What's up with the Trinity?

There are few doctrines in Christianity more likely to inspire a headache than that of the Trinity.

 

It's also deemed (by many) one of the most important teachings of the faith.

 

I agree with that assessment. But not for the reasons you might think.

 

And hopefully I can present it to you in a way that won't make it feel like there's a little gnome in your head jackhammering at your cerebral cortex.

 

The first thing to clear up is that the real significance of the Trinity is not so that we can describe the essence of God.  

 

Honestly, God is (by definition) infinite. We can't possibly contain God in the little boxes of our philosophical/theological/intellectual categories.

 

You might have also heard that the doctrine was "invented" by the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.

 

This is a gross over-simplification of a long history of teaching and controversy that culminated in the council (and there were later councils, too, because there were still issues to sort out). And the issues they were debating at the time weren't even the most important part of it all...

 

Bottom line is that the Trinity as articulated at the council was the result of a lot of confusion regarding how a notion of God (born in a Hebraic/Judaic part of the world) could make sense when translated into the categories of Greek Philosophy.

 

Burdening you with all those details would miss the point.

 

Because the Scriptures teach that God is both a plurality and a unity. God is one, but also many.

 

Confused? Well, that's because even THAT language is a futile attempt to "capture" the infinite mystery of God's true nature in human language.

 

It's impossible. By definition.

 

I've written to you before about how the mysteries of God are better adored than investigated.

 

It's okay to allow certain things to remain outside the scope of our human understanding.

 

And there's good news in that. Because in a world where things happen that don't always make sense, it's incredibly comforting to know that a God who transcends the sensible is in charge.

 

But there is one point about the Trinity I want to make sure you do understand. Something that's crucial for everything else we might ever say/think about God.  

 

The point is that God's essence is RELATIONSHIP.   

 

When we say "God is Love" it implies that relationship is a part of God's very Being.

 

1 John 4:16 (NIV): And so we know and have believed the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

 

This goes all the way to the Beginning. God creates man. It's not good that man be alone--because being made in God's image, man must also be in relationship.  

 

Man must have someone to love. To give himself to totally. Someone who gives herself back to him in kind.

 

This is the "divine dance" of God's love. All three persons of the Trinity are in this kind of relationship, a love of giving to the other... a love that in union also gives birth to a love in the form us God's creatures... that's you and me.

 

Why three then? Why not just two? Can't there be a relationship in two?

 

Because God's essence as "relationship" is dynamic. His love is never binary. 

 

We live in a world where we think we have to split everything up between good and evil, right and wrong...

 

See my e-mail (if you didn't delete it) with the subject "A tale of two trees."

 

Three persons in the single BEING of God show us a dynamism in God's character that reveals that his way of loving is never black and white.

 

Consider these words from Franciscan Priest, Fr. Richad Rohr:

 

The notion of God as Trinity is the foundation of all Christian thought, and yet it never has been—not truly! Our dualistic minds largely shelved the whole thing because we simply couldn’t understand it... 

 

The Trinity reveals God more as a verb than a noun, but we rarely speak about God that way in either our preaching or our prayers. God is three “relations,” which itself is mind-boggling for most believers. Yet that clarification opens up an honest notion of God as Mystery who can never be fully comprehended with our rational minds. God is dynamic—a verb rather than a static name. God is Interbeing itself, and never an isolated deity that can be captured by our mind. 

 

Christians believe that God is formlessness (the Father), God is form (the Son), and God is the very living and loving energy between those two (the Holy Spirit). The three do not cancel one another out. Instead, they do exactly the opposite. Recognizing the Trinity as relationship itself opens conversations with the world of science. This surprising insight names everything correctly at the core—from atoms, to ecosystems, to galaxies. The shape of God is the shape of everything in the universe! Everything is in relationship and nothing stands alone. The doctrine of the Trinity defeats the dualistic mind and invites us into nondual, holistic consciousness. It replaces the argumentative principle of two with the dynamic principle of three. It brings us inside the wonderfully open space of “not one, but not two either.” Sit stunned with that for a few moments. (source: https://cac.org/daily-meditations/the-mystery-of-the-trinity-2022-01-09/ )  

 

 

Let's clarify some of that. I love Fr. Rohr but sometimes his stuff can be a little bit heady. And I don't agree with everything he says (he tends more toward universalism than I do). But here I think he articulates the heart of the issue well.

 

There can be a lot of beauty in a two-person relationship. We tend to think of marriage that way. Male and Female. But when we do that we're missing a component... "Male and female HE created them..." (Gen. 5:2, emphasis added).

 

When God is a part of a marriage it totally changes the relationship at a fundamental level. It's one reason why Paul discourages believers from being unequally yoked (2 Cor. 6:14). It's not explicitly forbidden... but if one person has a deep relationship with God and the other doesn't... it sets the stage for a lot of conflict in the relationship. [If you're in a relationship like that, there as some Biblical advice for that as well... bottom line, let your relationship with God define your love/pursuit of your spouse... just like God pursued us when we were disinterested or disobedient.]

 

This is all illustrative. But it drives home the point.

 

When there's just a relationship between two it's easy to get into the "I'm right, you're wrong" binary dynamic that usually pits one against the other. Binary relationships are susceptible to conflict for this reason.

 

But what happens when a third party gets involved? The relationship changes. Now, I'd like to say in human relationships (e.g. when a husband/wife have children) it makes things better. Sometimes it does. But this is a broken world, remember. Many of us are in "dynamic" relationships but we act functionally in binary terms.

 

But when it comes to God we don't have to worry about any of that. At least not from His perspective.

 

Because God is relationship... and that relationship is never binary...

 

It means your relationship with God is never binary, either. It's not a question of being "saved" or "unsaved" or being in God's good graces our out of them... of being saved or damned...

 

God brings us to Himself in a dynamic way. A way that engages us in a three-dimensional way... in a way that draws us closer...

 

So that we're never "in" or "out," but always growing together with...  

 

I realize this is a huge paradigm shift. It might even hurt your head a little. But remember, this isn't about understanding everything. It's about accepting the fact that God is Love... 

 

And that this God who transcends all understanding... LOVES YOU. Full stop.

 

Blessings always!

Judah