On the one hand, it’s pretty simple: we experience God in three pretty much distinct ways, but we believe as well that there is only one God. Thus the line in the hymn, “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.” And we often enough refer to “the Triune God.” We’re pretty clear on what we believe: God is one in three, three in one.
But the problem arises when we try to explain just how that all works! To quote so many relationships, “It’s complicated.” The classic theological explanation worked out by the Council of Nicea is based on Greek and Roman philosophical categories about persona and essence. God is of one essence, but shows three personas, sort of like there is one me but I have three (or more!) faces or roles I show to the world: minister, husband, father of two. So God is a unity in God’s self, but experienced by humans in three large ways, classically phrased as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by the Nicene Creed, but also as Creator, Christ, and Spirit, or God of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and of the Church. Sunday school teachers like to use a triangle as a simple illustration; there is one triangle but it has three sides.
A post-modern take on the Trinity picks up how God is a community in God’s self, the three different aspects completing the whole and communicating within the whole. This emphasizes the relational nature of God and of the church being deeply based in relationships. God yearns for communion, which is why humans yearn for community. This theology is very satisfying to many fleeing the doctrinal description of the Trinity for something more heartfelt. And in a good way, like any relationship, “it’s complicated.”
Further complicating Trinity Sunday here at First Congregational is our own congregational history. FCCI was founded in the 1830s by people who rather resisted affiliation with denominations that were strongly directive. Then in the 1950s we moved up to Cayuga Heights from downtown in an era of genuinely Liberal theology crossed with high levels of intellectualism crossed with upper-middle-class social and community values. Additionally, there were several leaders of the congregation at the time who were uncomfortable with traditional language about the divinity of Jesus, described in some of our history as “leaning toward Unitarian” beliefs. More specifically, some people have (or had) trouble with the full divinity of Jesus, one corner of that Trinity thing. It doesn’t remove you from being Christian, for one can follow the teachings and example of Jesus of Nazareth and yet not agree that Jesus is equally “God” and thus subscribe to the full theological construct in the textbooks. Even on Trinity Sunday!
The good news is that our UCC traditions— and FCCI’s own perspective— don’t insist on conformity to particular doctrines. Being more relational and welcoming, we don’t force people to believe (or even give lip service to!) an official formulation of theological principles. We are perfectly fine with, “I’m not sure I believe all that, but I feel safe and welcomed and loved by these people around me and by something bigger and more loving than all of us, God, I guess.” Since the first week I was in Ithaca, members have told me how much they value that “nobody tells you what to believe.” People can find their own way and participate on their own terms. So often is about not how you “think” but how you feel in this church. That works!
After all, even back when people much more scholarly than me were hashing out how we could experience God’s love and life-giving grace in three distinct ways while also believing that God is One, the ancients always came back to calling it the “mystery of the Trinity,” for humans can never actually explain God’s very being. In our best moments, we realize we’re trying to describe the unknowable. But we are sure that the unknowable God knows us and loves us, and that’s what is most important. “Holy, Holy, Holy, God in three persons, blessed Trinity.”
In Christ,
David
Texts For Sunday Worship:
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