Trinity Sunday sermon

         This is Trinity Sunday - an exciting day, but you might be wondering why we have a day set aside just for the Trinity - don't we celebrate it every day?

         Well, yes. But we can look into history, about a thousand years back to Thomas a Beckett, who had his episcopal consecration the Sunday after Whitsunday (or Pentecost) - and how his primary focus was on the Trinity, the importance of the three in one and one in three. Especially after Beckett was martyred, the tradition continued of dedicating this Sunday in particular to the recognition of the Trinity.

         Now: trying to articulate the Trinity is NOT easy. There is a long history of analogies that kinda almost get it, but never quite do. 

         Modalism is the heresy that God is only revealing in different forms, not as three distinct persons: like water as ice, liquid, or vapour; or a man as brother, husband, father.

         Arianism (the sun is a star, which also provides light and heat) is also a heresy as it suggests that Jesus and the Spirit are not entities of their own without the Father.

         Partialism, like the apple (seed, flesh, and peel) identifies all three as parts of a whole, but do not make up the whole itself. Same goes for the egg, or Patrick's allegorical shamrock. It suggests that each person of the Trinity is only one-third of God.

         There is a more modern descriptor, and that is a hologram: it's a projected 3-dimensional image - it's quite complex, but a simple example is the 3-D reflective piece on our credit cards - that's a simple hologram. Now, if we were to break up that reflective piece (and I don't recommend it) - the image would still be there - because every aspect of a hologram is present in every piece of a hologram.  The clarity decreases the smaller you go, but the whole thing is there, in every piece, all the time.

It's fascinating. But it's still too human, too limited - we can't diminish or enhance God by human means.

         So we STILL can't convey the mystery and majesty of the Trinity.

         The Trinity is beyond us; we only embrace it by faith. St Athanasias does perhaps the best job of describing it. We all know St Athanasias, right? The third canonical creed is attributed to him. (For those of you who aren't up on your Anglican tradition, there are three creeds: the Apostle's, written in about the first century, very short, often used in matins and evensong, and at funerals; there's the Nicene, written in the 4th century, ish, a bit longer and more detailed, we use it every Sunday; and the Athaniasian, found at the back of the Book of Common Prayer, early mediaeval authorship, a lot more detail and GREAT Trinitarian theology and Christology, and about 4 pages long. We don't use it often outside of confirmation classes or Anglican 101.)

         Athanasias describes the Trinity thus: "The Father is God, The Son is God, The Holy Spirit is God; God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the Holy Spirit; The Father is not the Son, The Son is not the Father, The Father is not the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit is not the Father, The Son is not the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit is not the Son." We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, neither dividing the persons nor confusing the substance. Each person is equal in One, co-Equal in majesty.

         So - everyone's experts on Trinitarian theology now, right?

         Well. Obviously not. Because we can never be experts in Trinitarian theology. Because as much as we might like to fully understand it, we never will. We were not created to understand it. We are, however, created to delight in it.

Let's think about the readings.

         In Isaiah - the Lord is present, God the Father in Heaven; the one who redeems is present as sins are forgiven - who we now understand to be the Christ. And the Spirit of the Lord is present, inspiring the prophet's response to the call to ministry.

         In Romans, Paul is very clear as he speaks of the three persons of the Trinity - Father to us as children, heirs with Christ, and the Spirit who leads us all towards righteousness.

         Even Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus - a guy who likes facts, not faith. Even there Jesus addresses the mystery of our one God's three persons: distinct, yet unified. The Son shares good news of forgiveness, The Father's Kingdom is assured to be attainable, the Spirit is the bringer of the newness of being.

         This is what the Trinity is to us then. Here, now, yet still inexplicable. And that's just fine. It is good, we are assured, to dwell in the mystery; to dance with the unknown, to embrace the undefinable.

         We don't need to be able to categorise the Trinity: we're smart enough to know that we never can. We are fortunate to be the creatures God chose to reveal the Trinity to! So we know that it exists - and that it wants to know us and be known to us.

         So I pray that we have the emotional and Spiritual intelligence to accept that the Trinity is bigger than any of us: and that's okay: but we celebrate that the Trinity is the accessible gift to all of us; and that is cause for thankful hearts.

         And may we recognise the blessings that the Triune God: the creator, the redeemer, and the sustainer - pours upon us every day.