Three Good Reasons
Trinity Sunday, June 12, 2022
Romans 5:1-5 • John 16:12-15
A famous story is told about St. Augustine as he was writing his famous treatise, “On the Trinity.” A young boy was playing on the beach. He kept scooping up water in a sea shell and pouring the water into a big hole he had dug. St. Augustine, who was an elderly man by this point, was walking on the beach and stopped and asked the child what he was doing. The boy patiently explained that he was going to move the ocean into the hole. The old man said, “Well, that’s impossible.” The boy said back, “So is your attempt to explain the Trinity.”
I can’t explain the mystery of the Trinity. It is beyond our human comprehension to grasp the concept of the Trinity – three persons in one God, each fully God. So, it would be appropriate for you to say, “Why bother? I have enough problems with things that I understand, let alone things that I don’t understand.” As coincidence would have it, there are THREE good reasons why we should attempt to understand the mystery of the Trinity as best we can within our human limitations.
The first reason is that Jesus revealed the Trinity to us: the existence of the Father, of himself, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, whom He and the Father sent forth upon the apostles. Jesus came and lived among us to teach us, to show us how to live and how to love, He worked miracles and died for our sins and rose from the dead to show us the way to eternal life. So whatever Jesus revealed to us, He revealed for a reason and it is important for us to pay attention to it and try to understand it as best we can.
Secondly, while we cannot grasp the idea of one God – three persons – each God, we can recognize that the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the perfect model of harmony and unity, a community of relationship, so perfectly intertwined that you cannot tell where one begins and the other ends. The very nature of God is to be love, the love that exists between the Divine persons. This is a radical step in the history of religion and theology.
The third and most important reason is that in the first chapter of Genesis, humankind, you and I, are created in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, since Jesus has revealed to us the essence of God as perfect unity, harmony, community and relationship, then the very core of our creation is a call to perfect harmony, community and relationship. This is a real challenge living in a society where individualism is promoted. Nonetheless we are called to expand our circle of relationship to include more and more people.
When you stop to think of it, this is not so much a case of God’s sense of humor, but more a case of God’s great wisdom. What better day for us to celebrate the relationships in our lives than on the Trinity Sunday which is the perfect model of relationships. As I look around the church I see people in relationship to one another. Children and parents, spouses, all kinds of family relationships, and I know that each of us could write a book right now about all the relationships in our lives. For just a moment, think of a member of your family that you are particularly grateful for. Why? Let yourself remember why you love or appreciate that person. Now, move on to a person that you work with. Is there one in particular that you want to thank God for? Finally, what about an old friend and a new friend? Think of someone that has been a longtime sign of loyalty and support in your life; now picture a new friend that has brought you some recent experience of God’s presence. We praise the Trinity, our loving God, by acknowledging and reverencing the people with which God has blessed our lives.