This day, named Trinity Sunday speaks to the importance of maintaining balance. History teaches us that terrible things happen in any community when it develops a one-track mind or becomes fixated on a single issue. For example, it is so easy to take certain passages, especially in the Gospel of John, out of context and justify a diabolical anti-Semitism or to take a few sentences out of the edited writings of St. Paul and misconstrue them as Jesus’ commandments for all time, when in reality they were merely the customs of a particular culture, something that even Paul himself admitted. The troubling heresies of the church were inevitably fed by a narrow overemphasis of one dimension or of a singular truth.
We mainly know the Gospel message through stories. Jesus told stories because that is the way people learned and remembered the ways of God. Actually I suspect it is the great body of stories that we collect over the years, which orient us to life and inform us whom we truly are.
For me to know about my family, I needed to learn from members on both sides of my family as much as I could, and from more than one generation. The wonderful thing about grandparents sharing stories is that the stories they pass on often come, not from just one person, but from many other people, other relatives, long since moved or having entered the gates of larger life. A grandparent may well be sharing the stories heard as a child or told by a sibling, uncle, and cousin or even from one of their own children. These stories just don't take place in one period of time. If we think about the stories that we as adults carry, they probably extend over a full century or more. Lastly, these stories range with some being specifically about us to those about people we know very well, and to still others we will never meet.
In a storehouse of stories, the dimension of time offers us perspective, giving us a sense of a past, an orientation to our present, and a vision that the future will be as real as the past was and the present is. The wealth of many sources gives us an horizon to judge where we stand, giving us the wisdom, experience, and points of view of probably hundreds, if not thousands of people. Lastly, stories which vary in distance from close and personal to far and removed, save us from self-centeredness and narcissism on one hand and serve to connect and anchor us on the other, giving us a sense of focus when we deal with others.
Both the Bible and the continuing tradition of faith pull together a storehouse of stories to help the people of God maintain a sense of horizon, perspective and focus. Orthodox Christianity holds that there is one God. We describe God in terms of human language and analogies that all have definite limitations. In the conventions of our English language we traditionally call the one God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. For many, these specific terms are problematic, and unfortunately there does not seem to be as yet any common agreement on a satisfactory substitute. Yet these three terms describe aspects of a relationship, not a description of God's sexuality or inner psyche. God is neither male nor female nor androgynous. Masculinity, femininity, gender, sexuality are all part of the earthly order that God creates.
In one sense the metaphoric language of the Trinity is like an insurance policy. It reminds us that the Gospel makes distinctions between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, yet these distinct realities are also one. The Gospel does not introduce additional gods. We are protected against a jealousy of the Son over the Father, or the Son over the Holy Spirit. We know that Jesus loved and prayed to God the Father and that the Father loved the Son. We know that Jesus promised us the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The relationship between/among Father, Son and Holy Spirit is not one of competition or exclusiveness, but of mutuality and love. We can pray to Jesus and be assured that the Holy Spirit knows.
We are protected against a so-called cruel god of the Old Testament versus a so-called merciful god of the New Testament. We are protected against a divine role playing which would have an inconsistent god acting one moment in one role, another moment in another role, and who knows what in the next.
We know from the Biblical witness that God is not capricious. The relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit is stable and everlasting. We can count on it. God is always one who loves the world, right from the first. God the Father is always loving and reaching out for us. Jesus Christ is always offering us Good News of redemption; the Holy Spirit is always available to give us strength.
Like the storehouse of stories that tell us who we are and safeguard us through storms and dark nights, one or two examples won't cover or delineate everything in full. For all stories that deal with relationships and give us perspective, focus and horizons are never exhausted in one evening or upon a single telling. Similarly, the provisions of the Trinity are not easily or briefly stated, for their umbrella of protection is substantial. That, in itself, is Good News. In the Gospel today, Jesus is giving, in effect, a farewell address to his followers. It is instructive that he doesn’t say, “Now you know everything you need to know and you will never forget anything that I’ve said to you.” Rather, he says, “You have much more to know. You will be guided and the future will hold new insight and deeper knowledge. You will never stop learning and God in various ways will never give up leading you into greater understanding and truth. The concept of the Trinity is one of the ancient and dependable guides ready to lead us.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
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