Holy Company

This is Trinity Sunday. The Trinity is one of those Christian doctrines that really doesn’t make sense. It does, like my theological training, have gone to lengths to help me understand it. I can restate the construction that I’ve been taught about the principle, but it’s one of those mysteries that isn’t concrete in explanation. The Trinity isn’t explicit in the bible; many can point to places where they are represented and can build evidence for it, but it is nowhere clarified like it is in Christian Creeds or other traditional doctrinal statements. The Trinity, a Triune model for God, has stood the test of time since its inception sometime between Jesus’ inception and the recording and solidifying of it in the Nicene Creed. (~325 CE) Many theologians, pastors, and individual Christians will attest to relating to a Triune God and have professed to be revealed as a truth.

The Trinity is the principle that God is made of three individual but inseparable persons. Typically called the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. I’m not getting into naming alternatives in this post. It QUICKLY gets confusing and murky. Some contemporary names have been Creator, Redeemer & Presence. My preferred is usually God, Christ & Holy Spirit. My friend Gayle uses Father, Son & Holy Ghost. No matter, hopefully, you know who I’m talking about.

The doctrine of the Trinity says that these three individuals, no matter how you name them, all make up one unit of the Triune God. These three are all three God and God on their own - inseparable.

There are no good metaphors for this idea. Literally, all of them are actually some heresy from the ancient church for which people have died and are against in arguments. The closest that I’ve heard is water having three forms, but all forms have to be present at the same time by some feat of physics.

I’m sure that most have heard this basic explanation of the Trinity. God, Christ & Holy Spirit all are the Triune God. This counting of the individuals is called the Emmenant Trinity. There’s a second accounting of this doctrine that takes place in the relationship among the individuals within the Trinity. The relationship between the individuals is called the Economic Trinity.

I think that the economic Trinity is a much more practical and interesting theology. Especially when it comes to relating to how Christians are supposed to live and what Christians are supposed to do. Thinking that the Creator God was present in the Redeeming Christ and with the ever Present Spirit - that all three of them are active in any action that the others are doing - that’s the Economic Trinity. Thinking about my blog post a couple of weeks ago about Jesus dying inside of God - that’s the Emmenant Trinity. God is present with Jesus on the cross - that’s the Economic Trinity. Both are true and held in tension with one another.

See… I told you it wasn’t super clear.

Nevertheless, I would like to look at what the Economic Trinity means as a call for the lives of Christians and for the church.

The surgeon general of the United States issued an advisory that the health impacts of loneliness have reached an epidemic level.[1] Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy says:

“1 in 2 adults report measurable levels of loneliness. And the group that's actually most lonely in our population are actually young people, despite how connected they may be by technology. And I'm worried about this from a public health perspective because it turns out that being socially disconnected has real consequences for our health. It increases our risk of depression, anxiety, and suicide, but it also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, of dementia, stroke and premature death.”[2]

Dr. Murthy’s proposed solutions are recommendations that the church should be particularly adept at addressing. He recommends creating sacred spaces and extending kindness and highlights that serving others is “one of the most powerful antidotes to loneliness we have.”[3] Creating sacred spaces,[4] loving neighbors as we love ourselves, and serving others are three pillars that provide a foundation for the mission of the church. The Trinity is a perfect model for individuals to be part of a larger whole while also remaining in close and inseparable relationships with each other. The church, by engaging in the creation and co-creation of sacred spaces, extending love and grace to self and others, and serving the community, can help combat loneliness and simultaneously disciple Christians who exponentially do the same.

            Trinitarian sacred spaces include the members of the Triune God, the mystery of each, and the relationship among them. God works in every moment to create a sacred space with humanity. In the continual creation of sacred space, God shares power with the world, providing freedom to participate fully in divine creativity or not.[5] In the early church, before the tradition was shaped, before scripture was standardized and widely available, personal experience with God was the only knowledge that mattered.[6] Believers who chose to experience God had the offer of the sacred available to them. The early Christian community honored the sacred they experienced in God’s revelations by co-creating sacred space through the sacraments in their churches and gatherings.

            The Triune’s work among humanity is a steadfast righteousness, continually being revealed. “Jesus Christ represents the culmination of God’s self-revelation…God was acting to reconcile the world, and Jesus had voice and body.”[14] Christians work to align their lives and values with those of Christ. In Christ, and in imitating and glorifying Christ, Christians grow closer to the Triune God. The inner change experienced by Christians in the sacred should be evident in outward actions that are ever more Christ-like. To John Wesley, extending love and grace to self and others, comes naturally “out of relations of union and communion with the Triune God and are continually sustained by those relations.”[15] Humanity collectively received Christ’s grace and is called to individually working to the collective perfecting of humanity closer to God’s Triune image.[16]

            Trinitarian principles have long been translated as a model for the church.  Even against violence, “with its vision of mutual deference among equals and its identification of a crucified preacher of peace as the Word of God incarnate offers a starting point for condemnation of the world’s violence.”[17] If the relationship of “mutual deference among equals” within the Trinity is a mandate for peace, it must also be a mandate for connection. There is no peace in proximity without a relationship. The Trinity is a model for how the church, as the body of Christ on earth, is to interact with all of humanity. The church and each Christian, growing tangentially closer to the Triune God while also recognizing and nurturing our individual relationships, is the answer to the loneliness epidemic. Just as the “natural goodness, inherent holiness, and royal dignity reaches from the Father through the Only-begotten to the Spirit,”[18] so should the Church’s reflection of God reach into the world.

