Trinity Sunday June 7th, 2009

Trinity Sunday
June 7th, 2009

In the documentary Into Great Silence, about monks at a very strict monastery in France, one of the young monks decides to fill his time alone (which is a LOT of time alone) by “solving” the mystery of the Trinity.
You know: the Trinity— the Christian doctrine that God is One in Three persons. As one of the ancient creeds of the church puts it, “Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.”
The young monk fills notebook after notebook. Finally, after a long time, he closes the last of the books and puts it aside. His journey has brought him face to face with a mystery, a capital-M Mystery, that simply cannot be solved.
But we’re humans and compelled to try and grasp mystery somehow. So we turn from the left side of the brain to the right: to art and literature and music.
Look at the window above our altar—what’s it about?—Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.
Another artist’s attempt to grasp the Trinity is a famous icon by the Russian artist Andrei Rublov. In it Rublov portrays the Trinity as the three beautiful young men who visited Abraham and Sarah in the Book of Genesis.

A recent attempt is this novel, The Shack. Everybody’s reading it (and that isn’t always a recommendation for a book!).
You may know the story:
Mack’s an ordinary guy who has suffered an extraordinary loss. His little daughter has been murdered. Several years after her death, he receives a mysterious note to return to the place where his daughter was killed. The letter is signed, “Papa,” which is his wife’s name for God.
God, at this point, is not an intellectual or theological issue. He feels utterly abandoned by God, furious at God, not willing to believe any more in God.
But he goes—he can’t help himself. And he does find God.

But NOT God the old white-bearded guy, but three very unexpected personalities:
Here’s Mack’s meeting with God the Creator: “. . . the door flew open, and he was looking directly into the face of a large beaming African-American woman. .. . she crossed the distance between them and engulfed him in her arms, lifting him clear off his feet and spinning him around like a little child all the while she was shouting his name . . . with the ardor of someone seeing a long-lost and deeply-loved relative.” [82]
And here’s the Holy Spirit: “a small distinctively Asian woman . …..he had a difficult time focusing on her; she seemed almost to shimmer in the light and her hair blew in all directions . . . It was almost easier to see her out of the corner of his eye than it was to look at her directly.” [84]
Only Jesus, the Son, is described in familiar way although not the idealized Jesus of much Christian art: “He appeared Middle Eastern, and was dressed like a laborer, complete with tool belt and gloves. . . . His features were pleasant enough, but he was not particularly handsome—not a man who would stick out in a crowd. But his eyes and smile lit up his face and Mack found it difficult to look away.” [84]
As he stood and stared at them, “Mack thought: ‘Was one of these people God? What if they were hallucinations or angels, or God was coming later? . . . Since there were three of them, maybe this was a Trinity sort of thing. But two women and a man and none of them white? Then again, why had he assumed that God would be white? He knew his mind was rambling, so he focused on the one question he most wanted answered. ‘Then,’ Mack struggled to ask, ‘which one of you is God?’ ‘I am,’ said all three in unison.” [87]

It was a “Trinity sort of thing,” Precisely.
The remarkable thing about this book for me was not the images of God as female, etc. Of course God is Spirit and therefore isn’t male or female; black, Asian, or white. Although it is great to break up our stereotypical image of God as looking like a white-bearded Gandolf in the sky.
The remarkable thing for me was how the writer, Wm. Paul Young, brings to life the abstract “doctrine of the Trinity” (three persons in One Godhead—“Unity in Trinity and Trinity in Unity”). How he actually makes the Christian mystery of Unity in Trinity and Trinity and Unity actually matter in Mack’s life.
“Papa” (the African-American woman) begins, “If I were simply One God and only One Person, then you would find yourself in this Creation without something wonderful, without something essential even. . . “ And Mark stumbling, asks, “’we would be without . . . ?” She answers, “Love and relationship. All love and relationship is possible for you only because it already exists within Me, within God myself. I am love” [101]

Think about it: If God is Trinity, then relationship is basic to the universe. Nothing—not even God—exists utterly alone and independent. And it’s not only relationship, it’s a particular kind of relationship—a relationship of love.
The three persons of this Trinity share everything, even the wounds of Jesus: “[Mack’s] eyes followed hers [Papa’s] and for the first time Mack noticed the scars in her wrists, like those he now assumed Jesus also had on his. She allowed him to tenderly touch the scars, outlines of a deep piercing, and he finally looked up again into her eyes. Tears were slowly making their way down her face, little pathways through the flour that dusted her cheeks. ‘Don’t ever think that what my son chose to do didn’t cost us dearly. Love always leaves a significant mark,’ she stated softly and gently. ‘We were there together.’.” [95-96]
Later Mack notices something surprising and says to Jesus, “I love the way you treat each other. It’s certainly not how I expected God to be. . . . I know that you are one and all, and that there are three of you. But you respond with such graciousness to each other. Isn’t one of you more the boss that the other two? I’ve always thought of God the Father as being sort of the boss and Jesus as the one following orders . . . . “ [121]
The persons explain that the Trinity is not a “chain of command” but a “circle of relationship,” a “relationship without any overlay of power. We don’t need power over each other because we are always looking out for the best. [122].
God the Trinity doesn’t want “slaves to my will; I want brothers and sisters who will share life with me.” Mack replies, “And that’s how you want us to love each other, I suppose? I mean between husbands and wives, parents and children. I guess in any relationship?” [146].

The Shack shows beautifully, how, even though we can’t understand it, believing in a Triune can change the way we live our lives.
It can help us realize that like God, we are nothing if we’re not in relationship with others and with God, if we’re not enmeshed in circles of relationship.
And more— the Trinity gives us lenses to critique the relationships we’re in. Are they loving? Are they relationships in which we share one another’s wounds, our joys and sorrows. Do they show mutual respect for one another? Are they characterized by kindness and graciousness toward one another?

The relationship of equals is God’s vision for humanity, because that is the very nature of God. That’s what we should strive for in our own relationships.
It’s hard:. I can hold it for about a minute, until someone threatens my ego, or a bomb kills children, or the State Senate invites slot machines and casinos into my beloved state.
We are fallen away creatures in a fallen away world. But that doesn’t alter the nature of our God. Our God waits and hopes and continues to love us into ways of being together as humans who mirror the exquisite Triune dance of love.