At this time of year our thoughts move in the direction of God, if they are not already there. Once a year we celebrate and worship the Trinity, I believe the rest of the year we celebrate and worship...well perhaps God the father or Jesus God the Son (probably more often than not) and rarely God the Holy Spirit, once a year on Pentecost. During most of the year, we have in one way or the other seem to have forgotten that God is three in one which is the real difficulty that other monotheist religions have with Christianity. How can we say that we worship one God but have three who are one? A definite paradox that we all struggle with at some point in time.
The presentation of this paradox has been enunciated by the various early councils of the Church as they struggled to define the reality of faith in which they lived and is the basis upon which we formulate our understanding of the Trinity. The challenge for us today is that we hardly understand the meaning and thought processes that went to formulate what we know as the doctrine of the Trinity. The result is that we focus our attention on specifics that we can understand rather than the whole that we cannot understand. In this way we may focus our lives on an understanding of Jesus as being the Son of God or Christ. We celebrate this in the incarnation and the story of the Resurrection. Or else we celebrate the Spirit and turn our attention to the spiritual gifts as given in scripture. We concern ourselves with the fact that we are speaking in tongues or are evangelists and if we are not then we are not 'true' Christians. In using our limited expectations in this manner we are able to cope but forget that we are sent out to make disciples and then to baptise in the name of the "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28.19). One way or another we will focus our proclamation on one of the three and not all three; we will make disciples who follow one of the three not all three; we will teach about one of the three not all three. How can we do it any other way when we do not understand it in the first place?
The Trinity what is it and who is it? (James Keay-Bright (Welsh, 1965–), Trinity Redemption, 2013)
Let us take a very straightforward and simple issue. My question is: What is One? Just think for a minute within the sphere of mathematics. Yes, I am aware that most people do not like thinking mathematically. One is a very unusual number as it is fully dependent on the understanding of its relation to and distinct from all other numbers. Let's put it another way one can only be as a result of a relationship with the other. It does not matter how you explain it the very fact that you have one means that there must be an other. In the case of Christian faith we suggest that the one can only be as a result of relationship, which we describe for the sake of description, as being Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28.19b). I say for the sake of description because we cannot fully describe G*d and our best analogy formulated at the early councils of the Church is this analogy. Yet, in this day and age we have to be ever mindful that the formulation to describe G*d in this manner is time dependent. What do I mean by this. Well, whilst we have all grown up and familiar with the analogy it is one that is governed by the discussions of people who only knew Greek philosophy thrown in to a Middle Eastern world view to describe something that is unfathomable. The question raised here is can we with modern philosophy and a modern world view describe the unfathomable in any better way and have we tried or are we sufficiently complacent to rest on our ancestors thoughts on the matter? This actually means that we have to set aside our previous thinking and start from the beginning. Now, that is a tough challenge.
The wisdom of the world, which is found within the indigenous peoples of the world, is the knowledge of our own interconnectedness. This knowledge was demonstrated by the early Christians and was part of their faith journey as they tried to express this appreciation of G*d. An interconnectedness that is encapsulated by the discussions and debates that led to the promulgation of the doctrine of the Trinity. We in the modern secular world have lost, or rather suppressed, the ability to understand this wisdom. Perhaps, it is because we are moving to fast and have lost our ability to slow down. Indigenous peoples know this and try to gift it to us within the slow movement of nature to which they are attuned. This has perhaps led to an extensive enantiodromia that has seen a rising mental health crisis within our secular nations. The Trinitarian formulation has, I believe, resulted in an ever increasing divide within the faith community as we each affiliate ourselves closely with one part of the whole (either the Father, or the Son or the Spirit) without claiming the wholeness of G*d that is the underlying foundation of the Trinitarian formulation. A foundation that is interconnected and not divided, that is a whole and not the sum of its parts. An understanding that has been lost as a result of our own paucity of explanation and understanding as well as our focus on the individual rather than on our interconnectedness that nowadays spans the globe. In glorifying one of the Trinity we tend to idolise that one conception and forget that there is more to G*d. Until we can get around the idea that G*d is in all; a much greater G*d than we can conceive of, then we will continue to reduce our faith to an ember. Rather we should allow G*d's wisdom to so infuse our being with wholeness so that we shine as a Christ light in the world.
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