Trinity Sunday 2014

Trinity Sunday 2014 (Matthew 28:16-20)

“Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

The one God eternally manifests Himself as three persons. The Trinity is key to understanding that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ.

Recently, a college student was telling me that he took a world religions class. The teacher was having a difficult time explaining the Trinity. The students were even more confused.

This should be no surprise. It is impossible to understand the Trinity solely in the categories of rational analytical thought. The Trinity is not a mathematical formula. The Trinity is a living personal reality we can experience.

By definition, God is infinite and eternal. We are neither. We live and move and have our being in a universe of matter, energy, time and space. We experience our world in terms of duality (either or), cause and effect, and consequence. None of these things affect God and none of these things define God.

The revelation of the Trinity is woven together with the reality of Jesus Christ. That is why the sole statement of faith for the universal church, the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, is the Nicene Creed. And, the Nicene Creed almost exclusively focuses on the incarnation and the Trinity.

The language of math and science fall short when describing the infinite and eternal. We need the language of relationship, music, poetry, art.

Jesus tells us that the Father sent him into the world to save the world from the consequences of one original choice. Lest we miss the details, Jesus reminds us that the world God created is the world of choice. It is the world of the either or. Because our world is the realm of choice it is also the arena of cause and effect. You make a choice. It excludes all other choices and it produces a result. And, because our world is governed by the principle of cause and effect there are consequences.

Just as there are physical laws that govern the physical universe so there are spiritual laws that govern our lives. Physical laws include such things as gravity, entropy, thermodynamics. Spiritual laws proceed from and work within the context of relationships. The Ten Commandments are good examples of spiritual laws.

In Jesus the infinite and eternal intersect with the limitations of time and space.

Jesus himself embodies the reality that the one God is an active, dynamic and creative community of three persons, The very essence of those three persons is the defining nature of God. God is love.

The three persons of the Trinity are the three persons of love: The Father is the one who loves, the Son is the beloved, the Holy Spirit is the personification of the love they share. That community of love is infinite and eternal. That is another way of saying that love has no beginning, no end, no limitations. That love in universal and unconditional.

Since we are not infinite and eternal, God unified his divinity with our humanity in Jesus Christ. Jesus is God up front and personal. Jesus is God experiencing the universe of choice, cause and effect and consequence. Jesus is infinite and eternal (uncreated) love reaching out to a species lost in separation, pride and self-will.

Jesus saves us from the consequence of our original choice as he works within the laws and principles of our universe. What Jesus does is to reunify humanity with divinity according to the pattern, plan and purpose of creation.

The salvation Jesus offers is profoundly Trinitarian. The essence of the Trinity is relationship.

From time to time people become obsessed with issues. There have always been issues since the Fall. There will always be issues until Jesus returns. Jesus is not indifferent to these issues. He is more focused on their underlying cause. The underlying cause is separation, fragmentation, division, and distortion. Simply addressing an issue will not solve the underlying problem.

We can relax in grace as we seek to participate in the divine life of the Trinity. We can relax into the Sovereignty of God as we ponder the Great Mystery of the community of eternal love which is God. We can experience greater confidence, courage and peace as we ask the Holy Spirit to transform our desires at the altar of sacrifice.

God is less concerned about where we stand on the issues of our time and culture and more concerned that we stand within the active dynamic transforming reality of the Trinity. We gain greater clarity of thought, purity of heart and singleness of will as we open our souls to the Real Presence of God at the altar of Real Presence.

God the Father designed us according to the pattern of God the Son by the indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit. God delights in us, in you. God sent Jesus to set us free from sadness, frustration, conflict, guilt and pride. Jesus offers us a new life” Trinitarian life. Jesus offers us a new way of living: Trinitarian living.

The Great Mystery of the Trinity is that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ. The greater mystery is that all of us have been created according to this pattern of infinite and eternal love. The greatest mystery is that Jesus today offers us a way to participate in this love here and now.

It starts as we receive the immersion of divine love into the reality of divine love who eternally manifests himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.