Three's company?

When I told some friends at ‘Stets', or the Southern Theological Education and Training Scheme based at Sarum College, where Jane Craw and I are training for ordination, that I was to preach tonight, they said, ‘Of course, our vicar always gets a visiting preacher for Trinity Sunday: no one likes to preach on Trinity Sunday'. Now I wouldn't for one moment suggest that Eric has thoughts like those - especially as he preached on the Trinity this morning - but I hope you will be forgiving tonight as an ordinand in early training puts together some thoughts about today's Festival.

You will all know the saying ‘two's company, three's a crowd' . Have you ever been in a situation where you have felt the ‘third person' and uncomfortable? It is strange then, that when we think about the Trinity it is in a relationship of three: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. How does this relationship work? Is it a comfortable or uncomfortable relationship? How can we hold three in a meaningful relationship?

Within a traditional view of the Trinity the Father is seen in terms of being Father to the Son. As we read the Gospels we cannot but be aware of the special relationship between Father and Son and this is particularly clear in the way Jesus addresses the Father as Abba. We should not be afraid to use this term Abba or Dad or Daddy when we speak to God. It is not a childish title but one of genuine affection, intimacy and respect : much the same as you might speak of your own ‘Dad' with great fondness. Our relationship with God becomes that of Abba because Jesus is our brother. As we are all children of God, we experience the unconditional love of God the Father, and here we have our first hint that there may not be three people in this relationship but a multiplicity to which the Trinity is but a pointer. Here is the language of fellowship and equality – something to which I will come back in a moment.

The concept of the Son appears to be more straightforward - but is it? On the one hand we have the very familiar story of the human life of Jesus on earth, but at the beginning of John's Gospel the writer calls Jesus the ‘Word' or logos and says ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God'. He is of the same substance and essence as the Father; his creation is not ex nihilo - not out of nothing. The Son is ‘begotten'; he comes from the same substance but is clearly not the Father. There is a love relationship between the Father and the Son, responsive and self-giving. This creative love also calls other beings into life who are capable of responding to God's love in obedience. This same obedience caused the Son to sacrifice his life out of the love he has for God the Father, and as sons or children of God we too have to be obedient to the call of God. Through Jesus we are also given forgiveness, an action which enables the transformation of humanity.

The third person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is present in the beginning as the spirit of God moved across the face of the waters, but given as we heard last week at Pentecost in a more personal way. The Holy Spirit is our strength, our Paraclete or advocate, someone who stands up for us and speaks on our behalf, supports us and enables us to live in the world. Once again we are drawn into this triune relationship.

Some of what I have said tonight might sound paradoxical, but we need to accept that there are paradoxes within this idea of the Trinity: God and man, infinite and finite, strong and weak, omnipotent and limited, creator and created. The more the idea of these three persons is personified the more it becomes difficult to hold to the idea that God is One, and the more the idea of God being One is emphasised the harder it becomes to understand the three-in-one.

But as I hinted earlier there may well be a fourth person or persons in the Trinity relationship – us - and if we apply this idea of persons or of community we might begin to understand that relationship a little better. As a group or community we are not all the same and rather than highlighting difference we should embrace it. Jurgen Moltmann, a prominent contemporary theologian, writes of Trinity and community in these terms :

The Trinity corresponds to a community in which people are defined through their relations with one another and in their significance for each other, not in opposition to one another, in terms or power and possession.

This view of the Trinity can inform our view of humanity because we then begin to talk about divinity and equality – all three persons divine and all three equal , and it is in this image that human kind is made. So we are made in the image of the Triune God and that has implications for us and for the Church today

As Archbishop Desmond Tutu says:

Because each is created in the image of God, each is a God-carrier, a tabernacle, a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, someone not just to be respected, but really someone to be revered, someone before whom we ought to genuflect as we do in front of the reserved Sacrament.

What a challenge his words are at a time when the church is facing issues like those relating to sexuality and women bishops which will be discussed at the forthcoming Lambeth Conference : issues which should not be tackled in a way which shows us to be embarrassed for our humanity. We should embrace our humanity which brings us face to face with God in whose image we are made. We should remember that we are part of a community of persons in a mutual loving relationship with each other and with God and that these relationships are filled with a transforming power. The consequence of this for us as human beings is that we must live truly in the image of the Triune God, and in our relationships we must be mutual, generous and just. Here then is the implication for the church today : it too must be just, generous and mutually loving, and seek to banish the injustice and inequality of which it can sometimes be guilty .

Not all friendships where there is a ‘three' are uncomfortable. Very often those friendships allow more space and are more creative and this is so with the Trinity. But there is a sense of the relationship being so much fuller if one other is invited in – when we become part of that relationship we flourish, we are where God wants us to be. God is One and God is Three and our theology is the richer for it because it demands that we live in relationship – relationship with God and with each other.

And for that, thanks be to God.