We have now entered that long period in the Church Calendar called the Trinity – for some reason or other this is often thought to be a difficult subject to talk about – I well remember that when I was undergoing my ministerial training over 25 years ago, it was joked that the Reader will always be asked to preach on Trinity Sunday because it is a sermon that incumbent would rather not preach.
From this it follows that the Trinity is often regarded as a rather tricky subject, but it is actually one of the utmost importance. Whilst the trinity is never specifically mentioned in the Bible we have many suggestions. For example in Mark we are given an account of the baptism of Jesus which brings together Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a unique way: as Jesus is baptised a voice from heaven declares “Thou art my beloved Son: with thee I am well pleased;” meanwhile Jesus sees the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. The trinity is mentioned in one of the creeds – the creed of St Athanasius and I’ll come back to that later.
Perhaps the trinity is regarded as difficult by those who are particularly wedded to the analogy of God the Father, forgetting maybe that this expression is an analogy. Whilst analogies are very useful, or maybe essential when it comes to talking about subjects which are etherial or numinous one must remember that in this case God is not an actual physical person or entity located somewhere specific in the universe. Perhaps as an alternative analogy one might think of God as spiritual energy.
Returning to the Trinity, Bishop Richard Harries, the retired Bishop of Oxford whom many of you know from his frequent broadcasts of Thought for the Day emphasises the importance of this concept in one of his books on Christianity:
“The Christian understanding of God as Holy Trinity is not a mere form of words nor is it an optional extra. It goes to the heart of the faith, indeed it is the faith. It has been said that it is the one doctrine the Church has.”
And then from Canon Prof. Dan Hardy we have: “Trinity Sunday is the most exciting day of the year, because it celebrates the simple heart of Christian Faith, and wraps all the excitement of the other great festivals of the Church’s year into one sunburst of a celebration.”
So both of these august figures stress the importance of the Trinity but they don’t explain what it means. Whilst I don’t have the authority of a professorship, I can at least tell you what I understand as the Trinity. The Trinity is an understanding of God or if you prefer it an image of God that was worked out by the early Christian fathers, in particular Augustine of Hippo, to help us relate to that which is beyond our ability to understand in conventional earthly terms
From the ten commandments we know that one needs always to distinguish very carefully between idols and the living God. Nevertheless one needs some sort of image in order to speak about God, to worship God or, indeed, to relate to God. You will all probably have your own image of God
Perhaps that image is an all embracing love or maybe a tremendous light.
Maybe you prefer one of the human analogy images as I mentioned above like a loving father or mother. Whatever image of God you use it needs to express the idea that God is a reality that is beyond space and time, and indeed beyond our ability to comprehend or understand in rational or physical terms. Maybe the fifth dimension would express this idea although, nowadays with the advance of physics and quantum mathematics, with its concepts of a multi-dimensional universe, perhaps I should use a higher figure than fifth – but for most practical purposes, I think 5th dimension will suffice.
Now, whatever your image, whilst we are speaking of God as one reality there is no great problem. But once God has introduced Jesus as the incarnation, and furthermore introduced the Holy Spirit we have a situation which is rather more complicated.
The introduction of Jesus, of course, brings us on to the subject of incarnation.
There is not space here in this short reflection to go into a great discourse on the subject of the incarnation, but let me just quote first from a modern commentator: the liberal theologian John Hick who has, I must admit been influential in my life. “Jesus made God, and God’s demanding but liberating claim upon men and women, intensely and startlingly real…. he was so transparently open to the divine presence that his life and teaching have a universal significance which can still help to guide our lives today.”
And, secondly, that great post-war preacher William Barclay summarised the incarnation, and indeed the first few verses of St.John’s Gospel in one sentence by saying “What Jesus did was to open a window in time that we might see the eternal and unchanging love of God”. Or, put yet another way we can say that God is self-revealing – the life and work of Jesus is part of the self-revelation of God. If we now recall one of the most important verses from St.John’s Gospel, we have “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
This is then expanded by the writer of that Gospel with the definition of the role of the Holy Spirit sometimes referred to as the Councillor, Comforter or Strengthener – all translations of the Greek word Paraclete. This role, or if you prefer it the ministry, of the Holy spirit is a prolongation of the ministry of Jesus in respect particularly of sin, righteousness and judgement. This is the heart of the Gospel and tells us that God loves the whole world but that love only becomes effective in those who believe in Him. This is expressed in another way by St.Paul who, in a few verses at the beginning of the letter to the Ephesians sets out the origin of the Church. St Paul reminds all Christians of their role and significance in God’s plan for the world and of their privileges and status that they enjoy as members of the church and as believers in Christ. Furthermore, the conclusion of Paul’s second letter to the Church in Corinth emphasises The Trinity in the words of the Grace. Paul tells us that Christians are saved by Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit – that Strengthener I referred to earlier. This sealing suggests first, the certainty of the final salvation or redemption, and secondly a title to the believer which is vested in God.
So what then, do we mean by believing in God? It means to believe that God is our loving Creator, that Jesus is on earth able to reveal the truth about the nature of God and, in addition, it means to live out a life that in practice conforms to the behaviour of a Christian. So, with the help of the Holy Spirit, that Spirit which links Jesus, God and the whole of humanity, eternal life of peace with God, of peace with other people, and of peace with ourselves is available for us here and now.
Thus we have the Trinity – and I hope that it has now become obvious that to believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is, as Richard Harries said, a fundamental tenet of the Christian. Three in one and one in three.
In other words the Christian does not have the single word “God” as his or her key word, but substitutes a circle with the words written upon the circumference – God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. That circle is sometimes referred to as the Godhead as for example used in the creed of St.Athanasius which is to be found in the Book of Common Prayer and is often used on Trinity Sunday. This creed describes the Trinity in the language used by the early Church fathers – where we have the idea of Holy spirit proceeding from the Father to the Son and from the Son to the Father, unifying the Godhead. This creed also emphasises that there is no separation of the three elements of the Trinity and that there is no hierarchy between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is why in my suggestion earlier I used the idea of a circle to represent the Godhead, the circle being a line which is continuous and has no beginning and no end.
I will end now by quoting from one of the great theologians of the 19th century Schleiermacher whom I referred to in my essays on religious experience in the last two weeks. ‘In Christ there was nothing less than the Divine essence, which also indwells the Christian Church as its common spirit. In no way are the Holy Spirit and Christ subordinate deities, but the identification of the two with the divine Being itself are what is essential for the doctrine of the Trinity.
Dr David Greenwood. June 2020 d.greenwood@uwtsd.ac.uk
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