Trinity Sunday (Pt. 2)

With an understanding of God's identity as the kingdom of God, there are at least three important distinctions to note why the doctrine of the trinity matters compared to other monotheisms.

1. GOD IS LOVE

The Johannine witness in scripture reveals to us that God is love. But even if one doesn't accept the authority of scripture, most spiritual people who believe God is present in the world have a general notion of a loving God, or even that God is love. This seems to be one of the less controversial and more commonly accepted notions of God among spiritual people, regardless of their affiliation to Christianity.

But God can only be love if God is trinity. The simplest way to explain what it means for God to be three in one is that God is one community. If God were a single entity, then God could not be love. For love has an object of its affection, the beloved. So if God were not triune, then God would be incomplete without creating a creature to be the object of love in order for God then to become love. God would have to create in order to be the God who is love. God would need something else in order to be God. Creating would be a matter of necissity to God.

But because God is the community of God's kingdom, God does not need to create. Rather God freely desires, chooses, and wills to create us. Because God is triune, our lives are neither an accidental emulation from God nor a self-gratifying means to an end. [Insert here your own personal story of how God loves us and calls us into a loving relationship.]

2. GOD RECONCILES

The divine community of God bridges seemingly impossible divides in order to put things into right relationship. How can God be both one and three? How can the death of Jesus bring life to us? How can Rosie O'Donnel and Elizabeth Hasselback work together on 'The View'?

Oh wait, scratch that last one. But this last example demonstrates the opposite of what the divine community does. We often stick to our opinions and judgments so ardently that we get into conflict with those who are different than use.

Yet the God who is three in one, the God who is love, the God who is the kingdom of God exercises judgment in a much different way. Rather than pointing the finger at others, God takes a nail in Jesus' hands. Rather than giving a thumbs up or thumbs down on the worthiness of others, God's thumb taps the divine heart, saying "I alone am worthy. I alone can take responsibility upon myself to fix the problem." God's judgment is not for including some and excluding others. God's judgment puts things to rights, alligning everything with the righteous order of God's kingdom. (Insert here your own personal story of how God's judgment reconciles.)

3. WE PARTICIPATE IN GOD

Because our one God is triune, it's not as if God is a being among other beings. It's not as if you can line up all the beings from least to greatest, and the greatest of them all at the end of the line would be God. No, God is being. God is the power of life. There is no life without community, for everything that lives intimately relates to and mutually depends on others. Only the God who is inherently other to God's self in divine community can be the power of life.

The God who is love, who reconciles, and who gives life -- this God is a welcoming community. God chooses to create humans to be partners for God's purpose of mutually indwelling the world. When Jesus is revealed in glory and Holy Spirit brings the age of shalom to its culmination and the Father rules in person, at that time God will fully dwell in in the world and the world will fully dwell in God.

But God doesn't just snap the divine fingers and poof the kingdom of God on earth into its fulness. Instead, God calls, gathers, and enlightens us to participate in Jesus' mission of inaugurating the kingdom of God. God has a purpose for all people and a vocation for each person within that purpose to be the divine partners for God's reign. Now in this life we get a glimpse of participating in the divine community, and our destiny in the next life is to participate fully in the triune life. (Insert here your own personal story of people participating in the divine life.)