Trinity Sunday

I've never heard or offered a clear, simple, and articulate explanation of the Trinity, so I certainly won't try here. But I have to say, although 2 Corinthians is widely considered one of the most confusing and difficult to interpret books of all the 72 in the Bible, Paul's affirmation of the Trinity -- just a decade or two after Jesus' death, is quite remarkable.

Our second reading today is 2 Cor. 13:11-13: and the fact that Paul writes,
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you" sheds light on the fact that the notion of the Trinity is not simply one cooked up by theologians or bishops, but a conviction which came out of an experience of God -- even one rooted in a radically monotheistic, Jewish context.

So rather than diving into the explanation of how God created the world, sent His Only Begotten Son, who in turn, promised us the Advocate to be with us always and who acts in the world today ... I'm going to focus on this UNITY that Paul writes about in his reference to the Trinity.

Paul, a radical monotheist, recognizes the way in which the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit gives rise to the concept of a "tri-une" God: three different manifestations of ONE God, acting together, in unity and synergy.

Paul does not leave this unity alone, but rather uses it as the model for our Christian discipleship and how we make up the Church. Again and again in the Pauline letters, we read the Apostle's exhortations for various communities in many parts of the Mediterranean to embrace and reinforce this same unity amongst themselves. For example, Paul is greatly troubled with the celebrations of the Eucharist in 1 Cor. 11, where divisions and factions arise as the wealthy gather to eat and worship inside the house (the Church was so small and new its first liturgies ocurred in people's homes) while the poorer members were left to gather in the garden outside. Paul is so bold to declare that, since, "one goes hungry and another becomes drunk," that "it is not really the Lord's supper" which they celebrate [1 Cor. 11:20-21].

This same concern for unity is in fact how he opens the passage which serves as our second reading today:
"Brothers and sisters, rejoice. Mend your ways, encourage one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you."

I would argue that this emphansis on unity comes to its climax in Galatians [3:28]:

"There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus."

This echoes the very unity Jesus Himself preached, saying,

"I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
[John 17:23]

As we celebrate the tri-une Godhead today, let us also remember that the unity we find in the Trinity is a unity we need to seek in our Church. We desire peace, shalom, right-relationship: with God, with one another, with ourselves. This is how we become not only ONE as the Church, the Body of Christ, but ONE in and through God.