Here we are again at that most fateful day for all preachers as they come to wrestle with an understanding of the archaic but substantive foundation of faith and our patterns of worship, life, spirituality etc. Archaic because it was formulated out of a worldview that did not have the benefit of a thousand years of thinking but had to bring together an understanding of a unitary God who was more than a unit. Their resources for this were Greek philosophers and a background in Judaic scriptures, not really anything substantive from our point of view, to say the least. What they came up with has been expanded and deepened through the ages in such a manner that the average person is left floundering with the apparent philosophic and theologic rendering of a concept that few truly understand. Others ultimately reject this as how can three be one you are obviously worshipping three Gods not one. In some ways we could not fault this thinking as some raise up Jesus, while others speak only of the Spirit often side-lining the third, Father. On top of which it appears to be very masculine and patriarchal in description and operation, where is mum or rather the feminine aspect?
Indeed, often when we speak of the Trinity it devolves down to speaking in analogy in an attempt to impart wisdom and understanding. In doing so we actually constrain God into a box or a number of boxes which we can inhabit to our satisfaction without taking time to explore the whole. But then we are limited by our own humanity when it comes to thinking or theologising about God but more to the point we can handle little boxes. In some cases we label the box as God sticking to our thinking as being the 'right' answer and developing our understanding around the box and not around God. I cannot understand the fulness of God so my box is as good as anybody else's box. So how do we get around this dilemma of trying to speak about a multifaceted singularity that we call God. Are we able to listen to the sounds and words of wisdom (Prov. 8:1-4, 22-ff) as they call to us in truth?
It is mathematically well known that you cannot have a singularity without a multitude. For example you can only ever have one of more, one cannot stand on its own. This being the case we must needs look at what a multiplicity, as we conceive it, looks like as a unity. Here we resort once more to analogy, unfortunately, as we cannot convey a deeper understanding without resorting to the obscurity of the simplistic. In being obscure we can think of the Trinity as relationship but is this enough it is perhaps to shallow, what about relationship within community. This perhaps draws us into a more meaningful understanding of what is meant by the word Trinity. It is somewhat mundane and to the mind of the Church Fathers, such as Athanasius, somewhat shallow to have considered as they were too deeply entrenched into a philosophical view when trying to elucidate the meaning, which is why we have perhaps lost our way. Yet, for us as we consider the as we consider the Trinity we must ask ourselves what this means living in the world of today.
In order to fully understand how intwined God's presence in our lives is if we are to live into the Trinitarian life there are, perhaps to obviously, three things to consider. Wisdom dictates that the world lacks truth telling and has moved towards the acceptance of peoples lies as a result of power discrepancies. If our lives are to flourish we must revert back to being able to tell the truth as we determine it and accept that it may be painful for others to hear. This courage to speak out in truth comes from the Spirit. In living out the truth in our communities we must also be aware of our own pre-judgements and our foci so that we can show our acceptance of the other. Christ shows us the way in his lived out experience in Jesus and his ability to express love through words of chastisement, Above all whilst we tell our truth and express our acceptance of the other we must do so in the strong arms of love. In neglecting this aspect we tend towards cruelty and a perverse understanding of the truth. We begin to demand of others that they must conform rather than show other aspects of Gods love and truth through their own deeds and actions.
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