We celebrate the triune nature of God this Holy Trinity Sunday. We celebrate the mystery of it. We don’t explain or understand, because that is truly impossible.
The Trinity, as a theological construct, holds a special place in my heart. It was one of the theological frames for my PhD Dissertation. Specifically, my understanding and practice of spiritual formation was radically impacted when I was exposed to the conversation around the social trinity, as presented by Jürgen Moltmann and others. I did some deep dives into relational ontology, quantum entanglement, and other fun subjects.
Today, I would I would like to offer you some resources to help you both study the Trinity and teach about the Trinity.
The PowerPoint above comes from a sermon from Trinity Sunday 2019 titled A Broken Fence, and Open Door.
There is a triune pattern in the world: Creation-Uncreation-Recreation. Richard Rohr calls it: Order-Disorder-Reorder. It is based upons Hegel’s historical model of God/Spirit: Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis.
We see this pattern throughout the story of scripture.
God creates all things, and it is very good.
Humanity chooses to betray God and we are plunged into a violent system of shame and blame. The violence comes to a climax and the world is plunged into a flood that threatens to overcome everything with chaos. And yet, God turns the flood into a promise and resurrects humanity into a new covenant.
Then the cycle repeats itself over and over. God creates. We uncreate. God recreates.
Life, Death, Resurrection.
It is how things grow.
Think about it another way.
If all of reality was singular. If it was one. Then it would be static. There would be no diversity. There would be no movement. It would be nothing.
If all of reality were split in two, divided between this and that, then there would only be division. This is what we call a dualistic, or a binary system.
This is where most of us get stuck. We think the world is divided between God and creation. Between Heaven and Hell. Between the good people and the bad people. Between absolute right and absolute wrong. Between us and them.
But there is always a third way. The movement of God is to keep these dualities from stagnant destruction, and to use the tension between them to open up a new life of hope and possibility.
This is how we grow (see this post to learn more).
We start in simple consciousness as children and life is good and ordered.
We grow into adolescence and focus on the things that divide and define us and construct the false self. This often leads to division and violence.
There is a third way. Jesus invites us to take up our cross and follow him. He told his disciples in John 16 that he has much to tell them, but they are not ready to bear it. The Spirit will guide them in the way of the cross and the life of resurrection and rebirth.
The Spirit of God breathes new life into dead things. The movement of the Triune God reveals passage ways when all we can see are breaches.
My prayer for you is that you would feel the rhythm of God’s movement in your life and in our world. My prayer is that you will embrace the gift of life, death, and resurrection as each new day dawns.
