The Trinity

Trinity Sunday is often regarded by preachers as one of the hardest sermons they have to give in the year. After all, trying to express something which does not easily fit into words when preachers rely on words is not an easy task. To compensate we have a whole slew of comparisons and examples which we use – I am not going to list these here, I am sure Google will do a great job if you look up “illustrations of the Trinity”.

God Father, Son and Holy Spirit or God Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer is hard to explain. Even the Bible crosses its words here and there with the second (Jesus) and third (Holy Spirit) persons of the Trinity sometimes getting linguistically tangled. But God being inexplicable is OK – we just have to let it be. If God was not mysterious, if we could put God in a box and label God, we would have something which we could own and control – not much of a God, rather more like one of those idols which caused so much trouble in the Old Testament.

In Psalm 115 we are told that the idols are of silver and gold, they have hands and touch not, they have eyes and see not, ears and hear not and then devastatingly, neither speak they through their throat.

Contrast this to a God who lives and speaks. A God, who in Jesus, touched and let his disciples believe through touch after the Resurrection. A God who is dancing with energy and love and who inhabits us in the Holy Spirit. This is the Trinity, this mystery of movement and grace. God was and is, Jesus became incarnate, and the Holy Spirit proceeds forth into our everyday world. All shall be well and this is some sort of homecoming.