Today is Trinity Sunday in the Christian calendar, traditionally an opportunity for Christians to reflect on the being of God and how He has chosen to reveal Himself to humankind. It’s not easy to get your head around the thought that we worship one God who is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It took a long time for the Church and much passionate debate before she was able to arrive at a satisfactory and coherent expression of this belief. And it is still a source of contention. Faith communities like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons deny the Trinity and that is before we get to the great monotheistic faiths, Judaism and Islam, who have consistently challenged the idea of a Three Person God.
Personally I have never had much of a problem with the Trinity. It is clear from Scripture that God has revealed Himself in different persons in the experience of His people. The Father predominates in the Hebrew Scriptures; in Jesus God was embodied in a human personality; and with Jesus no longer physically present in the world the presence of God and His work is sustained through the Holy Spirit.
The central problem of course is how these three persons can share the same nature. Through the years I have been encouraged to think of examples of ‘three in one’ from everyday life. Look at an egg! Yolk, white and shell. Three in one! See the light from a candle. It comes from wax, wick and flame. Three in one! Probably the most helpful illustration is to think of water, ice and steam. All essentially H20 but in different forms.
But, he says with a sigh, as with all things related to God we eventually reach out for that catch-all for all our theological conundrums: mystery. Actually, I am not totally uncomfortable with that. Do we really think that we can pin God down with our human concepts and categories? Who was it said: ‘You can’t put God in a test-tube?‘ That doesn’t mean that we cease to explore God. To a large extent that is what is going on in the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Job, not to mention parts of Paul’s letters notably Romans. As we ask questions and meditate on what has been revealed we come to appreciate more of God. At its best theological study is a devotional exercise. The deeper we go into God the more we appreciate and love Him.
These Covid-19 days have inevitably brought out a number of Christian responses. Naturally the churches have been at a stretch to provide practical help and support for those in need. But it has also been a time for reflection on the being of God. What have we to say about our God in this time of crisis? Written contributions by Donald Macleod, John C. Lennox have been helpful. I am currently reading John Piper’s Coronavirus And Christ and waiting for Amazon to deliver God And The Pandemic by Tom Wright. These and others are all facing the challenge of believing through the worst of times.
Reading Scripture with a Covid-19 mind leads you to some new insights. I don’t think it ever really struck me that Bible people were constantly dealing with crises: flood, famine, earthquake, war, plague. Sustaining their faith wasn’t always easy but even with negative thoughts and emotions they never gave up on the God they had come to know through faithful teaching and preaching. The God to whom faithful people had borne witness through the generations. So with all the challenges of these strange and bewildering days I can remember the Father who has created the earth and promised never to abandon it despite humanity’s fall away from Him. I can remember the Son who embodied the being of the Father and through His death and resurrection has reversed the fall away and provided a vision of a New Humanity. I can remember that believers are sustained in this hope through the gift of the Holy Spirit who brings the benefits of the Son’s completed work in forgiveness, renewal and the assurance of the coming Kingdom.
So Happy Trinity Sunday!
