June 7 is Trinity Sunday in the 2009 church calendar and that got me to thinking--about the the Trinity. It’s a doctrine I have a really hard time getting my head around, yet it always seems integral in the Reformed brand of Christianity that I espouse. So when I am reminded, as I have been lately, I suspect it is a part of the spiritual journey I am on that bears noticing. That being the case I’d like to invite you to stop our general discussion of the spiritual journey started just a couple of months ago and spend some time with me and others and this idea. I do believe it is a part of the journey no matter how we understand or whether we accept the doctrine.
How shall we begin? God, three persons yet one God—how can that be? And I think equally important how do we experience God so described? The traditional names are Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; you may choose to name them differently avoiding archaic or sexist language; you may name them more frequently by the role--creator, redeemer, and sustainer. How they are unique, separate, and yet one, tugs mightily for me at the reasoning portion of my brain—various metaphors try to explain: an equilateral triangle in a circle, a holy family united in being, the way in which I am mother, daughter, teacher, the three-leaved shamrock. All work and all fall short.
I turn then to experience not in place of thinking but in tandem with it. How do we experience God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, God three in one? Can we experience each as separate and unique? Can we know them as one? What is the nature of those experiences?
How shall we begin? God, three persons yet one God—how can that be? And I think equally important how do we experience God so described? The traditional names are Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; you may choose to name them differently avoiding archaic or sexist language; you may name them more frequently by the role--creator, redeemer, and sustainer. How they are unique, separate, and yet one, tugs mightily for me at the reasoning portion of my brain—various metaphors try to explain: an equilateral triangle in a circle, a holy family united in being, the way in which I am mother, daughter, teacher, the three-leaved shamrock. All work and all fall short.
I turn then to experience not in place of thinking but in tandem with it. How do we experience God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, God three in one? Can we experience each as separate and unique? Can we know them as one? What is the nature of those experiences?
I invite you over the month to ponder this God. I’d like to ask you to devote a week to thinking of each person of the Trinity separately. Pray to God in that person; seek to know God as Father, then as Son, and finally as Spirit. See that person of the Trinity at work in the world. I will keep a record (journal) of my thoughts and experiences; maybe you will too. The last week turn to God as three in one—GOD.
You're invited to share your thoughts here and enter into discussion. In fact the doctrine of the Trinity does suggest that God is in community so also are we who are created in the image of that God.
Blessings,
Caroline
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