Continous Discipleship - Trinity

Prayer: Scripture tells us in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” God be with us as we struggle to hold on to you even though you are not seen in the way that our eyes see things. Open our hearts to ‘seeing’ you in ways beyond what we can even understand. Amen.

There is no explicit doctrine of the Trinity to be found in scripture! The Bible does present us with the one God who meets us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This understanding of one Triune God does not depend on one passage of scripture like Matthew 28:19 that says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This understanding runs throughout the entire Bible. The Old and New Testaments share a belief in the one God. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone” Deuteronomy 6:4 is echoed by Jesus in Mark 12:29: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

The Trinity stretches our understanding of what is possible. We must hold on to the oneness of God. We do not believe in a tritheism where “Father, Son and Spirit” refer to three individual deities who collectively constitute the object of Christian faith. Christian faith has from time to time made the mistake of seeing Jesus Christ as the loving Savior who stood over and against the stern and judgmental Father God who would condemn us to hell if it were not for Jesus’ sacrifice. This is really an understanding of God that separates one person of the Trinity from another and ends up with two or three gods in the process.

The other side of the coin is that we experience this one God in “three centers of divine activity” (Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding). Migliore says, “The love of God comes originally from the one called ‘Father,’ is humanly enacted for the world in the sacrificial love of the one called ‘Son,’ and becomes a present and vital reality in Christian life by the one called ‘Spirit.’

Our language is limited and falls short as a tool to explain the Trinity. God’s being is beyond our comprehension. As to being, there is much mystery in God, but as to God’s loving action with us we see God as over us, for us, and in us. We see God as Creator of all things, Redeemer of humankind, and Sustainer of all life. We see God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

But what does this mean for us? As Augustine said, in explaining the Trinity, God is a “society of love.” God is not a solitary being of power and majestic isolation. God is the God of loving community, the God of relationship. God creates us for life together, God wills that we be in relationship with one another, God calls us into community, and God redeems our life together. If that is the way God acts then we also are called to be a part of a loving community. We are not isolated centers of power, but those who need one another and need the love and forgiveness of the Triune god.

Prayer: May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and forever. Amen.