Each year, on the Sunday after Pentecost Sunday, the Christian Church celebrates what’s known as Trinity Sunday, where churches all over the world focus on the Trinity: The 3-in-1 aspect of God.
Now, the Trinity is confusing for many Christians today, because we’ve been taught that there is only ONE GOD.
In fact, in the Bible, in Deuteronomy 6, it says, “The Lord our God; the Lord is One.”
Christianity is a monotheistic faith, which means we believe there is only one God.
Most of the world’s many faith traditions are also monotheistic, including Hinduism, which is thousands of years older than Christianity.
One of the greatest misunderstandings about Hinduism is that is a polytheist religion, meaning they believe in many gods.
But, that is simply not true. Hinduism, like Christianity, is a monotheist faith. Hindus – like us – believe there is just one God.
So, why then are there so many Hindu deities, like Brahma and Vishnu and Shiva? Well, they’re just different expressions of the one True God.
This concept should not be so foreign to us as Christians, because we have the Trinity, “God in 3 Persons.”
One of my favorite recent depictions of the Trinity was in the movie, “The Shack.” Maybe some of you saw the film or read the book.
In “The Shack,” a man revisits the place – the shack – where his young daughter was murdered.
And, there, he meets three people: Sophia, Jesus and Papa.
The name “Sophia” means “Wisdom.” The Hagia Sophia means Holy Wisdom, the Holy Spirit. And, in the movie “The Shack,” Sophia (the Holy Spirit) is portrayed by an Asian woman.
And, Jesus, in the movie, is portrayed by a Middle Eastern man – not the blond, blue-eyed Jesus we’re used to seeing in most Hollywood movies.
And, Papa, “God” in the movie is portrayed by a Black woman.
And, I love that “The Shack” has been so popular in Christian circles, because it’s opening up people’s minds – expanding people’s minds – about the very nature of God.
God is not some old man up in the clouds with a long, grey beard, looking down on us and keeping score of mistakes.
Many of us were taught that, but it simply isn’t true.
So, who is God? Well, God is the wise Asian woman; God is the gentle Middle Eastern man; God is the loving Black mother.
Of course, God is not a person. Scripture tells us that God is love. But it is difficult for us to pray to – let alone wrap our minds around – a force of love.
So, the Trinity helps us in our understanding of God.
One of the best books I’ve read recently on the Trinity is by Cynthia Bourgeault, and it’s entitled “The Holy Trinity and the Law of the Three.”
And she begins it by saying, Why should be even care about the Trinity?
She quotes the 20th Century theologian, Karl Rahner, who said, “If the Trinity was never mentioned again, most Christians wouldn’t even notice.”
And, it’s true the word “Trinity” appears nowhere in the Bible. It was teaching created by the early church fathers in the 4th century, more than 300 years after Jesus died.
Jesus never mentioned the word, “Trinity,” (because he never heard of it) but in today’s Gospel reading, we hear Jesus mention the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus, the Master Teacher, was trying to explain to the apostles that God is Lover, Beloved, and Love Itself.
That God is love to the Third Power! The Power of Three!
In her book, Cynthia Bourgeault asks, “If the Universe is created in the image of God, and God is part of a Trinity, then what if we don’t live in a binary world, but a ternary world?”
Which means that there’s this third force in play.
And, she gives us this wonderful example of a seed.
There’s the seed, and there’s the soil. Two things. But, put the seed into the soil, and a third force comes into play. And, together, the three generate new life.
What a wonderful way to explain the Trinity!
There’s us and there’s God. Two things. But, through the workings of the Spirit and the Power of Christ within us, we become One.
It’s why Jesus says, “Unless the seed falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single seed.”
My friends, we have to die to being a single seed – meaning, the small self needs to die – so that our true Self (our Divine Self) can be experienced.
The best-selling Christian theologian, Richard Rohr, also has a wonderful book all about the Trinity entitled, “The Divine Dance: The Trinity & Your Transformation.”
Fr. Rohr says that when the early Church fathers were explaining the Trinity, they used the Greek word, PERICHORESIS, which is where our word “choreography” comes from. It means “dance”!
They were trying to explain that the Trinity was a Dance of the Lover, the Beloved, and Love Itself.
That God is not only the Dancer, but the Dance Itself!
And, the purpose of the spiritual life is for us to join in the Dance, to become One with it….to be in the Flow of it.
Think of those Sufi whirling dervish dancers, who spin around in circles. Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam. The purpose of that spinning dance is so the lover and the beloved can become One.
The author of “The Shack,” Paul Young, says that “The Divine Dance is the celebration of relationship.”
There’s a relationship between the Creator and Creation, between the Source and the Expression.
And, the purpose of religion is to nurture that relationship.
There is only One Divine Mind. Only one. And that One Divine Mind is eternally creating and expressing. This one divine mind is what Jesus referred as “The Father.”
He didn’t mean a person, an old man in the clouds. The Aramaic word Jesus used for “Father” more accurately means “Birther of the Cosmos.”
The second aspect of God, “The Son,” is not Jesus, the man from Nazareth. “The Son” is the Christ, the Light that lives within us.
And, that Holy Spirit, the third aspect of God, is the power that supports us we join in the Divine Dance.
This dance – this relationship of Mind, Body, and Spirit – leads to Wholeness, leads to Holiness.
And, so, my friends, in this season of Pentecost, may we become more aware of this Power of Three at work in our lives.
And, may we more consciously partake in the Divine Dance, so that we may truly become ALL that God has created us to be…holy and whole.
May it be so. Amen.