Oneness in Trinity

My mentor over in Alabama says that Trinity Sunday is one of those dates on the calendar of the church where a rector who is fortunate to have an assistant punts the sermon to second banana with a "Have a good time trying to explain THAT to the masses!" Since officially our rector at St. John's is the Bishop, that means he has tasked the Canon to be our guest preacher for Trinity Sunday. We'll see what happens.

I've been pondering what to make of all this Trinitarian stuff... while also acknowledging that today, we celebrated the first Book of Common Prayer by Thomas Cranmer, which any Episcopalian will tell you is a literary masterpiece of such magnitude that even the Holy Bible quotes the BCP! (Yes, I'm kidding. I am shocked by how often I have to explain that joke!!). And we praise this wonderful moment in church history amidst the continued fall-out from the Archbishop's Pentecost letter. And the continued bad news about the oil billowing up to the surface in the Gulf of Mexico.

Which, in the muddled up world of my mind, seems to all fit very well with the concept of the Trinity. Multi-dimensional, amazing God whose light must continue to shine through the darkness and dreary despair of our human doings. No wonder our Christian outlook says that the God who is Father is also the Son and is also the Holy Spirit. We need God to be that expandable and interchangeable and incredible to help us deal with our mess!

Strangely, I have found that the song which is repeating itself in my head today isn't a church hymn but rather a hymn from the legendary reggae artist Bob Marley. In its own language, it was speaking to me about what is meant in the Gospel of John about the "truth" that will be with all.



One love, one heart. Let's get together and feel all right.

For me, on this eve of Trinity Sunday, I'm not so worried about trying to "understand" the Trinitarian nature of God. I think to keep trying to parse out the Trinity and "understand" it leads to madness. Or, to put it in Biblical terms, takes us back to the story of Adam and Eve and that desire to have our ways be God's ways... and our thoughts, God's thoughts. Perhaps that is the problem with the Archbishop and the CEO of BP. God looks so good when God looks exactly like us and wants exactly what we want!

But God is a trinity... and so will appear differently for what is needed. Still one love. Still one heart. Still one God.

Will we feel that presence when we consider God as our creator, our redeemer and our sustainer? Will we allow God to be all that and more for us?