Trinity Sunday Year C

May I speak in the name of God the Holy Trinity. Amen

A few years ago, as part of my training, I wrote an essay with the title ‘The Holy Trinity: anachronistic irrelevance or source of joy, revelation and rich, life-giving truth?’

I hope you’ll be pleased to hear that my conclusion did not lie on the anachronistic irrelevance side of the argument! But the process of digging into the many attempts through history to understand and express the nature of God, from the 2nd Century, through many heresies that emerged in relation to the doctrine of the Trinity, and all the way forward to theological discourse of today, was a fascinating and intriguing journey of discovery. But don’t worry, I’m not going to subject you to my essay for today’s sermon!

Last Sunday we shared in the joy and wonder of the early church at Pentecost, as we celebrated the gift of the Holy Spirit to Christ’s followers beginning in the earliest days of the church. And on this Sunday the church lectionary gifts us with the opportunity to reflect on the eternal mystery and joy that is the Holy Trinity, one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

There have been myriad attempts to understand this mystery; to come up with a metaphor that sheds light and gives us that ‘Aha’ moment when we finally understand it. It’s fun to analyse the merits (and demerits) of these, but in a way I feel that getting stuck here is a bit like focusing on working out the recipe for a favourite dish, when we could sit down, be served the dish of our dreams, breathe deeply to savour its smell, and then enjoy that sensuous moment of delight as the flavours explode in one’s mouth.

So I hope that, with God’s grace, we might this morning delight in the mystery of the Trinity.

The early Western and Eastern churches took very different approaches to this mystery. The Western church, influenced by St Augustine, started with the insistence upon one God as revealed in Scripture, and from here sought to distinguish three persons. In contrast, the Eastern church started from the three distinct persons as revealed in Scripture, and worked to recognise the oneness, the deepest nature of the One, as revealed in these three.

I get a whiff of that delicious meal when I embrace the Eastern approach and look to the three persons in Scripture, and seek to discover something of their oneness, so that’s the direction we’ll take this morning.
There are a number of qualities or characteristics of God that seem to be at the heart of the three persons in one, and I’d like to explore those a bit with you, and to reflect on these qualities in relation to ourselves, we who are created in the image of God. So what are some of these shared characteristics?

First, God is dynamic
The three-fold nature of God means that there is movement between and amongst the three. God’s self is fluid, flows, dances. Richard Rohr, the Franciscan priest and writer, speaks of God as dance, and the Trinity as the ‘divine dance’, a dynamic energy and being that gently engages, and responds, and lives in threeness, in the dynamism of relationship.

For ourselves, then, we too live in dynamic relationship, with God and with one another. This dynamism has at its core, the recognition of the other, separate from and connected to me. As we respond to one another, as modelled on the Trinity, we will be enabled to enjoy the gifts and the challenges of the other. We will be changed and made more complete by the influences we have on one another making us more than we could ever be as individuals. We dance together, and discover more of the other and of ourselves.

Second, God is diverse
The three-ness of God creates diversity while being united as one; each has their own way of embodying and expressing goodness, beauty, love and righteousness. They are not the same, but their perfect oneness allows the contrasting manifestations of these graces to be offered to all Creation. Difference, then, lies at the very heart of God’s nature, and therefore of ours. Our differences from one another are a part of the reality of God the Trinity within us, and we are enriched and increased by the diversity of our worldwide human family.

Third, God is communal
More than God welcoming and valuing community, God is community; community that is connection and communion. When we isolate ourselves, one from another, when we prioritise independence and individuality over companionship and mutuality, we make ourselves smaller, we lessen who we are. God is relationship, and it is only in relationship that we can live together in the fullness of God.

Fourth, God is hospitable
I am sure many of you know Rublev’s icon of the Trinity. We are very fortunate to have in the side chapel an icon by local artist David Grossart, which draws on the Rublev in new ways. Please do take some time to sit with this work; the Holy Trinity persons have faces almost indistinct from one another, but are dressed in different colours. By their gaze and gesture the three exude adoration and intimacy, but also, openness. When praying with this icon we find ourselves drawn in and welcomed into the intimate Trinitarian space. The holy three always desire expansion and the welcome of another: you, and me! As we draw nearer to the three, we find that our own hearts are transformed, becoming wider and more hospitable to the world, the people and events that we encounter, and we are filled with joy.

And finally, God is love
The Holy Trinity is an expression of deep, unfaltering, life-giving love, between Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and spilling over into all Creation. This is love that cannot ever be diminished, but only increased the more it is known and expressed and shared. This is God’s love that, Paul writes in Romans, is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. This is love that is shown in the life that Jesus lived, expressed in moments of tender care. This is love shown in the open-hearted joyous welcome of the Father to the son who was lost and was found.

Of course, these five aspects are just the starter in our ongoing discovery of the breadth and depth of God the Holy Trinity - we can spend a lifetime searching and exploring and never come close to completeness in describing the being of God…

In a moment Hugh will be baptised, and we will welcome him into the ever-expanding family of God. As with every one of us, Hugh is a beloved child of God, made in the image of God the Trinity, this mysterious, flowing, dancing, diverse, communal, hospitable, loving God. This morning’s baptism is the next step in Hugh's dance with God, the dance in which he, and we, waltz, jive, pirouette, stumble, and ceilidh dance through life, and are invited into the joy and intimacy of the Trinity, and of the Divine Trinitarian Dance. Amen.