John 16:12-15
"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
“Three-in-One”
When you hear, “3-IN-ONE,” what do you imagine? Do you think of the white, black and red can of the 1894 oil which was to "clean, lubricate and protect" bicycle chains? Or do you think of a Chinese takeout menu that sells chips, rice and sauce as a single cheap appetizer. Only Christians may think of God, 3 – in—1. No other faith would be so bold as to describe God as three persons, “blessed Trinity.” In my conversations over the years with Jewish and Muslim colleagues, their greatest stumbling block to understanding Christianity is the doctrine of the Trinity. The question always comes, “aren’t you just dividing one god into three gods?” Well, to put it simply, no. We are not.
The doctrine of Trinity holds great mystery. Anyone who says, “I’ve got the answer!” consider suspect. No one nails the down defining the Trinity completely. We have great insight. Go back to the early church father Tertullian who put forth a historical time line for the Trinity. He said God the Father was active up to the point of Jesus’ birth. Then, Jesus, the Son, takes over until the Resurrection and Ascension into heaven. From that moment, we live in the time of the Spirit. That is a nice neat package but misses the mystery of the simultaneous work of Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.
God always has and continues Creating. God always has and continues Redeeming. God always has and continues Sustaining. God did not create all things, set them in motion and then wipe his hands off at the work bench and go in for supper. God did not redeem us like a coupon at the grocery store and go home to bake cookies. God did not lift us up once like a parent may lift up a child when they come home from work and set the child down to go watch TV never lifting us again. God continues doing fatherly creation, sonly redemption and spirit sustaining all at once. Sometimes the best answer we can have to the question, “What’s the Trinity?” is, “It’s complicated.”
I’ll give you my best explanation. My best explanation falls way short of the truth of the Trinity. But here it goes. Allow me the use of a metaphor based on experience. Years ago, in a land far away called Ball State University, I had a buddy whose name was, “Dana Andrew Pringle.” He grew up in Union Town, PA. He came with his mother to Muncie, Indiana, as she was awarded a teaching fellowship a Ball State and “Dana Andrew” was awarded a football scholarship. His dad had died in a traffic accident. A coal truck had lost its brakes coming down the mountain outside of Uniontown. It literally and figuratively pushed Mr. Pringle into the cemetery at the bottom of the mountain. “Dana Andrew” was also a paddler on the 1972 Munich Olympic Kayak team for the US. He had family in Pennsylvania. He had friends in Muncie at Ball State. He had teammates in the paddling community. He devised a way to keep all the people in his life sorted out. People who were his family from Pennsylvania called him, Dana. People from the paddling community called him, Andy. People from Ball State called him, Drew. So, if he here in a crowd after a kayak race or a football game, he knew his relationship to someone by how they addressed him. He’s the same person. He just had a different relationship with different people with different roles in his life.
For me, that’s how it is with God. The substance and nature of God is not divided. Sometimes we experience the creative wonder of God and we are humbled by our creatureliness. Sometimes we are guilt ridden and full of shame needing to be loved. Sometimes we are over extended and exhausted by the slings and arrows of life. Sometimes we know God as Creator – Father. Sometimes we need the Good Shepherd Son to gather us into his arms. Sometimes we need the sustaining power, peace and teaching of the Spirit of God. Sometimes we need all three at the same time. What we experience the most of God shapes how we address God.
This all points to the one thing that those who think and write about the Trinity can agree. The Trinity points to the fundamental truth that God is about relationships. In the very nature and substance of God relationships are demonstrated in “Father, Son, Spirit/ Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.” Jesus spends a lot of time talking with his disciple in the Gospel of John about the relationship and interconnectedness of he, the Father and the Spirit. Over and over, he defines and refines the relationships so that the disciples understand that no separation exists.
