I’m reading a beautiful book at the moment entitled “Mister God, This Is Anna.” There are many gems, but this is one:
“When you’re little you ‘understand’ Mister God. He sits up there on his throne, a golden one of course; he has got whiskers and a crown and everyone is singing hymns like mad to him. God is useful and usable. You can ask him for things, he can strike your enemies deader than a doornail and he is pretty good at putting hexes on the bully next door, like warts and things. Mister God is so ‘understandable’, so useful and so usable, he is like some object, perhaps the most important object of all, but nevertheless an object and absolutely understandable.
Later on you ‘understand’ him to be a bit different but you are still able to grasp what he is. Even though you understand him, he doesn’t seem to understand you! He doesn’t seem to understand that you simply must have a new bike, so your ‘understanding’ of him changes a bit more. In whatever way or state you understand Mister God, so you diminish his size. He becomes an understandable entity among other understandable entities.
So Mister God keeps on shedding bits all the way through your life until the time comes when you admit freely and honestly that you don’t understand Mister God at all. At this point you have let Mister God be his proper size and wham, there he is laughing at you.”
What if we go to church, not so much to understand God more, but to understand God less — to rest in the mystery of God’s love? Sure, there are things we learn about God in scripture. But rather than boxing God in, the story of scripture reveals a God who beyond our comprehension, intimately personal, and yet uncontainably alive and free.
Entering into relationship with Jesus by his Spirit does the opposite of constraining and boxing God in. No longer are we on the outside, speculating about God as an object. In Jesus, we are on the inside of God — swimming in the spacious, mystery of God’s love.
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday and we’re asking Why does the Trinity matter? It would be easy to get lost in words trying to understand the divine mystery of God. The Church has attempted for hundreds and hundreds of years to try and talk responsibly about the Trinity. And this is an important discussion to have. How we talk about who God is, how we pray to and speak to God, how we relate to God — these things really matter for shaping our faith and our lives.
But an important part of speaking about the Trinity is to celebrate that this is a deep mystery of God which is constantly being revealed through the living Christ.
While we’ll be putting some words around our discussion of Sunday, I’m keen not to let the conversation get weighed down. So, as a bit of pre-reading for the ultra-eager… here are 21 “grammatical rules” for speaking about the Trinity. It is written by Ben Myers on his blog www.faith-theology.com. Ben is a theologian working in Sydney. Having “grammatical rules” for speaking about the Trinity seems to go against everything I’ve said above. However, they actually provide a helpful framework for setting us free from the temptation to “box God in”.
Happy Trinity Sunday everyone!
UPDATE: On Sunday, I extended an invite for people to comment below with their best/most creative analogy to talk about the Trinity. While no analogy is perfect, they do help us to conceptualise how God relates to Godself and to the world. As grammatical rule #8 says: “Because God is creator and self-revealer, analogies of the Trinity are possible.” Happy analogising!
The best description of Trinity, that I have heard was that the Trinity is like a three note chord. The chord is one sound made up of three individual notes. Each note is unique and beautiful on their own, but together it is enhanced into a spectacular harmony. This description is nice because the essence of each part is the same and each individual identity exists at the same time.
Love it, Linda! I also read recently that the word chord has the same root as the word “accord” — the notes are working in accord with one another. Music analogies I think are often the most powerful.
But what’s more powerful than a sporting analogy?
Here’s a rugby analogy for the Trinity:
Lock, first five, and wing.
Lock: the powerhouse, and security. [God]
First five: distributing gifts to his teammates; also, lining right up with them. [Jesus]
Wing: the Bible pictures the Holy Spirit as a dove, which of course has wings! Also flying to score for God.
Or how about a cricket analogy:
wicketkeeper, batter, bowler.
God keeps us; Jesus goes in to bat for us; the Holy Spirit bowls us over.
In New Zealand not much is more powerful than a sporting analogy! Maybe you’re onto something, Ross. Although it does raise the question, what happens when the team implodes, like NZ against Aus in the cricket World Cup final… Is the NZ Trinity inferior to the Aussies ?!? 🙂
Robyn Howden submitted the following beautiful analogy:
“Hi Jordan, I am not a blogger hence the email. I see the trinity as a mother plaiting a little girls hair. The trinity is the three strands of hair which are equally separated and interwoven to become a complete unit. The mother does it with love so that is the connection to the girls soul, and the plait is connected to the girls head making the scripture” being renewed in your mind” appropriate.”
After a little bit of chat at supper at the living room we decided that the Trinity is like a cell phone plan. God the father is the calling Jesus is the texting and the Holy spirit is the data. Obviously everything is unlimited on this plan.
Obviously everything is unlimited! No monthly rates too I hope?!