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And yet, beginning with the very earliest confessional statements of the church (including both the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed), Christians have consistently professed faith in a "Triune" God. While great thinkers across the ages have tried to explain how this logical puzzle fits together, I have found it more fruitful not to spend much time trying to solve a mystery that only God can really solve. Just as no other person can fully know or understand what is in our mind, our heart, or our spirit, the true, internal nature of God is something that only God can know.
Instead, I have found it much more productive to view the Trinity as an expression of the varied ways in which we actually experience God. For example, when we are awed by a glorious sunset, entranced by the intricate beauty of a blooming flower, or humbled in wonder at the expanse of the night sky, we experience the power and wisdom of God the Creator.
When we feel the blessing of forgiveness for a mistake that has burdened us, when we are moved with compassion for a hungry child, when we are angered by injustice or convicted to walk a difficult path because it feels like the right and honorable thing to do, then we experience the grace, obedience, and loving commitment of God the Savior.
And when we are consoled in an hour of grief, guided in a moment of confusion, or inspired by a line of scripture that we had always read a certain way but now seems to be pointing in another direction altogether, we experience the comforting power and presence of the God the Spirit.
In all of these situations, the Lord our God is one. But the ways we experience God are as varied as the people who are in the world... as distinct as grains of sand on the shore... as numerous as the stars in the universe. For our benefit, God's love and power can manifest itself in different ways at different moments, and that is why it feels right to give our faith, our praise, and our devotion to "one God alone... one in substance and yet distinct in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
We hope you will come and celebrate this profound and mysterious blessing with us this Sunday, May 31st, as we observe Trinity Sunday at Larchmont Avenue Church.
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