Albert Einstein once reflected that if you look into the heart of an atom there you will find God. At the heart of the atomic structure of the “Trinity atom” is love. That which holds the unity of Father, Son, Spirit is love. The second law of thermodynamics suggests that all things move toward disorder or equilibrium. The biblical expression of this concept is that all things move toward chaos. Love, the essence of God in the Trinity, draws all things together. So, in my pea brain, love is the power in the universe at the core of the Trinity, that draws all things, even out of chaos, into the order of God. My apologies to the teachers and scientists in the room for this bulky connection.
Fresh out of seminary, I was appointed to a small rural church in Paul, Idaho. In my first spring, high school students in Paul, Idaho, did what high school students did in my home town, Hartford City, Indiana. During spring break, they went to the beach. In Indiana, kids traditionally went to Daytona Beach, Florida. In Paul, Idaho, traveling to Florida was way too expensive. Cheap travel for students in those days was flying to Hawaii from Boise. One of the young women from our church flew with her sisters and cousins to spend a week in the sun and fun. One of the girls had a relative who gave them housing. Within three days, Tomika was hospitalized. Within four days, her parents were called to come ASAP. Tomika lost the use of her legs. The doctors had never seen a disease progress like Tomika’s condition. With the loss of the use of her legs and the creeping paralysis, her doctor’s thought it only a matter of hours before she would no longer be able to breath on her own.
This is a story about the reality of a Trinitarian God. The Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer at work in our little community of faith. We could not travel to her. We could raise money for Tomika’s parents to travel and live in Hawaii. We called on the local United Methodist Church who surrounded the parents, medical staff and Tomika with care. We gathered in our own sanctuary for vigils of prayer. It was the power of love manifested in the gathered community in Paul, Idaho, and the gathered community in the hospital that broke the barrier of distance and made us all of one mind and one heart. In the tincture of time and by the creative power of God’s redeemer and sustainer, Tomika walked out of the hospital to return home to astonishment of the medical staff. Tomika returned home to months of physical therapy and to win a rodeo scholarship to college. I don’t share this story to say that for those parents whose baby did not come home, somehow your faith is lacking or you failed as a person or parent. I share this story a piece of Good News. Like the stories of Paul and Silas or Peter and Mark. I share it to demonstrate the visible fabric of connection between two communities of faith and the love of God that we shared together.
Even as I was writing this sermon on Monday afternoon, Peggy Cook’s grandson, Gideon, was hit by a car and died. How do I see the presence of the Trinity in such tragic circumstances? Please know that God does not take children to be “angels” in heaven. The Creating Father can create all the angels he can possible want. No, God the Creating Father brought life to Gideon. He does not murder children. The Creating Father is grieving the loss of Gideon and knows the pain that only a parent can know when losing a child. For the Creating Father lost his Redeeming Son to hateful wrongly hard-headed people. This Redeeming Son also knows the sorrow of death as he wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus. This Redeeming Son knows about dying too young. The Sustaining Spirit lifted the Redeeming Son from the grave into glory. This Sustaining Spirit carries us when we have no capacity to go on. The Sustaining Spirit prays us through the deep groans of grief. Where is God in the death of Gideon, God is in the tears of the mother, grandmother, aunts and siblings. God enters into our grief that we may enter into God’s glory at the end of our days.
The Trinity is all about relationships. These relationships are a mystery. However, at the core of the Trinity, there is no mystery. There is love. It is the kind of love that gives of itself so that another may have life.
It is the kind of love that sacrifices of itself so that other life may grow.
It sacrifices so that others may grow spiritually, physically, emotionally.
This love sacrifices means doing without, so others can have.
This love sacrifices means paying more for clothes so Bangladeshi workers can be safe.
This love sacrifices means paying more for food, so it is grown humanely and sustainably.
This love sacrifices means using public transportation to relieve congestion and pollution.
This love sacrifices means leaving apathy and ignorance behind.
This love sacrifices means an awareness of the pain of our brothers and sisters and doing something about it.
This love sacrifices means God loves you and there is nothing you can do about it!
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