Dear Ones of St. Columba's,

 Each year after the fiery blaze of Pentecost Sunday (and what a joyful Sunday this past one was!!) we begin our journey into what some call "ordinary" time with the last official feast of the spring - Trinity Sunday. I will let you in on a bit of a trade secret - there are many clergy and preachers who dread and even make fun of Trinity Sunday. This makes sense - explaining the Trinity is a thing that should strike fear into the heart of anyone charged with stewarding the spiritual well being of other Christians. God is three in one. When you step back and take a look at that statement it doesn't make sense. 

So we joke about heresies like modalism (God is like water, ice and steam! God is like an egg with three parts - the yolk, the white, the shell!) or we shy away from explanations and simply exclaim "what a mystery!" I've heard both. I've felt the impuse to do both things. 

But if we choose either of these more traveled paths when contemplating the Triune nature of our God, we are missing out on an opportunity to stretch our brains and let ourselves be a little unsettled in order to grow. Because yes, we do believe that our God is both One and Three. We believe that God is three persons who are so involved with, in love with, connected with each other that God is one being. It is not like an egg - God shares all of Godself with all of Godself. And it is a mystery. But it is a mystery we are supposed to hold, to examine, and to listen deeply to. 

One of my favorite parts of Trinity Sunday is the songs. Like many of life's mysteries (love, grief, anger, hope) music often opens doors that not even the most well crafted sermon can. This week Martin has chosen a song of the day that is simply and captures much of what I believe matters in this moment about God as Trinity. 

It's called "When Minds and Bodies Meet as One" and here is the first verse: 

 When minds and bodies meet as one and find their true affinity, we join the dance in God begun and move within the Trinity, so praise the good that's seen and done in loving, giving unity, revealing God, forever one, whose nature is community.

It's even better when you sing it. 

Here is what matters to me, today, about worshiping God as Trinity. It matters that God's own self is more than an individual expression. In order to be whole, in order to be One, God needs at least three. In order to love, to create, to heal, to bless - God needs at least three. God's nature is community. 

I need this because I need community to be whole, to experience love, to participate in God's creativity, healing, and blessing . And what God as Trinity says to me is that ultimately we are made in God's image. That is, all of us together image God in ways no one of us alone ever could. 

This world we live in tells us in many ways that the individual is the ultimate expression of humanity. Individuals are important. The ability to imagine a world where each individual person is given what they need to flourish and become the unique creation of God is vital. But the purpose is not for indivuality to be where it ends. The purpose of protecting, preserving, and loving people for who they individually are is because we are not complete without each person. Our world, our church, our families aren't whole until we are in community with each other, "Revealing God, forever one, whose nature is community." 

This Sunday whether you worship in-person or from home, I hope you spend some time sitting with this thing we believe - that God needs at least three to be one. And we need each other, in order to image God more fully, to love more deeply and to participate in the creativity, healing and blessing of the God whose nature is community.

with care and gratitude,

Alissa