During my 30 day sabbatical, I was re-introduced to the Trinity.
Sure, I had studied the Trinity in Systematic Theology at Harding School of Theology. I had read debate after debate about the exact nature of the relationship between Father, Son and Spirit . I had discussed with a Muslim neighbor how Jesus could be fully divine. Academically and intellectually I was a trinitarian. But practically I was not.
I realized this on day 1 of my 30 days of silence. That day my Spiritual Director asked three simple questions. I spent the rest of the 30 days learning two answer the last two:
- What image comes to mind when you think of the Father?
- What image comes to mind when you think of Jesus?
- What image comes to mind when you think of the Spirit?
I was able to comfortably and quickly answer the first question. I had plenty of personal experience to draw from. I was used to praying to the Father. Thinking about the Father. Trying to listen to the Father.
But my comfort lessened and my mind slowed at the second question. I had less personal experience to draw from. I realized Jesus, to me, was more of a spiritual hero who lived in the past. I was more capable of answering What Did Jesus Do? than Who Is Jesus Now? I rarely, if ever, prayed to Jesus. I was not regularly aware of his presence in my life. I did not try to listen for his voice.
And on question 3, I sounded more like a seminary student than a mystic. I rarely thought of the Spirit in personal terms. He was more of a power to me than a person.
My experience, I’ve learned, is pretty typical of Western Protestants. Francis Chan called the Holy Spirit the “Forgotten God” in one of his first books. I’d suggest the same label for Jesus. I, and many like me, are guilty of forgetting Jesus and the Spirit. This makes us guilty of two of the worst heresies of the Christian faith:
- Modalism taught that there was only one God who existed in three forms. That is, there was only one true personal God. And he took the form of a Father, a Son and a Spirit. This heresy denied the person-hood of Jesus and the Spirit. Practically speaking, I had done the same in my faith.
- Arianism denied the full deity of Jesus and/or the Spirit. Both were subordinate to and inferior to the Father who created them. Practically speaking, this described my own faith. I focused almost exclusively on the Father, giving Jesus and the Spirit very little priority.
Thus, during my month of meditation, my Spiritual Director guided me back to a trinitarian faith. She led me to a Celtic prayer which I prayed several times through each the day. It included the lines, “In the name of God–Father, Son and Holy Spirit…I bow before the Father who made me; I bow before the Son who saved me; I bow before the Spirit who guides me in love and adoration…” She asked me to write letters to each of the Three, and then to write their letters back to me. Slowly, each of the Three became a living Person with whom I interacted.
Why does this matter? It was of vital interest to the biblical authors:
- Moses writes of the Trinity discussing creation: “Let US make man in OUR image…” (Gen. 1:26)
- Matthew paints a beautiful portrait of Jesus being baptized, the Father speaking words of affirmation, and the Spirit descending. (Matt. 3:16-17)
- Jesus calls us to baptized “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19)
- Paul blesses his readers with “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Cor. 13:14)
- And Peter summarizes the work of the Trinity in this way: “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” (1 Pet. 1:2)
But, again, why does this matter? Perhaps one image helps. The Church Fathers used a Greek term to describe the Trinity: Perichoresis. It literally means “around” + “go forward,” or “dance or flow around.” The image is of three engaged in a dance together. John of Damascus described it as a “cleaving together.” Each of the Three embraces the other, enters into the other, permeates the other and dwells in the other. Tim Keller writes that “Each of the divine persons centers upon the others. None demands that the others revolve around him. Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight, and adoration into them.” (The Reason for God). Further, Keller writes “Within God is a community of persons pouring glorifying, joyful love into one another.”
This trinitarian image reminds us that this faith is entirely and wholly about love. “God did not create us to get the cosmic, infinite joy of mutual love and glorification, but to share it. We were made to join in the dance.” (Tim Keller) God has eternally existed in an unfathomably intimate and loving dance with Son and Spirit and created us so that we might join in the dance. The Trinity’s circle is not closed–it is open–open for us and for all to join (Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image of God).
Thus the measuring stick, the standard, the “win” in faith and ministry is this: love. The overriding question is this: Am I growing in my experience of God’s love? Are our churches growing in our experience of God’s love? No longer can we be satisfied with reading the Bible in a year, attending the latest Christian event or raising strong Christian families. No longer can churches measure merely butts, budgets, baptisms and buildings. The key question is whether or not we are, more and more, entering into this joyful dance of love. And not just with One. But with all Three.
Further, the image calls us to ponder: Am I growing in my expression of God’s love to others? Are our churches growing in our expression of God’s love to others? Personally and congregationally, we must strive to keep the circle open. We must keep the invitation extended. We must do all we can to not circle our wagons, keep out the “rif-raf” or protect ourselves from “them.” We must become and be known as those who express this unfathomable love to all and invite all into the dance.
Loving God and loving neighbor, what Scot McKnight calls the “Jesus Creed,” is catapulted to the top of every personal and professional priority list. The trinitarian reality makes sense of Paul’s constant writing about love and praying about love.
So, shall we dance?
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