The Trinity as the Heart of Things

Sermon. St Michael and All Angels. Little Ilford. 22 May 2016

Trinity Sunday

Proverbs 8.1-4, 22-31

John 16.12-15

All the blessings of the Feast of the Most Holy, Most Glorious and Undivided Trinity to you!

I used to take curates to Jewish services and festivals, as part of their training. One group – I won't say from what diocese – had lovely Shabbat services, an even lovelier Shabbat meal with various families, and then a question-and-answer session with the rabbi. The rabbi had questions of his own, supremely: 'Explain the Trinity to me! Is it like me saying I am a husband, I am a father and I am a rabbi, yet I am one person?' One curate answered: 'Yes, that's pretty much it.'

What do you think?

I actually don't hold it against you for being shy on this occasion, for this is one of those times when there is a right answer and a wrong answer. The right answer is that that curate was wrong. The doctrine of the Trinity does not say that Gd is one person with three roles, with three hats on. You might be thinking: 'Whatever you say, Patrick. We'll leave that to the experts. It makes no difference to my faith or my life.' But perhaps it does.

Think about it. If Gd were really one person who just played different roles in different contexts, then when Jesus, the Son of Gd, prayed to the Father, he would have been pretending. He'd have been talking to himself. When Jesus said he had to go away to send another Comforter, he would have been lying. He'd be going away to come back again in disguise. It makes a nonsense of the gospel.

So the teaching of the Trinity insists that when Jesus prays to the Father, or promises the Spirit, he was talking about real relationships. The Father, the Son and the Spirit are in real relationship. And in fact those interrelationships are real eternally, even outside of time, outside of the universe. Why? Because, we believe, Gd is love. There is no love without relationship. Relationship must be who Gd is.

So you see,

• if any of us are to take the gospels seriously,
• if any of us are going to have faith that Gd is love,

we do have to reject that idea that the Trinity just means one Gd has three different roles.

But there is more to it. There's a strong argument for saying that the doctrine of the Trinity grew up because it made sense of people's experience of worship. Before the doctrine was formalised after some centuries, Christians already were meeting for worship, and when they gathered, what did they do?
• They praised the Father.
• They met with the Son in word and sacrament.
• They were in the Spirit.

It's not that they had different experiences of the Father, Son and Spirit. That's not how it works. But their conviction was this: you could not do the task of Christian worship unless you referred to the Persons of the Trinity. Except that it is the wrong way to put it. In worship we don't 'refer to' the Father, Son and Spirit. No, we adore and join with the Father, Son and Spirit. We enter into their interrelationships. We join in - as people often put it - their dance.

Here, if I were any good, I'd juggle, first with three balls for the Persons of the Trinity and then add a fourth for you, for us, to demonstrate the dynamic. But I have to tell you I was once at a clergy conference where for some light relief we were taught some circus skills... and I was by far the worst at them. So, please imagine juggling here.

So it is that in worship we ourselves are joining into the movement or dance of the Trinity very intimately. Intimately. Not abstractly, or at a distance. We ourselves are part of it, not onlookers, or servants in the servants-quarters. And that's another part of the teaching. With Gd it is never not personal. Never not personal. And in worship we are are personally involved.

Does it feel like that? That's a difficult question and I don't expect an answer. Except that the answer is no. For me as for you, the answer is no. It is not always the case that when we worship we feel we are being drawn in to the glorious inner life of Gd, intimately and personally. (It might be rather exhausting if we did.) But it does not depend on our feelings. The teaching says: this is simply what is the case.

So Gd is love and in worship we are drawn into that love. And also, let me add, into the glory Jesus speaks of in today's gospel. I say it, and I believe it, but it also makes me uneasy. Because all of this can be interpreted as speaking of the Church as a holy huddle. Only Christians name Gd as Father, Son and Spirit. So only Christians join in the glorious loving dance with Gd. Is that it? That's another question I don't need you to answer. For the answer is No.

We are drawn into the the love of Gd both to experience love for ourselves and to be strengthened to love others, both here in the community and out in the world. For other people are in the image of Gd too. Other people have a measure of the wisdom which is so honoured in our first reading. Other people are made to be drawn in to the same love, and need to experience that love in practical ways. So I can say: when you give to Christian Aid, or walk for Chrisitan Aid, or humiliate yourself as I expect to by coming last in a Christian Aid quiz, you truly are engaging in a Trinitarian act, and all power to you in that.

Hear this from the Orthodox Church's introduction to the creed:

[Chanted]
Priest: Peace to you all.

People: And to your spirit.

Deacon:Let us love one another, that with one mind

we may confess

People: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Trinity consubstantial and undivided.

Thought that might wake you up. But do you get the point?

'Let us love one another... that we might name the Trinity of love'.

To get a sense of the Trinity, we don't in the first place need innate intelligence, nor great theological training, but we need to dare to love one another (and, by implication, all others).

So Trinitarian thinking is really an invitation

• to trust the gospels on Jesus in relationship with the Father and the Spirit
• to trust that Gd is love, and so is interrelationship
• to trust that worship does nothing less than draw us into that love
• so that we in turn can love.

Happy Feast Day. Amen.