The Holy Trinity
Folk think that Christian faith is about a set of beliefs. It is…and it isn’t.
Triquetra or Trinity knot, with lilies for Mother Mary, on the altar in the yoga studio here at Viveka Gardens. The triquetra represents the never-ending flow of grace between the three persons of the Trinity.
The doctrine of the Holy Trinity
Today is Trinity Sunday, a day when priests love to hand over the preaching to a novice and see them squirm as they try to explain the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. I’m not at the front in church anymore, but I’d hate to miss this rite of passage, so here goes.
To balance brainy talk, I’ll come to two stories I find very touching, stories of people who met Jesus. These stories contrast closed orthodoxy with wonder-full questioning. There’s also a bit about my Trinity journey. But first,
The -ology of God: faith as studying God
I’ve been through theological training (in a beginner kind of way) but will always struggle with what I ‘should’ believe. If I could even work out what ‘should’ is. As I wrote last week, I know what I know. The knowing I can’t always put into words trumps orthodoxy.
However, God gave us wonder to know him and a brain to think it through. Faith seeking understanding1 is a classic, and helpful, way to describe the process of theology. Wondering, asking questions, looking at what Jesus said and did, hearing from wise ones in Christian traditions past and present, reasoning in the light of science: all this is study of, and getting to know God, with the intellect. It’s good.
Intellectual – and to some extent political – wrangling was what theologians did in the 4th century to forge the essential teaching of the Gospel into the Creed. The Creed is a statement of belief that, in one form or another, is found in many church services of all denominations around the world. It expresses the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in three sections beginning We believe in God, the Father… Jesus Christ… the Holy Spirit…2
A priest I used to work with would say to the congregation, ‘‘I invite you, if you wish, to affirm our faith together in the words of the Creed”. The Creed is A LOT to get your head round and say in full certainty. For most – me, for sure – it’s ok to repeat the words in good faith.
Here, there’s another classic and helpful phrase: lex orandi, lex credendi, as we pray, so we believe. This motto informs how liturgy develops faith. Each time I say the Creed a groove in my brain tunes in a bit more, and the Creed does indeed become a prayer, an expression of my yearning for God, not simply a statement of belief.
Two stories
The first concerns Nicodemus, a senior scholar and a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a sect that strictly enforced observance of Biblical law. Nicodemus has been moved by seeing Jesus working miracles, and recognises them as the work of God. Despite (perhaps because of) all his brains and knowledge, however, he fundamentally misunderstands Jesus’ message that being re-born comes from the Spirit. He next fails to follow Jesus’ explanation of, and invitation to, eternal life. Nicodemus’ orthodoxy and position are a prison for him and prevent him embracing the Gospel3. Poignant: a story of so-near-and-yet-so-far.
John, the gospel writer, then juxtaposes the story of Nicodemus with the story of the woman at the well4. As a woman, she’s received minimal education. She is from a group considered unclean by the Jews, and cast out even from them due to her difficult life ‘choices’. Jesus breaks all convention by talking to her.
At the well he tells her he can give her living water. Undeterred by Jesus’ riddling language she challenges him to explain, and ends wholeheartedly, ‘yes, I want this’. She rails against the rule that God can only be worshipped in the temple in faraway Jerusalem (from which she is excluded anyway). Jesus tells her the time is coming when God can be worshipped anywhere, by anyone who truly worships. He says, ‘God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth’5. The joy in her embracing and being embraced by faith is so uplifting.
Let’s compare. Nicodemus comes secretly under cover of night, Jesus deliberately waits for the woman at noon in the full light of day; Nicodemus asks a stupid question, the woman engages in challenging conversation; he is wealthy and privileged, she is lower than low; he goes back to his life, she is not only changed but goes to tell the whole town, who then come to Jesus too. Jesus hints to Nicodemus that he is the Messiah, but he fully reveals this to the woman – ‘I am he’. The message is clear: if you are stuck in ‘should’, you won’t get it, if you are open and ask questions you can see the fullness of the person of Jesus Christ.
My Trinity journey
Through yoga I came to an understanding of God as the ground of being, purusha, the eternal authentic spirit, without qualities, the great ‘I am’. Through the Holy Spirit knocking me on the head on the yoga mat (see last week’s piece), I dimly began to understand the agency of Spirit in Christian faith. From there, began the getting to know and love Jesus, and so learn more of God the ‘begetter’. Back to front, I think, compared to the usual path to faith.
Coming to faith involves a to and fro between the fundamental doctrine of the Trinity that was wrestled into form by the 4th century Church ‘fathers’. We thank them. We acknowledge that the journey is a to and fro between mind and heart, between statements of belief, and knowing.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit – Lover, Beloved and Love6
I really fell in love when I understood Jesus is the original disruptor: all about the constant transformation of all that is broken in us and society towards a better, more loving world (the Kingdom). Augustine of Hippo wrote of the relationship of the persons of the Trinity as a ‘society of love’. His re-framing of the gender-specific and patriarchal language, is really helpful.
For me, the Trinity underlines the daily heart-mind-soul worship in spirit and truth of God, that Jesus told the woman at the well about. It’s the ongoing woven dance in the mystery process of knowing God. The Celtic knot of the triquetra delightfully illustrates this.
Feedback
I fear feedback on my inaugural Holy Trinity sermon would be (as usual), didn’t stay on topic, possibly not even got on it. I fear for many I have not landed the ‘so what?’ -essential preach-craft - either. But did you ever see Jesus answer a question straight?
Next week, in the liturgical year, is the feast of Corpus Christi, the day of thanksgiving for Holy Communion. In the Eucharistic Prayer, ‘great is the mystery of faith’: what is Communion all about?
postscript The triquetra also represents, in paganism, the Wisdom of the three-fold goddess: girl, mother and wise woman. I’ll take that as an affirming aspect of the Godhead. Jesus, Richard Rohr says (somewhere), was a female soul in a male body. Jesus affirmed women on many occasions and aimed to overturn the paradigm of Hebraic power-imbalance-patriarchal culture that served no one. We continue to live with aspects of it.
Anselm of Canterbury (1033 - 1109)
John 3:1-21. You can watch a version of the encounter here form the series The Chosen.
As Dallas, the director who introduces the clip says, it is good to see the rest of the series to understand the context and the drama in the clip.
John 4:1-42. The Chosen version on YouTube:
I particularly appreciate the writerly job with character and motivation (and humour) the producers have done with The Chosen, as it fleshes out the gospel accounts with relatable humanity. Jesus is played very well too.
John 4:24
Theologian of Berber origin (354 – 430) in Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding 3rd Edition (Eerdmans, Michigan 2014) p 77