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A sermon preached by the Rev’d Dr Daniel Dries Trinity Sunday Christ Church St Laurence – 22 May, 2016 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight: O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

It is said that St Augustine was struggling to come to terms with the great mystery of the Trinity. As he walked along the seashore, he stumbled across a small boy who was scooping water into a seashell and pouring it into a hole in the sand. St Augustine asked the boy what he was doing. The child responded, ‘I’m going to take all the water out of the sea and pour it into this hole.’ As the great saint smiled in response to the child’s unrealistic task, he realised that he was himself being just as foolish—imagining that he could get the whole nature of God into his limited human mind.

This possibly apocryphal story of St Augustine is a typically gentle reflection on the unknowable mystery that we celebrate and affirm today. In contrast, with just a hint of evangelical bluntness, John Wesley affirmed the mystery of it all as he said, ‘Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and I’ll show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God.’   Great theologians like Augustine and John Wesley affirmed that the Trinity is destined to remain a mystery. We could then ask why we would even bother to waste time wrestling with it. We could just continue on with the Creed and get to morning tea 10 minutes earlier.

The only problem is that the Creed and almost every aspect of our faith is based on the Trinity. We are baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; the departed are sent on their way and blessed in the name of the Trinity. Although we will never fully come to terms with it, Christians are compelled to grapple with this doctrine primarily because it was first taught by Christ himself.

Scripture, as early as Genesis, prepares the way for the doctrine of the Trinity, although The Gospel according to John gives us the basis of Trinitarian Theology. Having constantly prayed and referred to the Father, in John, Chapter 16, Christ now foretells the coming of the Spirit. As the great Farewell Discourse moves towards its conclusion, Christ promises the disciples the sending of the Spirit that will continue to guide them in truth. Christ’s language moves seamlessly from himself to the Father and to the Spirit, and yet he makes this great disclaimer: ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.’ Augustine talked about pouring the ocean into sand; Wesley spoke of intellectual worms—the message is the same: try to believe, even though you won’t fully understand.   Although Christ himself assures the disciples that they would not completely grasp his teaching, we continue to try. Sometimes we try too hard. Preachers deliver black and white sermons desperately attempting to convince the faithful that this is all perfectly logical.

In terms of the Trinity, various metaphors have been used to suggest that this doctrine is not nearly as complicated as it appears. St Patrick famously used the shamrock, presumably because it Page | 1

was readily available. The Early English Church made use of the humble egg to illustrate the mystery of the Trinity. The white, the yolk and the shell are all quite separate and yet all are needed for the egg to be complete. I could spend the remainder of this sermon sharing similar metaphors with you—there are dozens of them. However, none of them will really help us to understand; they tend to be all about form and function, while the most confronting or challenging aspect of the Trinity is the belief that three persons could co-exist in mutual and everlasting love. Even the most wonderful marriage or life-long partnership will have its share of tension, resentment and conflict. The suggestion that three persons could be completely of one heart and mind absolutely goes our understanding of nature. Human relationships are characterised by give and take; we assert our wills and jealously guard our own interests. Only very rarely do we encounter those who seem to live entirely for others. From the writings of the 4th century desert fathers we read: “Two hermits lived together for many years without a quarrel. One said to the other, ‘Let’s have a quarrel with each other, as is the way of men.’ The other answered, ‘I don’t know how a quarrel happens.’ The first said, ‘Look here, I put a brick between us, and I say, That’s mine. Then you say, No, it’s mine. That is how you begin a quarrel.’ So they put a brick between them, and one of them said, ‘That’s mine.’ The other said, ‘No; it’s mine.’ He answered, ‘Yes, it’s yours. Take it away.’ They were unable to argue with each other.”

The doctrine of the Trinity reveals a divine relationship so united in love that conflict and tension are simply not possible. Perhaps the most appropriate representation of the Trinity is three intertwined circles; symbols of unbroken and eternal love. As CS Lewis points out, love cannot be present without relationship. Lewis said of the Trinity: All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that ‘God is love’. But they seem not to notice that the words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, he was not love.’  ‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.’

As Christ prepared to leave his disciples, he was aware that they would struggle to comprehend all that he had to share with them. Mysterious and challenging doctrines might suggest that we should simply believe, without even trying to understand. Although we will never fully grasp the mystery of the Trinity, it is there before us to challenge and transform us. It is the model for all of our relationships, both as individuals and as church. This is a puzzle that we continue to struggle with, knowing that we will never solve it completely. And yet, in the Trinity, we see divine love revealed in a perfect and eternal relationship. And although we could never imitate this divine love, the Spirit challenges us always to strive towards it, until the day when we are ultimately surrounded and consumed by it.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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