What's a Trinity?

Last week, a bunch of people asked why we have red for Pentecost. Some even wore red clothing for the day. The red parements for the day symbolize the red tongues of flame that alighted on the apostle's heads when the Holy Spirit blew into the room. We Protestant don't pay much attention to the Holy Spirit and so we don't generally know much about it. My cousin who sings in the choir at First Baptist in downtown Nashville said they don't even mark the day.

Now we have Trinity Sunday coming up and people may wonder even more about that. Believe it or not, but in the fourth and fifth centuries there was a lot of argument about how to understand the relationship between God the Creator, Christ the Word made flesh, and the Holy Spirit. It took three different church councils (Nicaea in 325, Constantinople in 381, and Ephesus in 431) to reach an agreement.


Ultimately, the church fathers decided that the Godhead is made up of three expressions with different activities but a single vision and goal. Non-Christians often say this is a sham and that we are really not monotheistic. But we can think of a diamond with three facets or triplets or three ideas from one brain. Augustine called the Trinity: Love, Beloved, Lover. God is far more than we imagine.

Lectionary this week: Psalm 29; Isaiah 6:1-8; John 3:1-17; Romans 8:12-17

Session meets this Thursday at 6 p.m. Prayer Breakfast this Saturday morning at 8 a.m.

Allen.