Reflections on Holy Trinity
Photo by Lili Kovac on Unsplash
I suppose it is odd
that one of my
favorite festivals
of the liturgical year
is a day that celebrates
not an occasion,
or an event,
or even an experience
in the life
of Jesus.
Its texts
are not ones
that you can
readily visualize
or imagine
or see yourself
in the midst of –
like shepherds on a hillside,
or searching sages,
or an immersion in water
and the infilling of Word,
or breathtaking mountaintop moments,
or hearing your name called
at the grave of grief,
or being surrounded
and encircled
and filled
by the rush of the,
rush of the,
rush of the mighty mind.
No,
this festival
draws us ,
not into
a day in the life of Jesus,
not into a
Truth-infused
moment in time,
but into
a doctrine,
dogma,
an idea
that is a belief,
and a commitment,
and an assertion of faith.
on faith,
in faith,
and by faith –
Living,
to be sure –
And
Just beyond
our finite ability
to either fully grasp
or domesticate.
When Holy Trinity Sunday
rolls around,
sometimes
we are grateful
that it falls on
Memorial Day Weekend –
thank you, 2024 -
that first weekend of the summer
when we anticipate
a small crowd,
not too many people
to bear witness
to our wrestling
with this belief
that we regularly confess
but which we hope
we need not explain.
Sometimes,
we are grateful
that Holy Trinity
greets us in the texts for the day
at the end
of the academic year,
because then,
we might get to
substitute it
for Graduation Sunday
when we can
recognize those young people
within our communities,
celebrate their milestones,
bless them on their way,
and just skip over
this day
and this doctrine
that complicates
and confounds
and confuses
our thoughts
and our tongues
when we try to make sense out of it
and proclaim it
as a Living Word
that will indeed
breathe life
into our people.
Sometimes,
we are grateful
that Holy Trinity
falls on a day
when we can
easily,
without hesitation or resolve,
step away from the lectionary
and begin a summer series,
because summer
is an especially good time
to do such a thing.
And sometimes,
we just don’t need a reason,
other than
our own will and resolve
that Holy Trinity
is too
beyond-the-end-of-our-fingertips
to try to deal with in worship,
and so we
prayerfully,
carefully,
and faithfully
choose to begin
the Time After Pentecost
with different texts,
a different theme,
a different worship experience
for
and with our people.
We prayerfully,
carefully,
and faithfully
go from Pentecost-red
to Ordinary Time-green,
and leave the Christ-day-white
for those festivals
that make more sense -
and we are okay with that.
At least I was,
each of the times
that the preceding scenarios
became my answer
to the question of
how to approach
and what to do
on Holy Trinity.
And then
I served a congregation
whose name was
Trinity,
and who for whom
Holy Trinity Sunday
was a feast day
that was a name day
that was a
long-standing celebration
of identity
and relationship
and the mysteries of faith
alive within
and among
and through
the people of God.
Avoid it,
I could not,
And ever since,
it has been a favorite –
not just as a Feast Day,
but as
what is
and was
and is to come –
this doctrine
that is dogma,
that is an idea,
that is a belief,
that is a commitment,
that is an assertion of faith,
in faith,
by faith –
the Living God.
Because maybe,
just because it is God
that we are talking about,
it is good and right
for it to feel
a little beyond us,
not easily domesticated,
and still worth
our pondering
and wrestling
and wondering.
So,
when I ponder the Trinity
these days,
there are three things –
yes three!
That I ponder.
First,
and not surprisingly,
there is the MATH –
not my favorite subject,
by any means,
but one whose beauty
I can appreciate –
there is the math
of the Trinity
1+1+1=3
1x1x1=1
Three-in-One.
Addition
and multiplication –
Math.
Not perfect
though,
maybe it is!
At least
It gives us a way
to think
and imagine
and wonder
and close the gap
between
confusion
and comprehension.
MATH.
Second,
there are the METAPHORS –
There is the apple
with its skin
and meat
and core
There is the egg
with its shell
and white
and yolk
There is the banana –
that if you stick
your finger in it just right
splits into three perfect parts
And,
on and on
the metaphors go,
and yes,
I know the heresies into which
these metaphors
can so easily slide,
and I also know
that like the Word
becoming flesh
they give us something we can touch,
something we can see,
something,
like we ourselves,
that is the stuff of earth –
and like
the Word
and the water
and the bread
and the wine,
they give us something that
makes the intangible
tangible.
And didn’t
Jesus himself
speak in metaphors
when trying to
help those who gathered around
and hung on every word
grasp that which was
beyond their grasping?
After all,
who can really close
the imagination-chasm
that spreads
like an open abyss
between the
dusty-sunshine-rain-and-wonder
of all that is earth –
and heaven?
I mean who can really
stretch our hearts
and minds
to bridge that gap,
and so
thank God
quite literally
that Jesus said,
the kingdom of Heaven is like
a treasure
a mustard seed
leaven,
pearl,
yeast,
net.
So maybe,
just maybe –
it is equally helpful to say –
The Holy Trinity is like –
and let the Spirit
work with the stuff of earth
to help us
make sense
out of God,
who by the Incarnation
has communicated
a fondness,
a holy affection,
for the things that
can be
seen
and touched
and tasted.
So,
METAPHORS.
MATH.
METAPHORS.
And finally,
MYSTERY.
On the one hand,
that is obvious.
God is God,
inherently beyond us,
outside of us,
not within our grasp,
and so,
of course
God –
and the Trinity that is God –
is a mystery.
And,
I think there is a particular mystery
into which the Trinity draws us.
For this, Andrei Rublev’s
icon
quite literally
provides
a window.
As with any window,
each viewer
will see what they see –
a vision that may
or may not
be the same as others.
The mystery that I see
through this window
is this:
God is perfect communion,
The perfection of intimate community.
That is the Trinity.
That is what we mean
by this doctrine
that is dogma,
an idea,
a belief,
a commitment,
an assertion of faith,
in faith,
by faith –
This is the
the Living God –
perfect communion,
the perfection of intimate community.
In the image of this mystery,
we are created.
Through the gift of this mystery,
we are loved into life
and new life.
Through the power of this mystery,
we are called
and claimed,
anointed
and named,
sent
and sustained –
to be –
in and for the world –
the very presence
and power of God –
living,
breathing,
becoming,
perfect communion,
the perfection of intimate community.
MYSTERY.
MATH
METAPHOR
MYSTERY
And so,
It is Holy Trinity Sunday –
this confounding festival
that we cannot fully grasp
that immerses us
in the community
that is God
and calls us –
and the whole world –
anew
into the community
that we are.
