The Undivided Trinity: fact or fiction?
22nd May 2005, Evensong, Trinity Sunday
Isaiah 6: 1-8
John 16: 5-15
In some of his writing about the Trinity, Nicky Gumbel the evangelical priest largely responsible for the establishment of the "Alpha" programme, writes as follows: "It is sometimes suggested …that the idea of the Trinity is unbiblical…that it is unbelievable because it is incomprehensible. The white queen in Alice through the looking glass made a habit of believing six impossible things before breakfast. Many wonder whether as Christians we are required to do something similar in the doctrine of the Trinity".
In our worship tonight we have affirmed our faith in the Apostles’ Creed but, had we used the Athanasian Creed (put together around AD 500), we would have found the words, "The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, the Holy Ghost incomprehensible … not three incomprehensibles….but one incomprehensible" to which, theologian Alister McGrath points out, many are sorely tempted to add, "The whole thing incomprehensible". Yet the Athanasian Creed stands as one of the great affirmations of Trinitarian faith and whilst "incomprehensible" may mean to us today, "difficult to understand" it’s archaic roots lay in a sense of something without limits, a boundless substance.
So, if we the faithful followers of Christianity find ourselves so bemused by the concept of God in three persons, why do we persist in celebrating Trinity Sunday each year, one week after Pentecost? It doesn’t seem to generate great excitement in the congregation, it terrorises the novice preacher (no rookie ordinand or reader is ever considered "fully fledged" until they’ve taken the graveyard slot of Trinity Sunday). Neither do we find huge quantities of musical output either to support our liturgy as we do for Easter, Pentecost and Christmas.
In the light of this - as suggested by my sermon title this evening, we probably need to ask ourselves whether the Undivided Trinity is no longer fact but fiction?
First, therefore, let us turn to Holy Scripture to examine the arguments. On doing so, we find ourselves immediately on sticky ground because nowhere in the Bible is the word "Trinity" (derived from the Latin word trinitas meaning threeness) mentioned. So then, can we say it is all fiction - surely the evidence points to same? If we cannot back our claim with scripture, how can we claim it all?
Well, whilst the word Trinity may not appear in the Bible, there are plenty of references to the ingredients that make up the triune God. In the Old Testament we experience the one, true God - the omnipotent God and yet equally, from Genesis onwards the presence of the three parts of the Trinity are there. St John tells us that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." We know the "word" was Christ himself. So as God created the world, Christ was there and Genesis 1 tells us "the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." We can therefore see at work from the start of time the triune God - each part knowing the other, each loving the other and trusting the other in perfect unity. It was not, of course, until the coming of Christ that we, humankind, caught a glimpse of this in a form we could at least make some attempt to grasp.
If we turn our attention now to the New Testament, we can find a significant number of passages that make reference to a Trinitarian theology.
We see, in the baptism of Christ, the coming together of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The great commission of Christ himself at the end of Matthew’s gospel is to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". St Paul regularly draws on the sense of the Trinity in his writing. Describing the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 he writes, "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but he same God works all of them in everyone." And later, in 2 Corinthians 13 familiar words - "May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all".
Time tonight doesn’t permit me to draw your attention to all such similar references but there are plenty more if you look for them and I think too, in the Apostles, we see an out-working of the Trinity. They knew the one true God through their own Jewish background, they knew the Son by first hand experience and they felt the full force of the Holy Spirit when he came upon them at Pentecost. So, it would seem from this that, whilst we may not find the word "Trinity" in the Bible, there is sufficient evidence to build a fairly compelling and comprehensive case that scripture proves the Undivided Trinity as fact not fiction.
But how does this relate to the Christian church today and to us, personally? Here, I regret to say, the ground is not so firm. 1 Peter 1 verse 2 speaks of those "who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ." We are therefore part of this Trinitas - yet just how good are we at expressing it.
Tim Chester writes as follows: "Many of us find the doctrine of the Trinity difficult to get our heads round and frankly a bit embarrassing. What is more, we seem to get by without it. But, in reality, the Trinity is at the heart of all we believe. The Trinity gives shape to Christian truth".
So, if this is true, why do we make such a burden of it all and how is the Trinity used in the contemporary church?
Let’s briefly take a look (in the broadest and perhaps slightly caricatured terms) at the way churches can exist quite cheerfully with only one part of the Trinity really brought to life, paying only lip service to the other two.
First the Church which makes much of God as Father. Generally this is a very steady and stable church, the worship is often traditional, the music solid and secure, affirming all that is best about the Fatherhood of God. People are valued, the rituals affirm God-given ability. The downside however is a failure to really relate to the crucified Christ and the, at times, disturbing and challenging work of the Holy Spirit. This is not a church to welcome any unwanted happenings that cannot be quantified into nice boxes. A church that would be perhaps a little irritated if the Holy Spirit went to work in unacceptable ways, disturbing the patterns of established liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer or Common Worship. It’s a solid church but equally hollow through its playing down of the Son and Spirit.
