Trinity’ by Rev Allister Lane 12th June 2022

‘Trinity’ by Rev Allister Lane

12th June 2022

John 16:12-15 and Romans 5:1-5

These two short readings today are about who God is and what God does.

Last Sunday was Pentecost, and we heard about the Holy Spirit as ‘God in the present-tense’.

In this passage from John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks again to his disciples about the Holy Spirit.

The disciples can’t really comprehend what is about to happen to Jesus (arrest, beaten, killed), let alone all that happens afterward.

And so here Jesus emphasises the teaching role of the Holy Spirit.

We see how the Church moves into a ‘learning mode’ which is necessary to comprehend the events of Easter, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and God’s continuing presence in our midst.

Last week I suggested that (as well as ‘Counsellor’ and ‘Advocate’) a title for the Holy Spirit could be ‘Navigator’. 

Isn’t this what we hear Jesus saying in this passage:

“13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (v13)

Oh, how we need the Navigator with us today!

Let’s turn to the reading from Romans 5.

The reading starts “Therefore…”

And, good biblical scholars know that this is a link to what precedes this word. What is it ‘there for’?

In the preceding chapters in the letter to the Romans,

Paul has described the relentless sinfulness of humanity (Rom 1:18-3:20),

and then the radical intervention of God in the event of Jesus Christ (Rom 3:21-31).

Now, here in Chapter 5, the topic shifts to the consequences of that event for humanity:

1.         “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v1)

2.         “we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God” (v2)

3.         “love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (v5)

Do you see how these consequences of peace, hope and love come to us?

Paul explicitly attributes these blessings through the agency of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

These are the actions of the Trinity.

We know peace because of Jesus Christ.

We boast in our hope because we share in the glory of God.

We have love in our lives because the Holy Spirit has poured love into our hearts.

If Christians today find talk about the Trinity abstract and remote, for Paul it is as close as life itself.

Today, Trinity Sunday, these references by Paul to God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit are particularly significant for our understanding of God – as has been revealed to us.

Although later discussions about the nature of Christ led to understandings of the Trinity, like other NT writers Paul doesn’t use this term ‘Trinity’.

But he is (truthfully and helpfully) expressing the experiences of early Christians.

Next Sunday we will baptise baby Leon, and we will do so using words millions and millions of Christians across the world have used to express our shared understanding of who God is, by saying “in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. 

This is how we describe God as the Trinity in our acts of worship and sacramental action.

This is how we describe God in our doctrinal confessions.

The Westminster Confession of Faith says: “In the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity.”

This understanding of three-in-one is at the heart of how we describe God as Trinity.

But we mustn’t think of the Trinity as a mathematical problem to be solved, but rather God whom we experience – the Trinity describes relationship.

Here is a photo you may recognise from just last weekend – Queen Elizabeth’s’ Platinum Jubilee.

On the right-hand side is the family of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

I heard a story about how William and Catherine, waited as long as they could to tell their son, Prince George, of his future role as King of England.

Because it was more important for him to know that he was loved.

(Apparently, when it was explained to him, young George asked if he would still be allowed to play soccer!)

To describe God as Trinity is to describe relationship.

Who God is,

what God is like,

what to expect of God,

how and where God is at work in the world,

what God thinks about us human beings,

does for us, requires of us, promises us.

All our language about God is appallingly inadequate, but Christians have clung on tenaciously to the Trinity as a way of preserving the tiny truths that God has revealed to us.  Maybe our formula of the Trinity is only 1% of the truth about God, but it is a critical 1% that makes all the difference.

Some picture God as the absolute Individualist, the autocratic Dominator.

He is the true absolute Monarch.

And many such people adore human figures in the image of that great Soloist whom they worship.

They idolise the top-dog in politics, in sport, and entertainment.

They praise those who clamber their way to greatness by outdoing rivals.

To be a winner, the last person left standing, that is the way to be a great person.

The doctrine of the Trinity saves us from such rampant individualism.

The Trinity insists that the nature of God is closer to a loving community than to a lofty individuality. 

The highest form of existence, of personal being, is communal.

God is communal.

A choir singing at perfect pitch and in perfect harmony is closer to a definition of God than a lone soloist singing his heart out.

If this is the God we worship, then true greatness lies in the direction of community rather than in self-sufficient individuality.

We will find the true meaning of being a person in fellowship.

The church community reflects God (or should!) as we share in the community life of God.

Individualism is the way of limitation, diminishment, and death.

Growth takes place when we give to others and receive from others;

when we know we need them, and they need us.

When talking about God as Trinity, I am happy to use the word Mystery.

To speak of “Mystery” is not to say we know nothing, but to describe a God about whom we know just a little, and realise that it is enough.

An ever so precious little! A life changing little!

Let me conclude by saying that the Trinity is for practitioners, not analysts.

A guide for adventurers, not arm-chair theorists.

So, come, my friends-in-community,

let us (with joy and humility) continue on with this journey of adventure together.

Amen.