The Mystery of Relationships

Today is Trinity Sunday!  I said that to Chip yesterday afternoon, “Tomorrow is Trinity Sunday.”  And he replied, “What is Trinity Sunday?”  Now he comes from a Baptist background, and knows about the Trinity, but hasn’t been formally schooled in the Episcopal Church or traditions, so I raise the question to all of us, ‘What is Trinity Sunday?’  ‘What is the Trinity?’ and ‘Why do we celebrate it?’

We may think we know, we may think we have some understanding but, really? Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — One Being.  Sounds pretty settled to us.  To Episcopalians, who today, in the 21st century have been used to such a concept and to celebrating it, it may seem familiar.  But it hasn’t always been that way… And to those for whom the Trinity has not been a major part of their understanding.  The doctrine of the Trinity is not explicitly formulated in Holy Scripture, although it is alluded to extensively.  For example, our reading from Isaiah today says, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.’  Holy, holy, holy three times a reference to the Trinity, in the time of Isaiah, around 730 B.C.  It is said that the Trinity reflects the depths of our faith in God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.  Father – Creator.  Son – Redeemer.  Holy Spirit – Sanctifier.

Pope Gregory IX initiated Trinity Sunday in 828 C.E. But it wasn’t broadly approved for the Western Church until 1334, by Pope John XXII.  It is one of our seven major feast days; celebrated the first Sunday after Pentecost, which was last weekend.  The day is known for being the only major Christian festival that celebrates a church doctrine rather than an event in sacred history.  Today, in the Episcopal Church, our church calendar numbers the Sundays in this season as the numbered Sunday after Pentecost.  But before the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, actually from the Sarum Rite through the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, they were numbered as the Sundays after Trinity.  Those of you longstanding in the Episcopal Church will remember that!  Our Anglican reverence for that tradition may have to do with the popularity of Thomas Becket, martyred on the steps of Canterbury Cathedral.  The feast being associated with him as he was consecrated bishop on Trinity Sunday in 1162.

So, what about the Trinity?  What is Trinity Sunday?  And why do we celebrate it?  ‘If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?’  The gospel of John.  Our explication of the Trinity — earthly things.  The actual Trinity — heavenly things.  There have been numerous attempts to explain the Trinity.  With my scientific hat on, the one that makes the most sense to me is H2O, water.  H2O is two molecules of the element hydrogen and one molecule of the element oxygen.  And they, interestingly, are portrayed as being like a triangle.  At room temperature H2O is liquid water.  Below 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit, it is ice.  And above 100 degrees Celsius or 212 degrees Fahrenheit it is steam, or vapor.  Yet still the same two molecules of hydrogen and oxygen.  Just different forms, or expressions, appearing very differently and having very different characteristics, and different energy — firm ice, flowing water, evanescent steam.  One meager attempt to explain the Trinity. 

Likewise human speech is inadequate to describe the mystery of God.  Our explanation of God as Trinity is but one attempt to get closer to that understanding.  We have scriptural references to God the Father, we know Jesus the Christ, the Son from the gospel stories.  And we learn of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and are aware of many scriptural references to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete.  All the same God, working, manifesting in different forms.  Father, Son, Holy Spirit.  Ice, water, steam.  H20.  The Trinity.  The Trinity is our attempt to explain it.  I once heard a famous religious writer talk about speaking cat.  As I am a dog person, I have translated it to speaking dog.  It goes like this:  I have a dog.  I love my dog.  He knows I love him.  My dog loves me.  I know he loves me.  I can talk to him, love him, praise him, scold him, and he vaguely gets the message.  And responds appropriately.  But I don’t speak dog and he doesn’t speak human.  We don’t understand fully but we get it.  Likewise our relationship with God.  Our brains aren’t big enough to understand, just as a dog’s brain isn’t big enough to understand ours.  There is mutual love, but we don’t fully understand.  Our concept of the Trinity is one attempt to explain that relationship.

But I think it is important that we don’t try too hard.  Don’t try to pin it down too tightly, to box it up too perfectly for there is mystery.  Father Richard Rohr, that great Franciscan Roman Catholic priest and monk says that sometimes we try to over-define the Trinity.  “This is the work of the Father…This is the role of the Son…This is what the Spirit looks like…”

He goes on to say, “Remember, mystery isn’t something that you cannot understand — it is something that you can endlessly understand!  There is not a point at which you can say, “I’ve got it.”  Always and forever, mystery gets you!”  He talks about ‘circling around’ and says that is all we can do. Attempt to approach and to explain.

There is a theological term called perichoresis.  It describes the dancing of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  A Divine Dance.  And suggests that it is about the relationship.  Richard Rohr posits that it is about the relationship and the space between them, how they interact, rather than a definition of each of them.  We can see the relationship, but don’t have the language for the pieces.  Speaking dog.  The space between them, how they interact, is love.  And that is how we are to interact. 

We are all in relationship.  Many relationships.  That is what life is about.  The relationships we have.  The love.  I can’t tell you why it felt so good and there was so much laughter playing lawn croquet last night.  I can’t fully explain why people smile at each other, or hold hands, or embrace, or make love.  Or chat outside before the service.  And in the garden afterward.  But we do.  There is something about relationship.

Think about these words and relationship.  Woman.  Girl.  Mother.  Daughter.  The first two stand alone; the second two require relationship.  You cannot be a mother or a daughter, or brother and sister without relationship.  God is about relationship.  As is the Trinity.  Creator, redeemer, sanctifier; all require relationship.  Creator has to create something.  Redeemer has to redeem someone.  Sanctifier has to have something or someone to sanctify.  Perhaps, the Trinity is not so much about how we define it as about the relationship.  And perhaps the reason we celebrate Trinity Sunday is to consider relationships.  That of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  And our relationships.  To God and to each other.  “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”  Perhaps today, Trinity Sunday, is about the mystery of relationships.  And holy awe.

Amen.