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Dear Friends,
The Sunday after Pentecost, the wider church pauses to celebrate one of Christianity’s biggest and strangest mysteries: the Trinity. But for some reason I cannot fathom, I have yet to receive a “happy Trinity Sunday” card.
Christians have long confessed that God is one and yet known to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Not three gods, but one God in relationship.
If that sounds hard to understand, you’re in good company. Christians have spent nearly 2,000 years reaching for metaphors (water, shamrocks, sunlight) to describe this three-in-one-ness, only to discover each one falls short in some way. [Nerd alert: if you want a funny video about trinitarian heresies, search for “St. Patrick’s bad analogies” by LutheranSatire on YouTube. It won’t disappoint.] The point being that God is always more than we can neatly define.
The Trinity is not a theological puzzle, but a way of expressing something about the heart of God. At the center of reality is not loneliness or domination, but relationship. God creates, redeems, and sustains in community within God’s own life. As 1 John reminds us, “God is love.” Love is given and shared in relationship. That’s who God is.
I’ll wrap this note up by sharing a prayer from a 14th Century saint, Catherine of Siena:
You, eternal Trinity, are Table and Food and Waiter for us. You, eternal Father, are the Table that offers us food, the Lamb, your only-begotten Son. He is the most exquisite Food for us, both in his teaching, which nourishes us in your will, and in the sacraments that we receive in Holy Communion, which feeds and strengthens us while we are pilgrim travelers in this life. And the Holy Spirit is a Waiter for us, for he serves us this teaching by enlightening our mind’s eye with it and inspiring us to follow it.
Happy Trinity Sunday, Immanuel!
Pastor Bart
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