The Trinity Makes My Head Hurt

Yesterday was Trinity Sunday, the day that the church celebrates the doctrine of the Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. However explaining the Trinity is very difficult to do. One-in-three and three-in-one. Below is my sermon from yesterday. It is very heady so I apologize for that right now. Hopefully it makes sense but really the point is that we don't have to be able to explain the Trinity, it is the experience that matters.

The texts for the day were Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, Romans 5:1-5 and John 16:12-15.

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday. It is the one day in the entire church year that we focus not on a teaching of Jesus but on a teaching of the church. Jesus never actually talks about the trinity, at least not by using the word “trinity.” In fact the word “trinity” is not in the bible. The closest Jesus gets to the word trinity is Matthew 28:19 during the great commission when he tells the disciples to “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.” Which, by the way, is part of the gospel reading for Holy Trinity Sunday some years.

Also at various times, Jesus discusses the idea of the trinity in discourses on him and the Father being one and the Holy Spirit is being sent by the Father and him. Our gospel today is such an example. So then what is the Trinity?

Most basically defined, the Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But to ask the Lutheran question: What does that mean? How is God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Is God all three at the same time? Is it just three aspects of God? Are they three separate gods?

We are constricted by our words in describing the Trinity. Throughout history there have been debates, heated debates about what the Trinity is and what the Trinity is not. People have been excommunicated because of disagreements and people have been killed over these disagreements and wars have been fought.

People have used symbols and analogies to helps us understand the Trinity.
Three interlocking rings, a triangle, three strands that make a rope, a tree leaf clover, or an egg (shell, white, yolk) but when you dissect those analogies, symbols down, they really are three distinct things, sides, stands, leafs, parts of the egg etc that do work together. So non-Christians have used those ideas to support the claim that Christians are not monotheist, people who worship one god, by polytheist, people who worship multiple gods, or more accurately tritheist, that we worship three gods. That God that Father is one God, Jesus Christ, God the Son, is a second God, and the Holy Spirit is a third God.

But those aren’t the only symbols and analogies for the Trinity. There is the idea that the Trinity is like water which exist in three forms, ice, liquid and vapor. But the problem with this example is that only one of those forms exists at a time. When there is ice there is not liquid or vapor, when there is liquid there is not ice or vapor and when there is vapor there is not ice or liquid. So if God is the Father, God cannot at the same time be the Son or the Holy Spirit, etc. But yet in Genesis when God created the heavens and the earth, the spirit of God moved over the waters, and in the Gospel of John: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And for the last five weeks or so we have heard portions of Jesus’ farewell address to his disciples when he talks about the Father being in Jesus as we followers are with Jesus, and Jesus prays to the Father and promises the Holy Spirit.

Does your head hurt yet? No matter how hard we try we cannot describe the Trinity accurately. We will always fall short. The analogy will always fall apart, the images will always come up short. We cannot by our own knowledge or strength understand the Trinity. We cannot yet bear them.

However theology is giving words to our experiences of God. So we try, we use these examples, these symbols, these analogies, knowing that they fall short. We see God in our lives as the creator, Jesus Christ who saved us from our sins and the Holy Spirit who lives in us. And we try to give words to these experiences, to understand how God can be all three at once and yet at the same time one. And we fall short. Our words, our examples, our symbols, our analogies are not enough, they do not adequately describe our faith.

But yet we must rely on our faith that our words will be enough. We must rely on our faith that our words will help us and others understand and that God will work in us to help where our words fall short.

And fortunately, as it says in our reading from Romans today “we are justified by our faith.” There is not a test to accurately describe the trinity in artwork or words in order to be justified, to be saved. No, we are saved by grace through our faith not our works or our words.

It doesn’t matter if we can describe the Trinity, this teaching of the church. No one is testing you on it, making sure that you can accurately describe theological words. That stuff doesn’t matter. Instead what matters is that you experience the Trinity. That you see God the Father, the creator of heaven and earth in the world around you. That you see Jesus Christ’s grace, love and teachings in your life and follow them. That you feel the Holy Spirit in you, leading your life, moving your heart, opening your mind. That is the Trinity, the different ways we experience God through our faith.