Sermon; Trinity Sunday A

We close out the liturgical season (Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost) with a day dedicated to, and specifically honoring, the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Trinity, a word that is found nowhere in scripture, is a central doctrine of the Church. Various denominations have a variety of things they hold to as necessary for the faith, but when it comes right down to it, there are only a few things that are absolutely necessary.

Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension are obvious ones. Christ the Son was from the beginning, therefore begotten, not made. Jesus was fully human and fully divine. And God exists in the Trinitarian form of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

That said, the Trinitarian Godhead only specifically appears twice in scripture. It's alluded to at Jesus' baptism, but it shows up specifically in today's gospel reading when Jesus commissions his disciples to “baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” It's also attested to in Paul's Trinitarian blessing that we heard from Second Corinthians – “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.” But other than that, it's just not there.

So how did Christians develop a Trinitarian theology and understanding of God?

As Christians read scripture, they began to ponder these two readings and wondered how these references to a 3-person Godhead were important. After all, Jesus and Paul just didn't make stuff up willy-nilly, so there had to be something to it. And then they began to look for references to it throughout scripture. It was in looking back to the Old Testament where they found two primary places where the Trinity could be found.

The first came from the story of creation which we heard this morning: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and earth, and a wind from God swept over the face of the waters, God said, 'Let there be light'.” In that story we are given an image of God creating, the wind (Spirit) of God hovering, and the logos (Word) speaking. Using the Gospel of John where Jesus is referred to as the Son of God and that he was going to send the Advocate, the Spirit, to the disciples after he returned to the Father, Genesis began to be seen as the first hint, or revelation, of the Godhead being Trinitarian.

Another allusion to the Trinity comes in Genesis 18 when the Lord (singular) appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre in the form of three men.

These scriptural references were the basis for the development of Trinitarian theology and doctrine. But, as you well know, describing the Trinity is difficult.

Things like modalism (one God who acted in three separate ways but never in unity), subordinationism (the Son and the Holy Spirit are seen as secondary, subordinate gods), and Arianism (a time when the Son was not, therefore a created being) developed as the Church struggled to define the Trinity. It was eventually defined and codified at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one, co-equal, and co-eternal God manifested in three distinct but equal persons. One God in Trinity and three Persons in Unity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit; not three Gods but one God. Neither is one greater than the other or less than the other, but all three are co-eternal and co-equal.

This is a hard concept to grasp. Oh, we easily close our prayers and Collects “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen,” but we really don't pay too much attention to that. That's probably because the more we think about the Trinity, the more our head hurts. And the more we talk about the Trinity, the more apt we are to descend into heresy. And then we need to burn someone at the stake, and there's paperwork to be filed, and it's just easier if we don't.

But if we do try to imagine it, we might think about the chemical compound H2O. That compound comes in the form of ice, liquid, and steam. Each one in its form is still H2O, so we can see how we can have three in one. But that's the heresy of modalism because while we can see the three distinct forms of H2O, we can never see liquid at the same time as ice or steam. So the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct from each other, but they are also united as one God at the same time.

Another way to think about the Trinity is within a loving relationship. As John says, God is love. Love binds everything together. Love is the driving force behind creation. And I use this image in my one and only wedding sermon which goes something like this:

Knowing nobody will remember anything I say today, I want you to remember this one thing. What is 1+1? One plus one isn't two, but three – there's the bride, the groom, and the marriage. You need to pay attention to all three for this to work. Love yourself. Love your spouse. Love your marriage.

But as good as that is, it really doesn't work as a complete explanation for the Trinity. You still have three parts without the three parts being one thing at the same time – I am not my wife.

So, if the Trinity isn't explicitly found in scripture, and if theologians had to work to develop this doctrine, and if we tend to fall into heresy when describing the Trinity, then why is it so important? Why do we dedicate this Sunday to focus specifically on the Trinity?

The answer to both those questions is because it helps us recognize the presence of mystery. We live with the presence of mystery every Sunday when we participate in Holy Communion. How is it that bread and wine become the real presence of Christ's Body and Blood? That is one of the great mysteries of the faith. Another great mystery, of course, is the Trinity. We can't really explain it, all we can do is describe it as three-in-one and one-in-three, or as “Trinity of Persons existing in complete Unity with each other.”

But that inability to comprehend completely isn't a failure on our part, it's the recognition that we are caught up in the mystery of God.

We don't need to have concrete explanations for everything. Our faith should be strong enough to accept doubts, to ask questions, and to welcome mystery. That's why today is so important – because it reminds us that God is so much bigger than we can ever comprehend. It reminds us that mystery isn't to be avoided, but to be appreciated and lived into.

Amen.