So do we see better success in a Christ-centred church? Sadly not really. Worship in this church is very centred on the theology of salvation - a great and burning desire to see people brought to Christ, kept in the fold of Christ and saved for ever from the nastiness of the world outside. Worship will be very Christ-focussed often with considerable use made of contemporary worship music (which, much though I love it is, in itself, very Christ-orientated) and sermons are likely to be long, seeking to direct the faithful on the "only true way" to become a good disciple. There is a real danger that this church turns in on itself and ignores the centrality of God as Father and the working of the Holy Spirit in its midst.
If the God-centred and Son-centred communities don’t get it quite right, then surely those lively, happy people of the Spirit-filled churches, dancing, singing and clapping their way through life with a good dose of prophecy, praying in tongues and slaying by the Spirit must have it all? Again, alas not really. Here the presence of the Spirit may be truly dynamic (and potentially to the outside observer downright mystifying and perhaps unnerving) but all this fervent enthusiasm can so easily detract from the richness of the biblical history of God and the sacrifice of the Son, celebrated in the eucharistic feast. Much that is done is seen as gifting by the Spirit and obedience to the one true God becomes watered down by that very dependence on the Spirit.
Now these may be very broad pictures and ones some of you may wish to argue against but, as I move around churches in the course of my work as a church musician, I can identify with having seen some of each of these types in reality. A colleague of mine who trained on the East Anglian Ministerial Training course tells me at times of worship and in discussions one could easily see the type of church each ordinand had come from. These pictures of how we behave according to our own Trinitarian response are, maybe, not so far fetched.
I would suggest, therefore, a church where all the members are really steeped in the full recognition of the triune God is, increasingly, a rarity. When one does find it, as has been my pleasure in a couple of very different scenarios in recent years, the result is humbling, awesome, challenging, exhilarating and one senses through it a deep desire to grow ever closer in relationship with God in three persons.
So, finally what of us personally? Well, in truth, I think we probably too can easily ignore the part, or parts, of the Trinity we find most difficult to comprehend because our desire and hunger to feed on all three becomes easily diluted. We do not seek to deepen our spirituality and be filled with the fullness of God.
It is quite clear from the final verse of our Gospel reading tonight when Jesus says, "All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you." that Jesus envisaged our completeness as Christians would come from an intimate relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Peter Adam expresses it rather well when he writes, "It is through knowledge of the triune God that the immensity of God’s plan and love can be known; the fullness of God’s life is found in those who know the Father, the Son and the Spirit".
I believe we need to ask ourselves again if we desire, beyond all else in our lives that self-same fullness. I am guessing that if I was to be serving up a Trinitarian "cake" at this service, most would come forward to take a slice. For each of us it would be the slice which (just like the churches I described) represents the part of the Trinity with which we feel most at ease and that would be different amongst us. This level of hunger on our parts is the routine life of church membership - the bit satisfied by a diet of fairly regular worship and some private prayer and study.
For some, however, the hunger will not be satisfied and so a second, different, slice is required. Here the challenges become a little more uncomfortable - but that’s probably OK as we recall (with some sense of self-satisfaction) that Christ said it wouldn’t be easy to follow him. We try that little bit harder in our lives, yet still we shut out the final dimension by turning away from the really difficult bit - the third different slice.
This will be the really hard one to swallow unless the spiritual hunger is great enough. You may find it hard to accept the realities of God’s authority revealed in scriptural truth, or struggle to respond to a call on your life or the acceptance of personal forgiveness and salvation through the Cross? Perhaps you desire to close doors tight shut to make sure the sand doesn’t start shifting under your feet if the Holy Spirit is given free reign? The reasons why we take our hands away from that last bit of Trinity cake are many but I suspect in each of us an element of fear of the unknown consequences of our actions is a key factor.
Yet, we are called to a deep and full relationship with God - the one true God, the triune God. How can we call ourselves Christians if we limit our diet to snacking and fail to eat a full and nourishing meal at God’s table? There are no "Jamie Olivers" in this realm, no "GI diets", no "Atkins", no quick fixes.
So, tonight I would like to leave you with a challenge to consider again, namely your response to the Trinity in its totality. The Trinity may be fact in Holy Scripture but what about for you? Tonight, tomorrow or whenever, how would you plead in God’s court? Have you the desire to enter into a complete, deeply nourishing, undiluted union with God, as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? The Undivided Trinity for you personally - is it an alive and vibrant fact, or is it still a piece unresolved and mystifying fiction?
Amen.