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THE HOLY TRINITY IS A STORY

The Very Reverend Sam G. Candler
The Cathedral of St. Philip
Atlanta, Georgia

Trinity Sunday
7 June 2009

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone that believes in him may not perish
but may have eternal life.
 –John 3.16

The Bible is not a binary computer. (If you don’t know what I binary computer is, do not worry; maybe you understand the Bible better.)

The Bible is not a robot, devised and written in such a way, that it will deliver a perfectly rational solution to every problem that you ask it. The Bible is not mechanical, not mechanistic. The bible is not math.

Because the bible is not math, it has no way of defining or rationalizing the holy trinity.

You know, the Holy Trinity. Today is Trinity Sunday in the Christian Church. Every year, on the Sunday after Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate Holy Trinity. We sing “Holy, Holy, Holy” on this day. Trinity Sunday is not complete unless we have sung “Holy, Holy, Holy!” I love that hymn, and I love Trinity Sunday.

But this observance, this great feast of the Christian Church, seems to be the only feast of the year—the only feast of the year!—that is not devoted to a person or an event. Every other feast day of the church honors a special person, or a special event. Christmas is about Jesus, a person and his birth. Pentecost is about the Holy Spirit setting fire to the disciples!

But today, Trinity Sunday, seems the only major feast of the church devoted to a doctrine. Yes, I said “doctrine.” Saying the word “doctrine” in any public address these days, like in a sermon, is like saying the word “legislation” at the beach. We go to the beach to enjoy freedom and release, not to talk about legislation. We go to church to enjoy freedom and salvation, not to talk about doctrine.

Nevertheless, doctrine is important in the Christian structure of salvation. Beginning with the death and resurrection of Jesus, so long ago, Christians began comparing their stories of salvation, began sharing their memories of God, began writing down their interpretations of the Spirit, and so doctrine inevitably developed.

One of the core doctrines of Christianity became the Trinity. We believe in one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We believe in one; we believe in three. At its nugget, at its inner core; that is all the doctrine is: We believe in one God, in three persons.

As I said at the outset, this doctrine cannot be proven by the Bible. Actually, very little can be “proven” —in a mathematical or even scientific sense—from the Bible. But the core doctrine of Christianity, the Trinity, can definitely not be proven.

If it could be proven from a particular passage of Scripture, then we certainly would have used that passage in the liturgy today! Did anybody hear a proof of the doctrine of the Trinity in today’s readings?

Of course not. The Bible, if you did not hear me before, is not a binary computer; it is not a robot; it is not math. The Bible does not deliver a crystal clear rational solution to every question we ask in life.

But the Bible does tell stories. Oh yes, the Bible does tell stories. I wish that every person hearing my words today was part of an ongoing Bible study. It is only over time, day in and day out, week in and week out, that people truly understand the glory of scripture. We understand the power of scripture if we actually read all those strange stories—the sometimes gruesome and often beautiful stories of God and humanity living together—God and humanity loving together.

The Bible is a story, and it is a story about relationship. It is not in a particular verse of scripture, but in countless different stories of scripture, that Christians—over time—came to understand the Trinity of God.

In the stories of scripture, we learn that God created the world and us. We learn that this Creator is a personal creator, like a Father or Mother. Thus, orthodox Christianity calls God “Father” and sometimes “Mother.”  In scripture we also realize that God actually became manifest and real among us, became flesh among us, in Jesus Christ. Thus, orthodox Christianity calls God “Son” in Jesus Christ. In scripture, we learn that God also moves and inspires and sets on fire ordinary people; this force, orthodox Christians call “Spirit.” God is all three of these persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In fact, we know all these characteristics of God not only through scripture, but through experience. Do you know God today through creation, and through a sense of personal salvation, and through a sense of mystery and awe? If so, you are Trinitarian; you know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You believe in the Trinity not because it was proven to you; you believe because these are authentic ways in which you have actually experienced the mystery of God. The same was true of early Christians.

Today, there are dozens of ways to represent the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. St. Patrick of Ireland said God was like a shamrock—one plant with three different petals. Scientifically-minded people note that God is like the molecule H2O—what we call water. Sometimes, H2O is manifested as ice, frozen and solid. But, at room temperature, it appears totally different as a fluid. If we heat that molecule, it becomes still a third form—a vapor. Yet it is still one substance, H2O, in all three different aspects.

There are many ways to explain how one God can be three persons. But perhaps the most important aspect of the Holy Trinity is that God, the Holy One of God, God, is nevertheless in relationship. Even God, who is above all and in all, lives in relationship. In fact, God is relationship. (St. Aelred of Rievaulx said that God is friendship.)

The way to explain relationship, or the way to explain friendship, is not with a computer, not with a binary sense of either/or, not with a robot, not with a rigid structure of doctrine. The way to explain relationship is with story.

This is why there is no one scriptural verse that will define for you, today, what the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is. Instead, we have pieces and fragments of holy scripture that describe pieces of the divine relationship.  “God so loved the world. God sent the Son, not to condemn the world, but that the world could be saved. You must be born of the spirit. The Spirit blows where it chooses, and you do not know where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

All these lines are from one passage of scripture, the first part of John, chapter three. That one passage, with sixteen different verses, describes this dancing and holy story between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The passage does not prove the doctrine. The passage tells the story of a relationship. The Holy Trinity is a relationship; therefore, the Holy Trinity is a story.

I said earlier that Trinity Sunday seems to be the only feast day of the church devoted to a doctrine and not to a person or an event. But that is wrong. The Holy Trinity is not a doctrine at all, not a proposition, not another piece of dogma that we force ourselves to believe. The Holy Trinity is both personal and eventful! God is three persons living in the ongoing event of relationship.

Holy, holy, holy. Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Blessed be all our holy relationships, too, through which we live into the holy story of a living God.

AMEN.

The Very Reverend Samuel G. Candler
Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip

Comments? Contact Dean Candler at: SCandler@stphilipscathedral.org

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