The Trinity
A Sermon for Trinity Sunday
by The Reverend Charles Royden (can be adapted for family service)
It
is never easy speaking about the Trinity. At theological college they tell you
that Trinity Sunday is a good Sunday to invite the Bishop to preach. Sometimes I
am approached by people who say to me 'Ok if you are a Vicar, explain the
Trinity.' This is to miss the point of course, the Christian teaching of
the Trinity is not an explanation of God, it is a description of what we know
about God, albeit contradictory and contrary to logic as we know it.
The need for Trinity
The early Christians worshipped God, they also knew that Jesus was God and
that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit who was God to be with them. This complex truth
was therefore found embodied in the use of the word Trinity. It is not word
which Jesus used, it is not found in the Bible, but it is used to describe what
we know about God. This is important! It does not explain God, nobody could do
that. It just describes what we know. It is contrary to logic, because what we
know about God is beyond our understanding. One day we might be able to
understand it, in the same way that we have come to understand that the world is
round. But at the moment it is a mystery.
In the face of this amazing mystery, Christians have looked for symbols which
have expressed the Trinitarian nature of God.So let us spend a few minutes
considering the Trinity this morning and I will use some iconography to
illustrate
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One of the first symbols used for the Trinity was the triangle. The three equal sides forming one complete whole captures some of what it mean to be three in one. The triangle is also an extremely strong shape used in construction, think of the Eiffel Tower! Balance and stability in the Godhead was conveyed by the triangle on one side, and the eternal nature of the Trinity was demonstrated by the connection between each side of the triangle. The triangle is evident in the center of the triquetra. |
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Another classic shape used to bring to mind the properties of God is the circle. The circle has no beginning and no end, its never ending form represented God as eternal. The circle is a symbol used to represent God for many centuries. For the Greeks, the circle symbolised perfection. |
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Borromean rings (Named after the crest of the Borromeo family in 15th-century Tuscany.) These are often used as a symbol of the Trinity. The earliest source for
this that we are aware of was a thirteenth-century manuscript in the
Municipal Library at Chartres. It contained four diagrams, one of which is
shown above. In the centre, inside all the circles, is the word `unitas';
the three syllables of `tri-ni-tas' are distributed in the outer sectors.
Unfortunately, the manuscript was destroyed in a fire in 1944. |
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Spanish
This shape found in Spanish churches uses the circle and triangle in a very obvious way |
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Trefoil One of the most common symbols of the Trinity is the Trefoil, generated from three interlocking Circles. It is generally believed that this symbol was created by St. Patrick when he illustrated the Trinity by pointing to a shamrock and remarking that it the three separate leaves form yet one shamrock. Hence the name Trefoil, i.e. three-leaved. You will sometimes
see this shape in Gothic windows in Churches. |
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Triquetra (Try ket ra Latin
for three cornered) You will find this symbol used on the spines of the
NKJV version of the bible. The triquetra uses shapes like one of the oldest Christ symbols, the shape of the fish. Remember it was found in Pompeii which destroyed in AD 79! The shape In the triquetra, the three equal arches of the circle expressed the equality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Second, the union of the arches represented the unity of the Godhead. Third, their continuous form symbolized eternity. And last, the fact that they were interwoven denoted the indivisibility of the Trinity. In the center of the triquetra was an equilateral triangle, the most ancient of the Trinity symbols, and each pair of arches formed an ellipse, the symbol of God’s glory.
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All of this goes to show just how difficult it is for us adequately to express in our human language, difficult divine concepts. Fortunately we do not really have to. This is the job of the Holy Spirit to point to the Truth, to guide us to truth.
Thankfully Christians are not people who understand a load of facts about God. Christians are people who reach out and discover God for themselves. Only as we open our lives to God and discover that God is real, only then will be able to have our hearts and minds opened to his presence around and within us.
Additional Thoughts
Trinity Sunday is a special Sunday in the church year, it has been celebrated
since 1334 when Pope John XX11 fixed it as the Sunday after Pentecost. It is a
Sunday which is not tied to any special event. We don't have to remember any
special events or rituals. Instead it is about a day when we remember just God
himself, it is a day to focus our hearts and minds on him. It is a bit like a
birthday when all we do is celebrate a particular person and their presence with
us. Like the wonderful singing of happy birthday.
But of course when we celebrate God we have a problem of sorts, do we celebrate
God the father, Son or Holy Spirit? Should we have three days, one for each!
This is the difficulty for Christians.
The Doctrine is
1. God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
2. Each person is fully God
3. There is one God.
The Bible never uses the word Trinity, it is something that we have invented to
explain they way in which we think of God. It isn’t really an Old Testament
problem, not surprising that the Jews have never had a doctrine of the Trinity
of Binity or anything else.
There is not a great deal of convincing evidence for a doctrine of the Trinity
in the Old Testament. Some people quote passages such as Genesis ‘Let us make
man in our own image’ Gen 1:26. I am not sure that this should be taken as such
a key passage, how often do we talk to ourselves or say things like
‘we are a grandmother’ Was Margaret Thatcher a multiple personality?
But in the New Testament the problem of speaking of God in the traditional terms
as ‘one God’ become obvious, there is Jesus and perhaps the best illustration of
the difficulty our minds have is seen in the episode of Jesus baptism
And when Jesus was baptised, he went up immediately from the water, and behold,
the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and
alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven saying,
‘This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased’
So we have Father, Son and Holy Spirit all in one episode!