            The church is called into the service of others. This service is modeled within each individual and among the Triune. “God is one Spirit in three natures. The parenting relation of God is the activity of the first person of the Trinity. The Word and Wisdom of God is the relational activity of the second person of the Trinity. The empowering, teaching, healing, comforting, encouraging, and unifying relation is the activity of the third person of the Trinity.”[19] In imitating the caring, nurturing activity within the Triune, Christ’s body on earth develops individuals into disciples and groups of believers into the hands and feet of Christ. The church is called to take The Word and Wisdom of God, in Jesus, out to those seeking and in need. Jesus' ministry “provides the ultimate enacted parable of God’s unexpected love, that this wandering prophet without a place to lay his head, who washes the feet of his companions, should be the self-revelation of God.”[20]

            In imitating the work of the Spirit, empowering, teaching, healing, comforting, encouraging, and unifying is the work of the church. Responding to suffering, even loneliness is the call of the church and that of each individual believer working closer to perfection in Christ. Karen Baker Fletcher puts the immense consequences that come out of a suffering world. “Suffering is deepest and most severe when … despair that leads to cynicism. That is the worst kind of suffering. It is part of the problem that perpetuates hatred, injustice, and unnecessary violence.”[21] She puts in perspective the very human call of believers in responding to suffering and loneliness in describing, “Even when God does not liberate us in the time or way that we want, God encourages us to continue struggling for healing and wholeness from hatred and violence.”[22] The church is not called to the daunting task of eliminating all suffering but to companion those suffering and stimulate healing and wholeness.

The church and individual Christians are called to eliminate the loneliness of suffering.

            Christianity, both believers and the corporate church, have the added benefit that when done well, the action of worship leads to Christian perfection through an outwardly evident internal change closer to the example set by Christ. When Christians work ever closer to the example set by the Triune, the grace and love created, is then overflowed to others. The overflowing of grace and love is service to others. When the church does any one of these actions well, the other two are resultant or implicit. This is a bit of a condemnation of the church’s involvement in the United States recently. If the church and individual Christians collectively were worshiping, extending kindness generated through inward changes, and serving others, there would be no loneliness epidemic. The extent of the epidemic also personally impacts Christians. Christians are lonely.

The mystery and relationship among and within the Trinity cures divisions that cause loneliness.

            Just as the members within the Trinity act in one mind and essence, so can Christians, be of one mind in love. Not just love, worship, Christian perfecting, and service to others. The church, by engaging in the creation and co-creation of sacred spaces, creates an inward change in individual believers. The inward change results in outward actions of extending love and grace to self and others. That love and grace overflowing from the Triune inevitably leads to serving the community. Each of these actions helps individual Christians no suffer in loneliness and sanctifies them to be instruments of furthering the mission of Christ but also, relieves the suffering of humanity. Christians, by doing the very basics of Christian practice, are working to co-create God’s Triune kingdom.

If you’ve made it this far, May the Triune God bless you!

Bibliography

 American Has a Loneliness Epidemic. Here Are 6 Steps to Address It. All Things Considered. National Public Radio, 2023. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1173418268.

 Baker-Fletcher, Karen. Dancing with God: The Trinity from a Womanist Perspective. Saint Louis: Chalice Press, 2014.

 Colyer, Elmer M. The Trinitarian Dimension of John Wesley’s Theology. Nashville: New Room Books, 2019.

 Holt-Lundstad, Julianne, and Susan Golant, eds. “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation 2023 The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community.” Office of the Surgeon General, May 3, 2023. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf.

 Noble, T. A. Holy Trinity: Holy People: The Historic Doctrine of Christian Perfecting. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2013.

 Placher, William C. The Domestication of Transcendence: How Modern Thinking about God Went Wrong. 1st ed. Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996.

 Vickers, Jason E. Invocation and Assent: The Making and Remaking of Trinitarian Theology. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2008.

[1] Julianne Holt-Lundstad and Susan Golant, eds., “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation 2023 The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community” (Office of the Surgeon General, May 3, 2023), https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf.

[2] American Has a Loneliness Epidemic. Here Are 6 Steps to Address It, All Things Considered (National Public Radio, 2023), https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1173418268.

[3] American Has a Loneliness Epidemic. Here Are 6 Steps to Address It.

[4] Dr. Murthy recommends sacred spaces without technology, I assume that sacred space in communion with God and others would have a similar impact on remedying loneliness to that of sacred pace without technology alone.

[5] Karen Baker-Fletcher, Dancing with God: The Trinity from a Womanist Perspective (Saint Louis: Chalice Press, 2014), 21.

[6] Jason E. Vickers, Invocation and Assent: The Making and Remaking of Trinitarian Theology (Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2008), 193.

[7] Vickers, 194.

[8] Vickers, 195.

[9] Baker-Fletcher, Dancing with God, 23.

[10] William C. Placher, The Domestication of Transcendence: How Modern Thinking about God Went Wrong, 1st ed (Louisville, Ky: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), 169.

[11] Placher, 200.

[12] T. A. Noble, Holy Trinity: Holy People: The Historic Doctrine of Christian Perfecting (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2013), 222.

[13] Noble, 222.

[14] Placher, The Domestication of Transcendence, 174.

[15] Elmer M. Colyer, The Trinitarian Dimension of John Wesley’s Theology (Nashville: New Room Books, 2019), 242.

[16] Noble, Holy Trinity, 180.

[17] Placher, The Domestication of Transcendence, 173.

[18] Vickers, Invocation and Assent, 196.

[19] Baker-Fletcher, Dancing with God, 64.

[20] Placher, The Domestication of Transcendence, 215.

[21] Baker-Fletcher, Dancing with God.

[22] Baker-Fletcher, xi.