[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage 609, Trinity Sunday, 5/18/08

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Trinity Sunday – May 18, 2008

Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Psalm 8
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20


No Better Words

One God and one creator of all, this is the uniting concept at the foundation of Biblical faith.  Whatever role Satan or other powers play, it is a subordinate role bound and limited by God.  Human beings, made in God's image, have a special intermediate role between God and the rest of the creation.  Whatever angels or other heavenly hosts may do is unimportant.  The drama of life has but two main actors, God and human beings.  Human life is a dialog between God and us with the rest of creation our shared responsibility. 

This unitary understanding of God is precious.  It simplifies and solidifies the psychological landscape.  It is like growing up in a home where love unites your parents.  You don't live with the terror that your home is going to explode.  That is the terror generated by dualism, by the "good god - bad god" belief system.  Some people within the Christian tradition elevate Satan to such a level that they create a second god for themselves and live in a fearful dialog with that god.  Genesis lays for us a firm foundation.  Don't let the minor references to Satan in the balance of the Scriptures unbalance the picture.  We believe in one God!

We believe in one God who is beyond naming or defining.  We do not rise above God and look down on God.  We never see God from the outside.  We can never talk about God in terms of God's boundaries, but we can set up boundaries for our talk about God, and that is what the doctrine of the Trinity is.  The Trinity is the boundaries for Christian talk about God.  "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you."  (2 Corinthians 13:13)  We do not confess God faithfully unless we confess God graciously acting in Jesus.  We do not confess God faithfully unless we confess God who loved all life into existence.  We do not confess God faithfully unless we confess God's grace and God's judgment bound in the communion of the Holy Spirit.  God is like a stable home with two parents held together by love.   The doctrine of the Trinity is a more stable understanding of the one God than the unitarian alternatives, one God who is Father, one God who is Son or one God who is Holy Spirit.

You have to have the Trinity to make sense of loving Jesus. You can’t truly love someone who is dead and gone. One can love St. Francis of Assisi from historical accounts, but that isn’t loving the person. If someone says, “I talk to St. Francis every day. He walks beside me, speaks to me and guides me.”, then that person has a vivid imagination but not a personal relationship. Yet we say this about Jesus, experience Jesus in this way without implying that we need a psychiatrist. What is the difference? God who is God the Son is Jesus not dead but risen. God who is God the Holy Spirit is not Jesus gone but Jesus present.

The doctrine of the Trinity is a confession not a definition.  Who can define God?!  Christians can only confess their historic and person encounter with God.  To confess God apart from God in Christ is impossible.  To confess Christ apart from God the creator of all is impossible.  To confess God in Christ apart from our experience of both through the Holy Spirit sustaining the church is impossible.  Therefore, we are constrained by our experience of God to confess the one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  There are other words, but there are no better words.


May these thoughts strengthen you. 
 
An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors 
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor 
(an e-mail service) 
 
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