God of Relationship

June 12, 2022 
Holy Trinity Sunday 
John 16

 

Who is God? What is God? How do we know God?

That has been a question for humanity since the beginning of time,

whether they called God “God” or by some other name.

People have felt that there was something that created

ordered, and oversaw everything, and the human

desire to understand that has driven people of every culture.

 

Some have understood that there are many gods –

different gods for different aspects of creation and life.

And some, like our own, have understood God as one.

 

Today in the Christian church we celebrate

what we know and believe about God:

the doctrine of the Trinity, which often leaves us

with more questions than answers.

 

But basically, the doctrine of the Trinity says

we believe that God is one, but God also has three manifestations:

Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.

God, Jesus, and the Spirit. However you want to say it.

 

Some of you who have been going to church a long time

may remember reciting the Athanasius Creed on Trinity Sunday.

It’s one of the three creeds that we adhere to in the

Lutheran church, but we don’t say it as much as the other two.

 

If you don’t know it, it’s kind of long and repetitive

and doesn’t really trip off the tongue like the others.

The people who made the newest Lutheran worship book didn’t even

put it in there this time, which was probably a good choice.

And we’re not going to say it today.

 

 I’ve actually had nightmares about

leading a congregation and everyone losing their place

and the whole service disintegrating into chaos.

 

Athanasius was a priest and a Christian theologian,

he had a part in the council of Nicaea in 325 AD

and had a part in making the Nicaean Creed that we 

and many other churches do say regularly and will recite today.

 

The Athanasius creed was most likely

written in the fifth or sixth century,

about 100 years after Athanasius lived,

but it’s probably named after him because it was

based on his strong belief on how the Trinity should

be understood.

 

The Athanasius creed does start with the lines:

“Whoever desires to be saved

should above all hold to the catholic faith.

Anyone who does not keep

it whole and unbroken will doubtless perish eternally.”

Which is why we don’t read it aloud.

 

It was written at a time in the church when having the right

understanding about the nature of God and Jesus

was the most important thing to Christians,

it basically decided your faith.

 

Thankfully we’ve moved to another place today.

Where adhering to whole and unbroken doctrine,

is not as important as trust in God.

And condemning people to perish eternally

does not seem like a great tool for spiritual conversion.

  

But still and all, I’m glad that Athanasius was so

insistent on his understanding of God and

that the doctrine of the Trinity has been handed to us,

and that it is part of our faith,

because it tells us something very important

about the nature of God and who God is for us.

 

The Athanasius Creed says:

We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity,

neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being.

For the Father is one person, the Son is another,

and the Spirit is still another. But the deity of the Father, Son,

and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty.

What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit.

 

Which is just about as confusing as anything,

but what it basically says is that God is one,

but God is made up of three.

The creed goes on to explain this concept

repetitively and in great detail.

But the bottom line for me is that God the Trinity,

is a God in relationship.

 

God is beyond our grasp and understanding and

the best we can do to talk about the Trinity  is to use

metaphors and similes,

So when talking about the Trinity we often say things like:

God is like water, ice, steam, water.

God is like an apple,

God is like a three leaf clover.

  

But St. Augustine, another third century

church father, described the Trinity like this:

“Now, love is of someone who loves,

and something is loved with love.

So then there are three:

the lover, the beloved, and the love.”

 

So God is like a family, 

God is like a group of close friends,

God is like a congregation.

Completely separate identities, but at the same time, one.

 

God, in God’s self, is a relationship.

A table for three.

Not for two, so you might feel strange joining in.

But a table for three. The beginning of a party.

A conversation where there’s always room for one more.

Where there’s always room for us.

We are always welcomed into God’s conversation.

 

And my big take away from the Trinity and from

the Athanasian creed is this:

We have been saved by a relationship.

God, Jesus, and the Spirit.

And that means this world is saved by relationships.

 

We are not saved by adhering to doctrines, or magical spells,

or by worship, or liturgy, or rituals, or even prayer,

but we are saved by relationships -

across barriers, and walls that separate us from each other.

 

God, the Trinity, saves us, and gives us a model to live by,

to go back to, to recreate in our own lives.

 

In God’s own self, God shows us how we can

we can still be individuals,  

distinct and different from each other,

in our roles, cultures, thoughts, and understandings,

all unique in the ways we live and exist.

 

But still, we understand that we are one.

We live and move and interact as one.

My actions can affect someone living thousands of miles away.

We are joined together over time and space.

Even death cannot separate us.

We are linked together forever.

Each as important as the other,

each dependent on the other,

not existing alone, but together.

As said in the Athanasius creed:

“Neither confusing the person or dividing the being”

 

This relationship of God as it exists in the Trinity has saved us for eternal life.

And this relationship, reflected in our lives,

will one day save the whole world.

 

This Trinity is a relationship of love:

God the Relationship.

It is the foundation of the universe

It is the heartbeat of all creation.

 

Everything begins and ends in this relationship that is God.

All creation is part of this relationship.

We are all part of it.

Each one of us separate and together.

We are distinct and different.

and at the same time we are one.