Question
So Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit, who comes to Him from God? How can God
be God the Father, and Jesus God the Son, and also God the Holy Spirit?
The doctrine of the Trinity is one of those subject which leaves everybody
feeling confused but we use it simply to describe how amazing God is. God is so
big, so wonderful and so far beyond our imaginations that to our minds he really
doesn’t seem to make sense! So if somebody comes up to you and says, go one then
you're a Christian explain the Trinity then you're response could be simply to
say
‘The Trinity is a way of us saying as Christians that God is much bigger and
more complicated than we will ever know.... you can’t put him in your pocket’
If you ever wanted proof of the truth of Christianity then the doctrine of the
Trinity is it. Which human being would ever invent a religion which didn’t make
sense?! Christians have always struggled trying to put together the bits which
God has given to us.
However we cannot just get rid of the idea of the Trinity. Christianity stands
or falls by what the doctrine says. If Jesus is not God then we might all pack
up and go home.
The Trinity is an example of unity in diversity which is surely something which
we must learn about in our ecumenical relationships. Orchestras rely upon
different instruments playing different parts and we must question the idea that
unity ill bring about a sameness lacking in colour and vibrancy.
Trying to make sense some explanations
The Trinity has been expressed in many ways throughout history, often church
architecture had three arches or pillars joined together. St. Augustine mentions
people crossing themselves with the sign of the cross using three fingers to
symbolise their faith in a triune God.
Many people have tried to show from other examples that one thing really can be
expressed in three different ways! Here are some analogies, but although helpful
at an elementary level they are all flawed in one way or more
1. St. Patrick from Ireland used the example of a wild plant the Shamrock which
has three leaves but actually consists of only one leaf, very strange. Each of
the bits of the three bits of the leaf are an essential part of the leaf, but
the leaf is greater than just the three parts. Yet this fails because each leaf
is only a part of the clover, any one leaf cannot be said to be the whole
clover. With the Trinity each of the persons is not just a separate part of God,
each person is fully God. Moreover the leaf is impersonal and does not have a
distinct and complex personality
2. A triangle has three sides, yet it is not three sides but one triangle.
3. Anselm compared the trinity to the River Nile. A river like the Nile has a
source, it has a stream and it has an estuary. It is all the same water and yet
it is in three very different looking stages.
4. Tertullian said to compare the doctrine of the Trinity to a tree. A tree can
have three very different parts Roots : Trunk: Fruit: Again these are only parts
of the tree and not the whole tree. Moreover they all have different properties,
unlike the Trinity where each has all the properties
5. Three forms of water steam, water, ice. But no quantity of water is ever all
three at once.
6. Some have said that it is like a man who is a farmer, the mayor and the
church warden. But it is the same person doing three different things and the
church has deemed this understanding of the Trinity to be a heresy called
modalism.
No analogy can ever teach the Trinity, they are all fatally flawed!
Modalism: God appears as three different people. This denies that there
are three different people as seen at the baptism
Arianism Denies that Jesus or the Holy Spirit are fully God
Subordinationism: Origen - Jesus is subordinate to the Father
Adoptionism: Jesus only became divine at the baptism
Anselm of Canterbury came up with a formula
to describe what we do as Christians
‘fides quaerens intellectum’ - ‘Faith seeking understanding’.
Lets look at the two parts of that statement
Faith
What does faith mean - Some think of it as a risk, a gamble or a bet. In a way
it is, we stake a lot on something we have not seen and something we do not know
all there is to know about. But it is not just about gambling. I might think
that John Redwood is a very good bet at 12/1 as leader of the Conservative
party. But I wouldn’t want to worship him.
Faith is about believing in somebody, rather than just believing about somebody.
For this reason Christian faith is often described in terms which resemble a
love affair. People fall in love with other people, long before they understand
what those people are like. Think of Prince charming in the story of Cinderella.
He falls in love with Cinderella and he knows nothing about her. He searches
throughout the kingdom of her because he loves her and because he loves her it
doesn’t matter who she is. When two people come to a marriage that is more like
religious faith. Two people come together and they don’t know everything there
is to know about the other person but they believe in them and trust them. There
is much that they will learn, they know that they will never have all the
answers, but there is a depth of love which causes them to make this commitment.
Being a Christian is about belonging as much as believing, we share in our faith
with others. Faith is caught it is not taught. You will not become a Christian
because you suddenly understand the Trinity. People are slowly attracted to God
and begin to try to explain their faith using words. This is why it is true that
most people belong to a church before they actually believe.. This has important
implications for us as a church what we are seeking to encourage is belonging,
enabling people to share membership and to feel a part of the church the body of
Christ.
In other words faith comes first, and then we have to try to understand it. If
we all look at ourselves we know that it is true that we believe before we
understand. Moreover nobody fully understands, theologians disagree so much,
different traditions of Christianity disagree so much and that is why I
personally think it is ridiculous to prevent children from taking communion
because they don’t understand, understand what - and who decides what is
correct! If Christianity is about our love of God and more importantly about
God’s love for us - then it is open to all, free at the point of delivery!
Seeking understanding
That doesn't mean that we stop trying to understand. As Christians we believe
some things very powerfully, other things we believe less strongly but we think
that they are important. Some things we believe because somebody has told us
about them and some things we believe because we know them, in here.
The Trinity expresses something which we know - in here. We know things about
God which are not negotiable and the non-negotiable things necessitate the
doctrine or the belief in the trinity.