This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, and talking about the Trinity is always a bit challenging because we are talking about something we cannot truly grasp with our limited human understanding; one God, three persons Creator, Word and Spirit, how do we understand that? There are lots of very dense theological books and papers about it which are very interesting but how does all that philosophical discussion impact our everyday lives? A few quick caveats about the Trinity; God is not suffering from a split personality, the three persons of the Trinity are not just different ways for God to present God’s self to us in different situations.
In the life and death cycle of nature I see God bringing life from death.
The amazing thing for me about the Trinity is the idea that God is in God’s very nature communal. God’s very nature is about relationship about the ebb and flow of energy and idea and love between the persons of the Trinity and even us. We know what that feels like, to brainstorm ideas with others, feeling the energy rise as we bounce ideas off each other and work together to problem solve. We feel that when a child runs up and wraps their arms around us in a hug, that exchange of love is elating. We feel that when we are vulnerable with each other, crying together over our loss at funerals, understanding another’s pain and offering comfort. We experience all those things because they mirror what is happening within God, we are made in God’s likeness, pale and imperfect likenesses but though we see through a mirror dimly, we do get some glimpse. God is Creator, bringing something from nothing, God is Word, acting in our world most notable understood as the Incarnation of God as Jesus Christ and God is Spirit, bringing life, breath, the spark of inspiration, encouraging and equipping.
In the life and death cycle of nature I see God bringing life from death. Over and over and I am reminded that that I was created an eternal being and that one day I will experience death but it will not quench the life that is within me, given by the Creator, molded by the Word and enlivened and encouraged by the Spirit. Amen.