Sermonette: The Doctrine of the Trinity

Growing up in the church, I learned very early on that God was three in one. I remember that in Sunday school, my teacher read a really awesome book to us about the Trinity. It was called "Three in One." It was a bright green book with a drawing of an apple on the front cover. The book taught that in an apple there are three parts – the skin, the core and the white part we eat. Then the book taught us that just like there are three parts of the apple that are all the apple, there are three parts of God that are all God! We call that the Trinity.

You might be surprised that although the concept of the Trinity is found in the Bible, the word Trinity is not! Back in the early centuries of Christianity, this caused a lot of debate. Just how do the Father, Son and Holy Spirit fit and interact with one another? Is the Father over the Son? How could Jesus be equal with God and also be human?

In the year 325, the emperor Constantine gathered 319 bishops from all over Christendom to answer the questions above. The gathering was called the Council of Nicea. For an entire month, they discussed and debated, studied and prayed. In the end, they concluded that God the Father and Jesus the Son were both of the same divine substance. This consensus resulted in the first version of what we now call the Nicene Creed. It read in part:

We believe in one God, the Father almighty,

maker of all things visible and invisible;

And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

begotten from the Father, only-begotten,

that is, from the substance of the Father,

God from God, light from light,

true God from true God, begotten not made,

of one substance with the Father.

While they had seemingly settled the question of the diety of Jesus, they had not settled anything about the nature of the Holy Spirit.

This was the task of the Council of Constantinople, convened in 381. They gathered for three months to discuss and debate just how the Holy Spirit fit in with God the Creator and God the Son. Ultimately, they made changes to the Nicene Creed, agreeing that the Holy Spirit is worshipped and glorified along with the Father and the Son. This meant that we had a triune God, one God in three persons, which were all divine.

From that agreement and understanding came the Doctrine of the Trinity. This diagram shows how this doctrine works: the three persons are individual and separate from one another yet are all God.

So – this begs the question – why? Why did God, in all God's wisdom, seemingly make himself more complicated?

I offer this for your consideration.

In our Triune God, we see relational, cooperative, self-giving love. There is energy and movement among and between. God, by God's very nature is invitation and togetherness.

A great illustration of this is the Celtic symbol seen here. Notice the beauty, the flow, the individuality and oneness. This symbol shows us that our God not only desires relationship but is relationship.

Love in motion is who our God is and how our God operates. Thanks be to God!