s important to remember that all language we use for God is a metaphor. In our earthly lives, with our limited understanding and vocabulary, we will never fully understand, know, or be able to articulate the truly vast nature of our God. All of our language falls short, even as we do our best to know, share, and love God until that day we know in full.
Three-In-One: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Love, Beloved, and Love itself. However you describe God, we claim that God is simultaneous One and Three. This isn’t a math lesson - it is a metaphor to get to the mystery of our God.
A mystery that today won’t come with lengthy exposition. It won’t come with diagrams and explanations and stories about clovers…Sometimes mystery is best left to the language of poetry, the language of wonder, the language of music. And so today, as we briefly explore the mystery of our Triune God, we will sing.
Let us sing “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty,” vs. 1, 3, 4, UMH 64
God - Creator, Parent, Godhead
Genesis 1:1-3: “When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
One of the primary metaphors that we use for the Godhead, the head of the Trinity, is God as Creator. Genesis gives us several images of God creating - God speaking and it is so. God getting down in the mud, and shaping us with a potter’s hand. God breathing into us - and there is life.
If you want to know who God is - look at the beautiful natural world. Look at the mountains and oceans, the valleys and streams, the deep of the ocean, the wonder of space. Our God is an artist, painting beauty and diversity with every stroke.
Also, if you want to know who God is - look to your fellow neighbor, made in the image of God - meaning that have great capacity for beauty and great capacity for Love.
Another metaphor that we use for God is Father - Mother - Parent. Mother is often related to creator imagery, the one who gave us and all of creation birth. Father is how Jesus referred to God - his father. Jesus said in Matthew, “And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father, the one in heaven.” Parent is all-encompassing. Our heavenly parent is everything a parent should be - loving unconditionally, guiding, protecting, never abandoning.
Let us sing, “This Is My Father’s World,” UMH 144
Jesus - God Enfleshed, Savior, Teacher, Friend
Matthew 1:23: “‘Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’”
John 3:16-17: “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.”
How do you summarize who Jesus is? To the followers of Christ, Jesus is everything. He is the Christ, the Messiah, the one who came to save all creation from sin and death through a new covenant.
He is our teacher, a Rabbi, summarizing all the law and prophets and giving us the command to love one another.
He is our friend and brother who walks with us through this road of life.
Jesus is Lord to whom one day every knee shall bow.
Jesus is the Resurrected one, whom the grave and all the powers of Hell could not hold.
Jesus is fully human, and fully divine. He is Emmanuel - “God with us.” That God loved the world, all of creation, humanity, us - so much, that God, through Jesus, took on flesh - became one of us, to know the totality of the human experience, to be one of us…
There are many titles for Jesus - and at the end of the day, they all come down to “God with us.”
Let us sing “O How I Love Jesus,” vs. 1 & 3, UMH 170
Spirit - Wind, Fire, Abiding Presence
John 14:26: “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.”
The Holy Spirit is the most enigmatic of the members of the Trinity, hardest to pin down and to describe. Metaphors abound.
The Spirit is the mist that hovered over the deep before creation.
The Spirit is the very breath that God breathed into our lungs.
The Spirit is the still small voice that spoke to Elijah.
The Spirit is Lady Wisdom, Sophia, what all followers of God should heed and seek.
The Spirit is the tongues of flames that touched the disciples at Pentecost.
The Spirit is our advocate, interceding when we have signs too deep for words.
The Spirit reminds us of Jesus’s words, guides us, moves through us, works with us, empowers us to live out our faith.
The Spirit is there whenever there is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
The Holy Spirit is God at work in this world - in, through, with, and despite us - with us forever and always.
Let us sing “O Spirit of the Living God,” vs. 1-3, UMH 539
Trinity - Dancing with the Divine
2 Corinthians 13:11-13: “Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Be restored; listen to my appeal; agree with one another; live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”
We have, extremely briefly, talked about who God is in the persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I would like, to conclude our reflection on the mystery of the Trinity, by offering one of my favorite metaphors for our Triune God: perfect relationship
God is in such perfect relationship with Godself, that there is no distinction between the three persons who make up the Trinity.
There is an ancient way, from the fourth century to describe this perfect relationship of the Trinity: perichoresis which means “circle dance.” The members of the Trinity are dancing with one another. And they’re not just dancing together - they ARE the dance. God, Son, Holy Spirit - a divine dance. As the three persons of the Trinity dance together, you can no longer see any lines where they differ, they become a blur of unimaginable beauty, awe, and wonder.
Better yet: we are invited into this dance with them, to become a fourth member of the dance. To dance with God, to know God, to be in relationship with God. Now, our relationship with God won’t be perfect. We’ll stumble and trip and mess up and sometimes need to leave the dance for awhile…but God is always there, always inviting us back into relationship, back into the dance, inviting us to Love.
And if we worship the God who is “perfect relationship,” we are called to mirror that relationship, as best we can, into all of our relationships: with our family, friends, neighbors, even our enemies. Again, we won’t always get it right - and that’s okay - cause God will always invite us, over and over again, into the dance, into a more perfect relationship with God and a more perfect relationship with neighbor.
Let us sing once more of our Triune God: “Maker, in Whom We Live,” vs. 1-3, UMH 88
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