Thinking
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O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-petition at the end of this Sunday’s collect - and many collects
Trinity Sunday is always the Sunday right after Pentecost. In a matter of just one week we do a quick transition from Pentecost, a day of great feeling and spirit, to Trinity Sunday, a day we assume is all about deep thinking and figuring out what the theological doctrine of the Trinity really means. From heart to head in just seven days. But I’m not sure our assumptions about Trinity Sunday are accurate. It’s not just a Sunday for thinking deeply about theology. Because no matter how hard you think about it, the Trinity will never make “sense” in a way that matters. Theologians have been discussing and writing about it for centuries, and we are no further ahead on agreeing or understanding what the Trinity really is.
However, we do feel that the Trinity is at the heart of our faith as Christians. I know for myself, it was the Trinity that caused me to change denominations from the Unitarian Universalists to the Episcopal Church. I was drawn by it and by the Christian tradition, neither of which were placed in the center of our lives together at the UUA. But if you were to ask me exactly why the Trinity drew me, I’m not sure I’d have a good rational answer for you. It was much more about me feeling who God is for me and how I feel called to relate to God and to the world. The Trinity is a relationship at its core, and relationships are not able to be rationally summed up in just a few descriptive words. They need to be lived.
And our faith calls us to live out our faith instead of just thinking about it. As I think about preaching on Trinity Sunday, this seems to be an important guidepost. Maybe Trinity Sunday is not a confusing intellectual Sunday at all, as we always say and joke about. Rather, maybe it’s the perfect Sunday to let go of the need to explain and just live into our lives in God.
