The very first sermon I ever preached in an Episcopal church was on Trinity Sunday, which we celebrate today. It was toward the very end of my pre-ordination intern year at St. Philip’s in Durham back in 1986. And one of my mentors there was the Rev. Peter Robinson who, as some of you will remember, was the very first Assistant to the Rector here at Holy Trinity from 1954 - 1956, was sent forth from this church to establish St. Francis Episcopal Church in Greensboro, and served as the first rector of St. Francis until 1974. Well, in 1986, by then a semi-retired assistant at St. Philip’s, Peter was responsible for kind of guiding me along. He taught me a lot, but he also loved to tease me. Probably trying to loosen me up a little, which I certainly needed at that time.
I rushed into his office with the good news. “The rector is finally going to let me preach a sermon!” “When?” he asked. “On Trinity Sunday,” I said. Peter just busted out laughing. “Ha! Congratulations! You’ve been had! Trinity Sunday is the worst Sunday of the entire year to preach. Any smart rector is going to be away on vacation that Sunday, or they’re going to try to get someone else to preach - like an intern who doesn’t know any better. I mean, who wants to hear a sermon on a doctrine - and especially the Trinity? It’s going to be dry as sand; and inevitably most anything you try to say about the Trinity is going to be theologically wrong.” And then, after completely deflating me, he offered this final tip: “The best way to stay awake during a sermon on the Trinity is to listen very carefully and count the number of heresies in the preacher’s presentation.”
That may still be a good tip. But, in the 24 years since that first sermon, and especially in recent years, I have come to appreciate the Trinity much more, not so much as a “doctrine” to be understood with the mind, but as something like a wisdom teaching designed to awaken the deeper spiritual intelligence of the heart. For me personally, the Trinity works something like a theological “telescope” which enables us to see that which we otherwise could not see. Inside the telescope are three “lenses” which have to be lined up and held together simultaneously in order to bring into focus that which we otherwise would not see. In the case of the Trinity these three lenses are: unity, diversity and equality. And if we can get these three lenses lined up and held together simultaneously, they enable us to see in a new way: first, to see the dynamic presence of the living God who, according to scripture, is love; second, to see the deepest truth of our own human nature, for we are, according to scripture, made in the image of this same God; and third, to see God’s vision for our world, the kind of human community which, by our baptism into the Body of Christ, we are called to co-create with God and with one another.
Three lenses. Unity: There is one God and one God only. Diversity: this one God lives eternally in relationship through three distinct and free persons. Equality: these three persons are fully equal - each possesses alike the fulness of the divine essence. Got it? Of course not! It is the language of paradox possibly designed, I believe, to short-circuit the logical, primarily dualistic workings of the human mind. You know that part of the eucharistic prayer that changes from Sunday to Sunday and season to season? It is called the Proper Preface, and here is how it goes on Trinity Sunday. “It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, for with your co-eternal Son and Holy Spirit, you are one God, in Trinity of Persons and in Unity of Being; and we celebrate the one and equal glory of you, O Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” And, I have to confess, every time I pray that particular preface, my eyes inadvertently start to roll up into my head. I particularly like it at the 11:15 service, when Joshua actually gets to sing it. It’s just not a very catchy set of lyrics.
But, again, I have come to see it less as a doctrine to be understood with the dualistic, either/or thinking of the rational mind but more a pattern to be lived and a mystery to be experienced with the wisdom of the heart. –namely the mystery of divine love. Some of you are familiar with the question from the Zen tradition: what is the sound of one hand clapping? It’s called a koan. And, it’s not really meant to be answered; rather it is a device to draw you out of your small, logical mind into a deeper, intuitive experience of the mystery of Being. In a sense, the concept of the Trinity asks: what is the sound of three hands clapping?¹ It is less a doctrine to be understood than it is an invitation to come ever deeper into the mystery of divine Presence. God beyond us; God among us; God within us. “One God, encountered as Father, Son and Holy Spirit means that the mystery of God beyond us, the mystery of God among us, and the mystery of God within us are all the same mystery and the same God”(Frederick Buechner).
