Week Fourteen-Day Four: Trinitarian

“There is no subject where error is more dangerous, research more laborious, and discovery more fruitful than the oneness of the Trinity (unitas Trinitatis) of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Augustine

“Truth is the Trinity.” Bertrand de Margerie, S.J.

Over the next couple of days, we’re going to trace the doctrine of the trinity into the Old Testament and then into the writings of the early church (right after the time of the apostles). We need to see that this idea has always been an intuitive part of how the faithful have understood God. Maybe that goes too far. In the case of the Old Testament, maybe they didn’t get what they got, but it’s clear that they got something.

But today, let’s back up a step. Before we go there, let’s look at how in the world we are supposed to understand the idea of the trinity. We’ve looked at why we believe in the trinity and we’ve looked at definitions of it, but how are we to think about it? If Augustine was right, if “error is more dangerous” and “discovery more fruitful” then we can’t simply write the trinity off to “I guess I’ll never understand. I just have to accept it with childlike faith!”

I’m not arguing against childlike faith. But that can sometimes be an excuse not to invest in “laborious” but ultimately very “fruitful” research and discovery. So how are we to think about it? If the early followers are to be believed, if Jesus is to be believed about himself, then we should move toward full acceptance of this doctrine. But acceptance falls a good distance short of understanding doesn’t it? So how are we to think about it?

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three-persons-in-one-being. Let’s start by adding a nuance to our understanding of the trinity. Let’s put it another way: God exists in eternal community. That’s what the trinity is: an eternal community.

There’s a lot of talk about “community” these days. Almost everyone recognizes that we don’t have community the way we used to. People are more transient; they are busier; they don’t join things like they used to (membership in the PTA, Boy Scouts, civic clubs and bowling leagues is way down). Perhaps in a defensive response to the disconnection we feel, we have attached “community” to all sorts of associations: “the online community”, “the Russian community”, “the gay community”, “the rap community”, “the penguin community”, etc. (Probably none of you are actually in the penguin community, but it is a very well dressed group.)

So let’s acknowledge two very obvious realities: (1) we long for community, and (2) God is the original community! Here’s how author Julie Gorman put it: “The unity of God is found to be in the singular character of the shared community (in the Godhead). There is no unity without community … While each of the persons in the Godhead is unique, they represent interrelationship par excellence.”[1]

Honestly, just the terminology of God-in-community has added layers of meaning to the idea of the trinity for me. God is in a relationship with Himself, and He has been for eternity. Perhaps this is why John could say “God is love.” Perhaps John wasn’t being poetic at all; perhaps he was intending to state something about reality. God is an “interrelationship par excellence.”

Pause here for just a minute. Turn these two questions over in your mind a couple of times before you go on:

1. How does the idea that God is the original community affect your understanding of God?
2. Based on the fact that God is the original community, why would He be interested in our relationships with one another?

Okay, let’s take a completely different pass around this same part of the track. Let’s take another look from a different angle. C. S. Lewis offered what I believe to be the best illustration of the trinity ever given. He asks us to imagine drawing a straight line on a piece of paper. This is a one-dimensional figure. Then imagine drawing a square. Lewis reminds us that while the second figure is completely different from the first, it nevertheless uses elements of the first figure. That is, several straight lines are used to make the square. Then Lewis suggests that we imagine drawing a three-dimensional cube. The cube is actually the combination of six squares drawn together. He summarizes:

“In other words, as you advance to more real and more complicated levels, you do not leave behind you the things you found on the simpler levels, you still have them, but combined in new ways – in ways you could not imagine if you knew only the simpler levels. Now the Christian account of God involves just the same principle. The human level is a simple and rather empty level. On the human level one person is one being, and any two persons are two separate beings – just as, in two dimensions (say on a flat sheet of paper) one square is one figure, and any two squares are two separate figures. On the Divine level you still find personalities, but up there you find them combined in new ways which we, who do not live on that level, cannot imagine. In God’s dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube.”

How thrilling our God is! He has built enough of Himself into our being so that we can relate to Him and yet He is infinitely more real and more complex. “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”[2]

BEFORE YOU START YOUR DAY

1. If you are able, get on your knees this morning and read the Nicene Creed as an act of worship.

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.  We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father [and the Son], who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.  

1. Give your day to the Triune God.Ask Him to make you aware of His presence in all of your relationships.