On the Trinity

Yesterday the Lutheran ministers of our region gathered at the church for our regional meeting. We renewed our ministry vows and shared Holy Communion. After this, we had "holy conversation" about our call to the ministry--when it began, how it developed, etc.

Without going into the long details of my call to ministry, I recalled to the group that I had no intention of being a pastor, of ever being in the pulpit.  I wanted to ask questions as a teacher of theology, not presume to answer them. And, so, my rude awakening to my "call" to ministry began with preaching my first sermon on Trinity Sunday. Yes, God definitely has a sense of humor.

I had long since taught that the theological concept of the Trinity is a mystery that cannot be grasped or pinned down, cannot be encapsulated in words or formulas. The reality of Trinity is that it can be experienced, embraced, and enjoyed. This is hard for many to hear because we struggle with the three-in-one reality just as I struggled to say something meaningful in that first sermon.  

Yet, an engagement with the Trinity can also unfold itself gently to us as it dissolves our fears. Trying to pin the concept of Trinity in words will only entangle us in confusion. That’s why the Triune God revealed God’s self to us not in words but in a person, the person of Jesus.

Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, is God’s love letter to humanity. When humanity was confused about who God is and what God requires, Jesus clarified our vision with the revelation that God is Love and Light.

In Jesus' life he healed the brokenness of our bodies and our societies by embracing the marginalized and pulling them in from the margins. In his death he became the magnetic target of all our hatred, pulling our violence, our sin, onto himself so we would not direct it at each other. In his resurrection he proved that love triumphs over hate. In all of this, Jesus revealed to us a power previously unknown and thus redefined God in our understanding. 

The understanding of the Trinity came about over time as the life and meaning of Jesus not only reshaped our perception of God but drew us deeper into relationship with God. Jesus’s perfect love cast out all fear and showed us that fear has no place within God. Jesus’s revelation that God is Love is the key to entering into the mystery of the Trinity.

The love that Jesus extended to the world, to reveal the true nature of God, ever flows between God the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit. From the beginning of time, Love has been dancing in perfect harmony, leaving stars and planets in its footsteps. We who have been made from Love in the image of Love are called to join in the dance.

This may seem like a poetic fantasy. But it is the clearest way for me to understand the Trinity, to understand Love, to understand God – and the clearest way to understand what it means to be human. While I have a single body, my identity is bound up in my relationships. I am not Joy without my husband, without my children (present and deceased), without my family, without the dear friends who have made me who I am. I am not me without you. To be human is to be in relationship, and it is to be made in the image of God, who is relationship.

In Lent we confess that we are being molded by God into God’s image, following Jesus who modeled for us the perfect relationship with Love and showed us how to extend the love we receive in ever-flowing abundance to a hurting world. It is my deepest hope that we experience this Love as we enter in to Holy Week: not to re-enact a story with an unfamiliar ending, but to live into the Resurrection reality happening every day among us.

A prayer from Walter Brueggemann:

We name you wind, power, force, and then,

imaginatively, "Third Person."

We name you and you blow...

blow hard,

blow cold,

blow hot,

blow strong,

blow gentle,

blow new...

Blowing the world out of nothing to abundance,

blowing the church out of despair to new life,

blowing little David from shepherd boy to messiah,

blowing to make things new that never were.

So blow this day, wind,

blow here and there, power,

blow even us, force,

Rush us beyond ourselves, 

Rush us beyond our hopes,

Rush us beyond our fears, 

until we enact your newness in the world.

Come, come spirit.

Amen.