June 16, 2019 Sunday, year C Gregory Welin

Trinity Sunday

Today we celebrate the Trinity. We proclaim the unity of God and the three persons of God. Saint Patrick is famous for using the shamrock as an object to describe the trinity, three leaves in one plant. It is a simple image, although it doesn’t explain much. When we try to describe our God as trinitarian monotheists, we come up against logical inconsistencies. Three is not one. We can only use images to try and describe God. Our creed can only draw the outline, or the limits of how we describe God or fail and drift into heresy.

I have heard the trinity explained as the three states of water; ice, liquid and gas. They are different but they are all water. The used the example of a burning coal. There is heat, there is light and the coal itself. They are all different aspects of the one thing. If we examine these images too closely, we move into heresy. We can see each person of the trinity too distinctly and forget the reality of the whole of God. We can look too closely at the work of each person of the trinity and forget that God is wholly present in every work.

God is always and completely present in every good act and every newly created thing. We see a hint of this in the description of in Proverbs. Wisdom is present at creation and wisdom is a necessary ingredient in every created thing. Wisdom is another side of God’s . God’s Holy Spirit is what makes us and what guides us and sets us on a path to salvation. Paul reminds us how God uses our present circumstance to bring us to glory. We often seek to avoid pain and suffering. God uses the circumstances in which we find ourselves to inform us and encourage us towards something new and life affirming. It is not true that God sends suffering to form us. God uses the suffering we will inevitably encounter when we seek to follow .

In a sense, this is how we encounter the trinity. Scripture never has a paragraph that describes or explains the concept of the trinity. Instead, we encounter God as we follow Jesus and are formed by our experience. The God we encounter is trinitarian. The trinity is how we find life and salvation.

God the Father creates the world. The Holy Spirit or Holy Wisdom is present in creation and participates in every created thing. The Son is also present at the beginning of creation, loving what God has made. When Jesus gives himself for our new life, the Holy Spirit is present in words and deed, guiding and strengthening him in his work. God the Father is also present in loving and glorifying the Son. When we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost we worship the Father and rejoice in the loving sacrifice of the Son. These are all descriptions of how God is present before and after us in the three persons of the trinity. We can go deeper than describing God objectively.

There is an icon by the Russian artist Rubilev depicting the three visitors to Abraham. The three angels are seated and in conversation. They are not facing the viewer in a static way. They are turned towards one another and facing each other. This depiction of angels is seen as an image of the trinity. A very ancient explanation of the trinity is God as a being in relationship. The June 16, 2019 Trinity Sunday, year C Gregory Welin

Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. The love between them is the Holy Spirit. While there are still limits to this explanation, it depicts God as a being who has purpose and intention. God is not an objective being far away in heaven. This describes God as a being who embodies love and seeks love. This description gives us a way to connect with God and to be formed by God.

What God has revealed to us is not understanding but purpose. God remains a mystery. We can only make attempts to go beyond the limits of our own understanding. Yet the way that God is revealed to us does give us a way to follow Jesus on a path that leads us to new life. As we live our lives of faith, we are never alone. God has given us one another. We are meant to be in relationships that show us life. As we converse with another person, we have the opportunity to seek the path of love for them. As we share our story, we reveal how God has been working in our life, in words or in our actions. As we seek to know the way that God has been at work in the life of another, we experience the trinity. We see the person created by God. We see the person before us as loved by God. The love we seek for them is Holy Spirit work. God is present in all our relationships.

We cannot say more than we know. The Trinity is a mystery. God has not given us a definition. God has given us a mission, to love the world as God loves the world. As we meet another person, we have the opportunity to love as God loves. We may discover how God intends to work in another. Our encounter may also reveal to us how God will move in our life. That movement toward God is why we are here. God’s desire is to reconcile all people to God and to one another. Our work gives us the opportunity to participate in the work and in the very identity of God. God is a being in relationship. God seeks to love and to be loved. This is what God seeks for us. This is what we are called to seek for each other.