Understanding the Trinity: Unity, Diversity, Relationship, Love: Trinity Sunday

We have at least four doctrinal statements about the Trinitarian nature of God in the Prayer Book: the Nicene Creed, the Apostles’ Creed, the Te Deum, and the Athanasian Creed. The first three will be familiar to many of you, and the fourth, the Athanasian Creed, is printed in the Prayer Book on page 864.1 

That’s a whole lot of creedal statements about a doctrine that most of us still struggle to understand. I once had a seminary professor who said, “If you preach more than five minutes about the Trinity, you’re sure to preach a heresy.” This is the Sunday if you’re the Rector with a multi-staff parish that you assign the assistant or the deacon to preach! 

It is actually easy to preach or state something in error without ever intending to. 

On Friday, I was driving through New Market. One of the churches had a sign saying, “All you need is Jesus.” 

Technically speaking, the statement “All you need is Jesus” can be considered an error because it can imply the denial or neglect of the other persons of the Trinity and their roles in salvation and the Christian life. I’m sure that wasn’t the message intended by whoever put the statement on that sign. Do you see why only post worship times on the sign at Saint Andrew’s?! 

So, what can we say about the Trinity? 

Starting with the Collect for Trinity Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer, there is an emphasis on the unity of the Trinity. This Collect invites us into a relationship with the Triune God. The Collect implicitly points to the unity within the Trinity and the transformative impact of that unity in the lives of believers. 

While the concept of the Trinity – referring to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as three persons in one God – is a central doctrine in many Christian denominations, the term “Trinity” itself is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible. There are, however, various passages that have been interpreted as suggesting a Trinitarian understanding of God, two of which we hear in today’s scripture. 

In Matthew, Jesus commands his disciples to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” suggesting a three-in-one concept of God.2 

In Paul’s closing remarks to the Corinthians, he mentions the three persons: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”3 This benediction mentions all three persons of the Trinity. It identifies specific attributes associated with each: grace with Jesus, love with God the Father, and communion (or fellowship) with the Holy Spirit. Each of these elements has a significant meaning. 

“Grace” typically refers to the unmerited favor of God, something Paul emphasizes through his letters. It’s especially connected to the idea of salvation through Jesus Christ. 

“Love” is a key attribute of God the Father, encapsulating God’s goodwill towards humanity. 

Finally, the “communion of the Holy Spirit” speaks to the relational aspect of the Spirit, the ongoing presence of God in believers’ lives that unites and empowers the Christian community. 

The term Trinity to describe the mystery of God in unity was developed in the 2nd century. Trinity means “threefold unity.” The corresponding word in Greek means “the triad.” The Trinity is a perfect relationship of love in which neither unity nor the distinct nature of each of the divine persons is subordinate to the other. The Holy Trinity is an example of unity: different, mysterious, communal, and relational. You may have heard myriad ways our tradition has described the three souls of God. The most orthodox is “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Also common is: “Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.” “The One, Holy and Undivided Trinity.” Presiding Bishop Curry is fond of “Loving, liberating and life-giving God.” The New Zealand Prayer Book describes God as “Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver.” There are metaphors for ice, water, and vapor. 

What other ways might you begin to understand the divine mystery of the Trinity? 

You may relate to one more than the others in different seasons of your life. We all need water, food, and air, but we need each differently at different times. Who do you relate to today, this beginning of Pentecost? Is it the Creator of the universe in Genesis, the one who brought all things into being? Is it our brother Jesus, the Christ who walked, cried, laughed, got angry and dusty and hungry alongside us? Is it the mystery of the Spirit, the tongues of fire that burned on the disciples and burns still in you and me? 

And the unity of which the Trinity speak is not sameness. Because God created the world with diversity, not sameness, because Jesus walked alongside people of all backgrounds and wounds because the Spirit is in all of us – and even went so far as to communicate in languages of all kinds at Pentecost – God understands difference. God understands relationships. God understands community. God understands diversity. 

In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul writes that the members should “agree with one another, live in peace… greet one another with a holy kiss.” 

It’s a lovely image – a community at peace and in agreement. Paul undoubtedly wrote this encouragement because things were not so in the church. Divisions, opinions, personalities, and traditions easily divide us, creating a community with tension and conflict instead of peace and agreement. We are not a people of sameness, and that often creates conflict. Goodness knows we see that throughout our world today. 

It can be easy to claim that God is on our side, especially when our friends agree with us. But it takes humility to engage with and allow ourselves to be transformed by someone different than us, to have enough vulnerability to greet someone across the aisle with a holy kiss. It takes humility to engage with the Trinity in our lives sincerely. 

What did Jesus preach, live, and teach? Relationship. What does the Holy Spirit move us to do? Relationship. And what does the Creator inspire over and over us in the accounts of the divine? Relationship. The Holy Trinity creates, models, and exists in relationships in community. The Trinity shows us that in human relationships, we people need other people. That’s what scholarship on the Trinity has been all about in the last fifty years: relationships. 

But, no matter how hard we try, our understanding will never capture the fullness of the Trinity. This mystery calls us not just to intellectual contemplation but to a deep, transformative faith, a faith that encourages openness, inclusivity, and unconditional love. This infinite, selfless, agape love echoes the perfect, unending, eternal love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

Can we embody the self-giving love Jesus demonstrated? Can we love our neighbors we may not like? 

Through the mystery of the Trinity, I hope we find the strength to be open-minded and compassionate, to love beyond borders and boundaries, just as God’s love is for all humanity.