I.
Trinity Sunday is the only day in the Church calendar that is dedicated to a doctrine, and not a person, or an event in the life of Christ.
The Trinity is baffling to most Christians. I suspect many are de facto unitarians, not understanding the roles each person of the Trinity plays, and not really caring.
Jews and Muslims will accuse Christians of not really being monotheists after all, believing instead in three gods. “Christian math,” a Jewish friend of mine once called it, where 3 = 1.
The simplest explanation of the Trinity is that God is one in essence, and three Persons in relationship, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
That’s really not too hard to understand. If I ask you, “How many members are in your family?” You might answer, “Three,” or however many there are. If I ask you, “How many families live in your house?” You would say, “One family.” Three members equals one family, or one family is made of up three members. What do you share in common? Your blood, your name, your ancestry, your home, all the things that make you one family.
You are many, but one.
The Trinity is one way to solve the one and many problem. This is the problem philosophers have when they try to explain how diversity arises in nature. Does each and every thing have a unique origin? Or do they spring from a common source? If we all come from the same thing (the one), then is diversity (the many) real or just an illusion?
If, however, each of us is a self-contained, disconnected entity, existing in our own right, then what can we possibly have in common with each other? How could we even communicate with each other? If in all of our wonderful diversity my understanding of breakfast means ham and eggs but to you it means cold pizza and Diet Coke, how will we ever share a common meal?
In the Book of Judges, we read:
“In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”1
In other words, diversity had run amok, the many had nothing to bind them together. But note the implied solution is not ordered liberty and self-governance under God’s law, but a king. In times of social crisis, monarchy, strong-man rule, dictatorship, the rule of one, is often advanced as the cure for the chaos of the many.
II.
How can the Trinity help us to solve our one and many problem today? As it so happens, there are three ways.
The first reading today is the account of the creation in Genesis 1. Genesis does not give us a systematic exposition of the Trinity, but it does insist, loudly, that this is a created world.
But back up one step further, to the moment before creation, to the words, “In the beginning…” and we understand that something important is implied.
The implication of “in the beginning” is that creation is possible. Creation is possible because of the Trinity.
The Trinity is God being with Himself, God in relationship with Himself, God communicating with Himself. This means being, relationship, and communication are all possible because they exist in God.
If God could not communicate with Himself, He could not communicate with us. Creation is nothing more than a form of communication. Creation tells us about God.
Paul writes in Romans:
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”2
Psalm 19 says:
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”3
And John’s Gospel says:
“No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”4
The first way that the Trinity helps to solve our one and many problem is by showing us that creation is possible, and that creation is itself a form of communication between two very different things: God and man.
The first solution is to recognize that everything is a creature of God: individual rocks and trees, dogs and cats, boys and girls, men and women. Space and time are also creatures of God. This is why creation can never be opposed to science because even science is a creature.
The second way the Trinity helps us solve our one and many problem is because the Trinity gives creation a purpose.
All things are created by and for Christ, and Jesus Christ is the second Person of the Trinity.
The Gospel of John records how the world was made by Christ, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”5 The world was made by Christ.
Psalm 8 tells us that this world was made for Christ:
“You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet.”6
And Hebrews 2 tells us that:
“Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.”7
The second way that the Trinity helps to solve our one and many problem is by showing us that creation is purposeful, it happens on purpose. It is meant to be.
The second solution is to understand that every created thing has a reason to be. All of this wonderful diversity is meant to happen. The purpose and the meaning of the many comes from their subjection and control by Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity.
Don’t be put off by these words “subjection” and “control.” They simply mean that your life has meaning and purpose because you are held securely in God’s hands.
This brings us to the third way the Trinity helps us solve our one and many problem: through the ongoing sustaining of creation.
When He got into an argument about why He was doing the work of healing on the sabbath, Jesus defended Himself saying, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”8
This sustaining work is done when the Holy Spirit is active in the lives of believers. Whenever things are being renewed, raised up, or reborn, that is the work of the Holy Spirit.9 Lives are changed and churches are renewed by the work of the Holy Spirit.
The third way that the Trinity helps to solve our one and many problem is by showing us that Christians have ongoing work to do in God’s creation. First and foremost is to make disciples of the nations.
The third solution is to participate in the work of reconciling this diverse world to the one Lord, Jesus Christ. This is part of God’s plan. This unity-in-diversity is fundamentally who and what God is. When our diversity is reconciled through our unity in Christ, we become reflections of God.
Here are three takeaways from this brief exploration of the Trinity.
First, the world can embrace both the one and the many only when it reflects the unity-in-diversity of the triune God.
Second, we can experience the unity of the past, present, and future only when the One who is significant in all three moments is acknowledged as giving them their significance. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”10
Third, the Holy Spirit allows us to become effective in ways we never thought possible. Through our acts of obedience to God’s will we become the cause of countless individuals being restored and renewed. Diversity is not abolished by unity but reconciled to it. Amen.
Preached on June 4, 2023 at St. Peter’s Lithgow, Millbrook, New York.
Trinity Sunday - Year A
Genesis 1:1-2:4a; 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20
Questions for reflection and discussion:
1. Trinity Sunday is the only day on the Church calendar dedicated to a ____________.
2. God is one in ____________ and three ____________ in relationship.
3. Name the three Persons of the Trinity.
4. An example of something that is both one and many at the same time is a ____________.
5. Philosophers encounter the “one and many” problem when they try to explain ____________ in nature.
6. According to the Book of Judges, the solution to too much diversity was a ____________.
7. Genesis insists that we live in a ____________ world.
8. If God could not communicate with Himself, He could not communicate with ____________.
9. Creation is a form of ____________ between man and God.
10. The Trinity gives creation a ____________.
11. What are the three ways the Trinity solves the “one and many” problem?
12. Through our acts of ____________ to God’s will we become the cause of countless individuals being restored and renewed.
Parents and Grandparents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture of the Holy Trinity. Explain your picture(s) to your parents or the minister after church. Older Children – Do one or more of the following: 1) Count how many times the words “unity,” “diversity,” and “Trinity” are mentioned. 2) Discuss with your parents how one thing can become many things and many things become one thing.
(1) doctrine; (2) essence/Persons; (3) Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; (4) family; (5) diversity; (6) king; (7) created; (8) man; (9) communication; (10) purpose; (11) (a) The Trinity communicates to man what God is, (b) the Trinity gives purpose to a diverse creation (c) the Trinity gives Christians ongoing work to do, reconciling the many to the one Lord Jesus Christ; (12) obedience
See: Titus 3:4-6.