Thoughts for the Day

Jesus said: ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

The idea of the Holy Trinity is a difficult one to understand - that God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three but yet one God. It's worth looking at The Apostles Creed which we say in Morning and Evening Prayer. Each section of this Creed is different, the first says "I believe in God" and proceeds to define God as 'Father, Almighty, Creator'; the second starts with "I believe in Jesus Christ" and looks at the human Jesus as well as his future role as judge; and the third section begins "I believe in the Holy Spirit" and explains the Spirit's work in the church and in our own lives.

We should be careful though, not to try and divide God into three parts for each of the three are one-hundred-percent God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each fully God. Professor Wayne Gruden says "We should not think of God as a 'pie' cut into three pieces, each piece representing a Person. This would make each Person less than fully God and thus not God at all. Rather, the being of each Person is equal to the whole being of God' (Gruden, Systematic Theology)

We often try to explain God as Three-in-One using various different illustrations, but none really work. One lovely idea is of the Trinity, and another is the picture of the icon above, by the 15th century painter Andrei Rublev, of three figures around a cup. For the most important thing about the Trinity, is their relationship to one another - their collaboration as One. Ultimately, we have to simply accept that God is Three, but One!

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
we know You first through our relationship with Jesus,
but we ask Your help to understand more about You
as the God who is Three-in-One.
May we also learn about collaboration
from your example,
and work together with others
to generate a vibrant Church here on earth.
Amen.