“All Bases Covered”
Psalm 8, from the Iona Abbey Worship Book
Matthew 28:16-20, from The Message
“A New Creed,” from the United Church of Canada
On this Trinity Sunday, I could have chosen to talk with you about the ancient doctrine of the Trinity—how and when and why it came to be.
I could acknowledge that it’s complicated and somewhat hard to understand, this business of God being both three and one. Not three different Gods, mind you, and not just one God, but three in one and one in three.
I could mention the term perichoresis, a combination of Greek words meaning “go around” and “make room,” another effort to explain or declare that God is in Christ and the Holy Spirit and Christ and the Holy Spirit are in God and the Holy Spirit is in Christ and Christ is in the Holy Spirit.
And then, just as your eyes start to glaze over, I could share with you my favorite image of the Trinity, which is three beings moving together in a circle dance, constantly flowing and moving and dancing together, always making room for each other.
It’s a lovely and provocative image that begins to evoke the trinitarian idea of God as a community of creativity, love, presence, and power—and still, it’s a little hard to wrap our heads around.
But we live in unsettled and frightening times, and sometimes we have trouble just getting through the day.
What difference does the concept of the Trinity make when we’re starting down the long and uncertain road of cancer treatment? we might wonder.
How does the three-in-one idea help us figure out how to live in a time and a country that seems to become less dependable and more more unrecognizable by the day? we might ask.
How does the Trinity help with my fear or my grief or sense of overwhelm? we might want to know.
We could ask the same questions and still more about theology in general. We could ask the same questions about faith in general. And all those questions and feelings, all those wonderings and doubts would be both valid and important.
And so, on this Trinity Sunday, I’m going to cut to the chase.
The confusing and hard-to-understand doctrine of the Trinity came to be, in short, because people were confused and found various scriptural references to God, Jesus, and Spirit hard to understand.
Right there in the Genesis account of creation, God is using a plural pronoun to refer to God’s self. Jesus of Nazareth said he was one with God—and still he seemed separate from God because, among other things, he prayed to God. The Spirit was said to have been with God since the beginning, and yet the Spirit was poured out on people and was said to live in and through people in ways Creator God did not.
And the so-called church fathers—yes, they were all men—were certainly neither the first nor the last committee of folks to put forth an explanation or theory that is at least as complicated and hard-to-understand as the questions that prompted its creation.
But the purpose of the doctrine is not hard to understand. It is meant to help us understand that the Holy One is not just “up there” somewhere, but also down here, in here, and everywhere. The idea of the Trinity is also meant to affirm that we, like the One who created us in their image, are relational beings. The Holy One is a relationship, and relationships are also who we are, not just something we do or make.
In short, the doctrine of the Trinity tells us that God has covered all the bases.
And by that I mean all the needs—practical, spiritual, emotional, and relational—of our lives. All the needs of creation, all the needs of our burning and warring world, all the needs of nations, races, genders, sexualities, generations, families, individuals, and worldviews in relating to others.
The Trinity tells us that God is with us in and through and for all of it.
The shorthand formula we’ve come to use speaks in terms of God the Creator, God the Redeemer, and God the Sustainer. These terms speak to the varieties of divine action: creating, delivering, empowering. The also speak to the location of the Holy Mystery: Beyond us in every created thing, with us and beside us always and in every situation, and within us, enabling us to become instruments of divine love, transformation, and healing.
Another way to look at it is this: There is no where that God is not. God is with all and in all and through all.
What this means in our lives is something like this:
As we face the stress, discomfort, fear, and uncertainty in cancer treatment: God is in the treatments. God is in the knowledge, skill, and compassion of the doctors, nurses, lab techs, pharmacists, food providers, hand-holders, and the prayers and presence of those who love us. God is in our hearts and spirits and bodies, giving us the strength, courage, and will to persevere in hope and trust.
What this Trinity business means is that when we’re facing a challenging family or relationship situation, God’s design will be made known in our heart’s desire for connection. God’s love will be made known through those who offer emotional support, practical supports, and a path that makes possible something new and different. God’s power will manifest in everything from whatever it is that gets us out of bed each morning to our unwavering commitment to be there for our loved ones, no matter how hard that turns out to be.
And as we struggle to keep the faith amid the self-serving corruption of our nation’s leaders and the unhealed brokenness of the world, God’s three-in-oneness shows up in the reliability of the seasons, the undeniable strength of the life force, the clarity of right vs. wrong and loving kinship vs. hateful division, the creativity and strength of resistance movements, the beauty of our songs, the people who march alongside us, and our refusal to give up on each other.
Right?
What is all that if not God’s love and power covering all the bases? God’s love is so deep and high, wide and long, powerful, and long-lasting that is covers bases we aren’t even aware of. It resolves problems before we encounter them. It shows up before we’ve even asked. It empowers us to do things we never thought possible.
And when even all that does not prevent bad things from happening to good people, God is with us in our grief, enabling us to receive love and comfort, helping us to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and opening us to healing and growth.
Toxic positivity tells us that everything will be fine, that everything happens for a reason, or to be grateful anyway.
Belief, if we’re not careful, can become a wall between our mind and our heart, between us and people with different beliefs, telling us that how we live is less important than what we profess.
But trust in the presence and power of God invites love in—and that changes everything. Trust says, “I need you. Walk with me. Help me get through this. Even when I can’t see you or feel you, even when everything seems to be going wrong, I want to live as though you are with me, as though you are making me and all things new.
In closing on this Trinity Sunday, I want to repeat something I said on Pentecost Sunday:
The essence of God is a mysterious over-the-top love that gives: extravagantly, indiscriminately, universally, powerfully, and always for the good, healing, liberation, and joy of all people and all creation.
Humans, though made in the image of God, are not God. We are not always loving or giving, kind or forgiving. From generation to generation, humans have hurt one another and abused creation, and the love and wisdom and Spirit of God is forever working to empower us to become who we are meant to be and to clean up at least some of the messes we’ve all had a hand in making.
God gave us life; Jesus shows us the way to live, and the Holy Spirit gives us the capacity to live that way—the way of loving and giving, caring and sharing, forgiving and healing, overcoming everything that separates us and coming together as one.
May it be so.
