... Blessed Trinity

This weekend is Trinity Sunday - the annual tradition of pastors attempting to explain the ethereal and eternal mystery of how our God is One and yet Three Persons at the same time. Such a party.

Okay, so there was some snark there, but truly I am a Trinity nerd and I love this Sunday (and no, it's not just because we get to sing "Holy, Holy, Holy").

From the beginning, there have always been images of our God being more than simply an old man in the sky, though that is a fun image to have someone dress up as during parties.

Our God has always been more.

"In the beginning... the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep." Genesis One, right there.

Later in Genesis, when God visits Sarah and Abraham, it is as a trio of callers who predict the arrival of Isaac.

On to Exodus when the voice of God calls to Moses out of a bush that is on fire but not consumed.

Throughout the prophets and Hebrew Scriptures, God's voice and Spirit appear on their own. And then in the New Testament, we hear Christ, who John refers to as the Word of God made flesh, speak of God as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The epistle writers go on to repeat this concept again and again.

So we know that God is more than what God may seem, but what exactly is that?

Believe it or not, one of the Confessions we do not often use in the PCUSA, "The Westminster Confession of Faith" actually says it well: "In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity."

They all move and live and work together as one community. One communion. One body, in the same sense that all of us believers make up the body of Christ - where do you think the idea came from?

Now here is the super important part: we are made in God's image. Throughout the millenia we have debated what that means, but many of us these days would argue that it means we are made in the image not of one of the persons, but ALL of them. That we are made in the image of that community - to love and be loved.

Because when that much love exists, it cannot but make more to love.

See you Sunday!

Blessings,

Rev. Janie