Now, while the Bible, in several places, points toward this mystery, there is no formal doctrine of the Trinity to be found anywhere in the Bible. All of this was worked out later, largely by mystical theologians in the early centuries of the Church. Notably, in Cappadocia now part of Turkey, in the 4th century there arose a great contemplative wisdom school whose guiding lights were Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nanzianzus, three monks, great teachers, and now highly respected saints of both the Eastern and Western churches, who began to articulate and to shape into comprehensible form what they saw as the eternal archetype of the Trinity a powerful pattern to be lived by Christians.²
We sometimes get hung up on the word “persons,” and frequently good Jewish and Islamic theologians think that Christianity has succumbed to polytheism - three gods rather than one. But the Cappadocian fathers were not looking at individual persons, but rather they were looking at the flow of energy between the persons. They saw it as an outpouring of love: from Father to Son, from Son to Spirit, from Spirit back to Father. And the Greek word they used to describe these mutual outpourings was the very same word used by the Apostle Paul to describe the mind and the way of Christ - the word “kenosis,” which means self-emptying, non-clinging, non-withholding, totally self-giving love.²
So, as Cynthia Bourgeault puts it: The Trinity is really an icon of self-giving love. The three persons go round and round like buckets on a watermill, constantly overspilling and pouring themselves out into one another. And as they do, the mill turns around and around, and, in this turning, the energy of love becomes manifest and accessible to us. In fact, the word they used to describe this dynamic circular movement of love is “perichoresis,” which literally means “the dance around.” “Peri,’ like peri-meter, means around. “Choresis,” like chore-ography, means dance. Their wonderful and profound insight is that the innermost nature of God is revealed through a continuous circular dance of self-giving love. As Christians, we make this radical claim that our God IS a relationship of love. Not just that God loves, but that God is Love. So, on the great watermill of the Trinity, this statement “God is love” brings itself into reality and invites us into this circle, to participate in this dance.²
And further, we believe that we are created in the image of this same God. Which means, in a profound sense, that the image of God as Trinity gives us a glimpse into the deepest truth of our own human nature as well - the divine image in us. We are part of a divine, interconnected web of relationships. This is who we are.
(As Barbara Taylor puts it): The Trinity tells us something very important - namely that everything in the universe is what it is by virtue of its relatedness to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation - not even God - and certainly not us. Which means, we become fully human, we reflect the fulness of the divine image not as solitary, isolated, completely self-sufficient individuals, but rather as persons related in love, in communion with God and with one another and communication with God.¹ To be fully human is to be Trinitarian, to be in a communion of love.
It is fascinating to me that the fundamental insight of the Trinity is strangely similar to one of the fundamental insights of quantum physics and the new science. You know, in the scientific research intended to get to the very core of the material world, to identify atoms and then smaller and smaller sub-atomic particles, to discover what they assumed would be the “building blocks” of matter, at the deepest core of reality the scientists discovered not “building blocks” but “relationships.” Similarly, at the deepest core of who God is and who we are, the theology of Trinity finds relationships. Relationships characterized by those three telescopic lenses all held together- unity, diversity and equality - the Christian word for which is “communion.” We are made in the image of a Trinitarian God and, thus, we are made for communion.. For, “this kind of God does not want us all to be alike. Nor does God want us to be alone. This kind of God cherishes each of us in our uniqueness, and invites us to join the dance.”(Taylor)
Third and finally, this telescope of the Trinity helps us to bring into focus God’s vision for our world, the kind of human community which, by our baptism, we are called to co-create. What is God’s vision for our world? Well, it is spelled out pretty clearly in our Baptismal Covenant. Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being? This is indeed a Trinitarian vision of the human community. Again, the three lenses through which the divine image comes into focus - unity, diversity, equality - all three held together in balance. What happens when we turn these lenses outward to focus on God’s vision for our world as a whole?
Well, we see that there is plenty of diversity in the world. Some of it provides the world with great variety and beauty, but so much of it is dangerously divisive, life-threatening and even world-threatening. The diversity of race, tribe, class, sexuality, ideology and religion has often been violently antagonistic and destructive to human well-being. That is because it is diversity without the spirit of unity and equality. It does not yet reflect the image of the three in one and one in three. Not yet ...
And so, this is our calling as the people of God. To join in the perichoresis, the circle dance, to make God’s love visible in our world and to draw others -everyone- into the divine circle. To co-create with God a human community of infinite diversity, yet balanced with a vivid sense of our unity and equality for all, bound together in the spirit of love, all as children of the One God. This is God’s vision for our world - the human race becoming the human family. And though this vision sometimes seems like an impossible dream, we must take heart and remember that this vision is rooted in the very nature of God and the image of God in which all human beings were created. This is the pattern of life called the Trinity. This is the life we were made for. And I think, deep down, this is the life we all truly long for.
The spiritual writer Flora Wuellner recalls a conversation with a woman struggling to discern God’s will for her life. Flora asked her, ‘What do you most love to do?’. ‘I love to do things with my hands,’ she answered quickly . ‘You know, I love to paint, to sew, to garden.’ ‘But, what longing underlies that love?’ Flora asked. This took more thought, and the woman’s answer came more slowly. ‘I really want to feel that I am making something beautiful, and that I have become part of that beauty.’ Flora probed deeper. ‘And what longing lies beneath that? Try to feel it, to sense that longing at your deepest core.’ The woman closed her eyes, and there was a very long silence. Then she answered softly, ‘I want to be part of God…while God creates. My whole body, my whole being wants to be part of that creative power, part of that might river. It feels very fierce, it feels very joyous.’ This woman wanted to be a living part of what the living God is doing in our world. To co-create. This is our true and divine purpose. To be united with God, through a living relationship in Christ, animated and empowered by the Spirit. Indeed this is the life of the Trinity. And this is the life we were all truly made for. This is the life, I believe deep down, we all truly are longing for.
What is the sound of three hands clapping? Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning ... is now ... and will be forever.¹ Amen.
1. Barbora Brown Taylor, paraphrase
2. Cynthis Boergault, Encountering the Wisdom Jesus, paraphrase