THE TRINITY

Dr. Richard J. Henderson May 18, 2008

click for printable version

Psalm 8 (responsive)
Matthew 28:16-20

Introduction

Today is Trinity Sunday. A lot of preachers skip right over Trinity Sunday - I've done it myself more than once. The doctrine of the trinity is dense theology. It's hard to understand the trinity even when you read about it - when you can go back and re-read a paragraph again and again until you feel like you understand it - let alone trying to explain it in a sermon. Do you know what I mean?

It's hard to make the doctrine of the trinity sparkle. How can you tell a compelling story about someone's experience with the trinity? We preachers know when we start to explain the trinity, eyes will glass over, heads begin to bob and eyelids droop.

Understanding the trinity is important; don't get me wrong. It's just not real exciting. The trinity is such weighty and complex theology that it's difficult to understand.

I

Actually, the first place to begin with the trinity is to realize that we can't understand it. Because God is God, we aren't going to understand God completely. If we could totally comprehend God - know exactly who God is and what he is like - then that would not be God, but a creature of our own imagination. Since God is God he is beyond our understanding.

The best we can do is to make comparisons. We can say what God is like. (I don't mean comparisons like the ones circulating on the internet, "God is like Ford, he has a better idea," - that sort of thing). Our comparisons need to have a bit more depth.

II

One way to look at the trinity is through relationships. For example, I am a father, a husband, and a grandfather. I am one person but people see me in three different ways. I don't deal with my children in the same way that I deal with my grandchildren. Our son would disown me if I tried to burp him after dinner! And the goochy-goochy-goo thing we do with Mara wouldn't work with our daughter.

I am the same person, but I relate to different people in different ways. I don't relate to my wife in the same way I relate to my children and grandchildren. I am one person but I relate to people with different dimensions of my personality. My grandchildren interact with a different part of me than my wife does, and yet I am the same person. People see different aspects of me depending on my relationship with them.

We understand different dimensions of God when we talk about God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

III

Or, look at it from a different angle. When we play a song, different notes go together to make the melody and harmony, but they all make up the same song. We can hear the song from different perspectives - a soprano will hear some notes more than others. A tenor will relate to different notes, and altos and basses still others, but they all make up the same song.

I'm going to ask Alex for some help here. With these first notes we can identify the song. (Play top notes). Other, different notes support those, but they are part of the same song - (play top chords). Still other notes are part of the same song, but add another dimension to it - (play all chords).

These are three dimensions of the same song. It is one song but there are three different ways of hearing it - of relating to it.

God is one, but there are three different ways of knowing God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each is a different part of the same thing. And our understanding of the one is richer and fuller when we see all three together.

So as we understand the three parts of the trinity better - Creator, Son, and Spirit - and see each of them as a dimension of the one God, we have a richer understanding of God as three in one - the trinity.

IV

One thing that the trinity makes clear is that God is about relationships. The three persons of the trinity relate to each other, and together they relate to us and our world.

Because God loves us he comes to us in different ways - as creator in the majestic beauty of the world God made, as the son who gave everything for us, and as the Holy Spirit that moves among us and inspires us.

Because there are different dimensions to God, there are different ways in which we can relate to God. Some feel the spirit more than they sense the God of creation; some can identify with Christ, our brother, more than the Father or Spirit. The three facets of God's being make it easier for us to relate to the one God.

Conclusion

The doctrine of the trinity is a lot more complicated than this, of course, but hopefully from these comparisons we get some understanding of how God can be three and still be one God. This mysterious, awe-inspiring God relates to each and all of us, not just in one way but in three ways. To know the three dimensions of the trinity is to have a richer understanding of God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God called us together for a reason.

Amen

© Richard J. Henderson 2008