Trinity Sunday, 2006
A sermon given by the Rev. Simon Justice
on Trinity Sunday,
at a service of Choral Evensong in
St. John’s Princes Street
“You are trying to have your cake and eat it!”
This, I still remember very vividly, was the retort that came from my Islamic Studies tutor at university during a debate about some of the differences between Christianity and Islam.
What had prompted the remark was my very firm assertion that, just like Muslims, Christians were indeed God-fearing monotheists, to which came the reply:
“You are trying to have your cake and eat it! What about the doctrine of the Trinity?”
Hmm… Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That does add up to three, even if you count them slowly!
So, are we trying to have our cake and eat it?
And just what are we saying when assert that there is only one God but talk about God in terms of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?
Well, to put it into some context, we have a certain bishop called Theophilus of Antioch to thank for a good deal of this. For it was dear old Theophilus who, as far as we can know, was the first person to use the term ‘trinity’ when talking about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And this was back in 180 A.D. So the word, at least, has a long pedigree.
The Christian thinker Tertullian, who lived around the same time as Theophilus, in what is now modern Tunisia picked up the theological ball and began to run with it. He spoke of the “Trinity of God, His Word and His Wisdom.” Origen, writing a generation or two later in Alexandria, Egypt took the idea even further describing the Trinity as “Father, Christ and Holy Spirit.” And the rest, as they say, is history…
But was my Islamic tutor was right in pointing out that the doctrine of the Trinity is unique to Christianity? And is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity one of the defining beliefs of the entire Christian faith?
Now, many social anthropologists and even some theologians have suggested that the majority of our religious practices and beliefs are affected or even determined by social and cultural factors. A simple example might be the style of vestments that clergy wear in church. All of them have been adapted from everyday wear of an earlier period:
The chasuble worn by the celebrant in some churches at the Eucharist is an adaptation of a Roman overcoat.
The preaching scarf (worn at non-Eucharistic services) or the stole is again an adaptation, this time of the garment worn by Roman magistrates to denote their rank and office.
Some suggest that the same applies to doctrine and belief; that they are more often than not adaptations made to suit local situations. Again, examples might include:
The Roman festival the Saturnalia – celebrated around the 25th December – became the Christian festival Christmas.
The egg – long a pagan symbol of fertility and new life – became one of the Christian symbols of resurrection and connected with the celebration of Easter.
Could the same be said of the doctrine of the Trinity?
Could this uniquely Christian belief turn out to be not quite so unique after all?
And why does any of this matter at all?
Do you remember the TV programme, “James Burke’s Connections”? James Burke used to take an ordinary, everyday item that we use in the developed world – such as your wrist watch or a home computer – and trace these to other inventions back in time. So, for instance the internal combustion engine was ‘connected’ to the squirt mechanism that is used in the old soda bottles, that was ‘connected’ to canning a preserving techniques used by the French army in the Napoleonic period and so on…
In that spirit, let me take you through a mini ‘connections’ and see if we can’t find similarities and possible links between the Christian belief in the Holy Trinity to similar ideas found elsewhere. Then, finally we can very briefly begin to think about why and how this might touch our own lives…
The Church has always claimed that the doctrine of the Holy Trinity goes back to the bible and indeed to Jesus himself.
The ‘Great Commission’ found in Matthew 28:19 & the grace found in Paul’s II Corinthians 13:14 are the most often quoted in this regard:
“[Jesus said], “therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Paul wrote, “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
But when one does a little digging you find that there are many other religions that incorporate a ‘trinity’ within their belief systems:
“Triad deities (the worship of a three-in-one god) first appeared in ancient Egypt… these Egyptian deities came to be worshiped as Osiris, Isis and Horus.”
Another “fascinating example of this can be found in the ancient roots of Hinduism. After the 6th century B.C., Hinduism featured the three-in-one god (or triad) that became known as the Trimutri. Brahman consisted of (1) Brahma, the creator (2) Vishnu, the preserver and (3) Shiva, the destroyer (What the Great Religions Believe, Joseph Gaer, p. 25).”
“Plato was deeply ingrained with trinitarian thought… His definition consisted of: (1) The “first God,” who was the Supreme Being in the universe [the One]; (2) the “second God,” whom Plato described as the “soul of the universe” [the Logos]; and (3) the “third God,” defined as the “spirit” [world soul] (Gods and the One God, Grant, ch. 12).”
Luck, especially bad luck, is often said to "come in threes".
“The three Doshas (weaknesses) and their antidotes are the basis of Ayurvedic medicine in India. “
In Greek mythology there are three Fates, three Graces, three Gorgons, three Furies.
Even the traditional Anglican three-point sermon features a triad.
Interesting it might be.
But is any of this relevant?
Yes, I believe it is.
I believe that this is not only interesting but highly relevant.
The fact that the idea of trinity or three as a sacred number is not unique to Christianity speaks of:
1/. Our common humanity – that there is more that connects and unites us that divides and separates us.
2/. God’s love and grace is not restricted to a certain club, group, tribe or ‘church’ – in these days of rising fundamentalism/tribalism this is, I believe, truly the voice of the Spirit of God.
The idea of the trinity as perfect love, perfect relationship speaks of:
1/. That at the very heart of God, of being of reality of meaning and truth is relationship.
2/. And this, I think, is a direct challenge to our modern western cult of the individual based on ‘my rights, my freedoms, my needs’. The trinity not only reminds us but makes it unambiguously clear that we are all in the same boat. We either sink or swim together. We need each other. We are connected and interrelated, whether we acknowledge this fact or not.
And so… Back to the beginning.
Do Christians want to have their theological cake and eat it?
Yes, I think we do. But, as we have seen, it’s not just Christians…
For the Trinity goes to the very heart of our physical and spiritual nature. And the Trinity calls out the very best in us – relationship – relationship with each other, relationship with creation and relationship with our God. And there’s another triad!!