Social God (Trinity Sunday)

 

Social God
Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Sunday after Pentecost, 30 May 2021
Homily preached at 8:00 a.m. said, 10:00 a.m. sung Eucharist 
Parish Church of Trinity, Ashland

The Rev. Fr. Anthony Hutchinson, SCP, Ph.D., Rector

God, take away our hearts of stone
 and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.

 

Today is Trinity Sunday, the patronal feast of Trinity churches all over the world.  The doctrine of the Trinity is an invitation into the deeper and deeper mystery and beauty of God.  Richard of St. Victor, a canon priest under the rule of St. Augustine who died in Paris in 1173, taught in his book on the Trinity that for God to be truth, God had to be one; for God to be love, God had to be two; and for God to be joy, God had to be three! 

 

We often miss the point, being misled by the categorical definition of the doctrine that became common in the Western Latin-speaking Church, where the names “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” are defined by what each represents and does not represent.  The Creed we will recite today, the Quicunque Vult or so-called creed of Saint Athanasius (BCP pp. 864-865), is the best example of this.    

 

The earlier Eastern view, the teaching of the 4^th Century Cappadocian Fathers who developed the doctrine in the first place, was less static, and more dynamic:  the roles and interactions, the relationships were the emphasis.  In this view, it mattered only somewhat whether you used the terms “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” or other terms emphasizing the timeless relationships: Speaker, Word, and Medium of Sound, Parent, Child, Uniting Bond; Mother, Daughter, Shared Love; Light, Reflection, and Brightness; Spring, Reservoir, and Stream.    The Orthodox image for this is perichoresis, the divine dance of the three roles (personae in Latin, or prosopoi in Greek).   The shape of the doctrine is that God is social, God is love:  the transcendent, the personal, and the immanent. 

 

As we prepare to celebrate the feast day for our church sharing the name Trinity, this little part of Christ’s Church, I invite us to reflect on relationships we have in our lives, and especially those at Church.  How do we participate in the divine dance? 

 

The important thing to remember when you talk about theology and doctrine is this:  the heart of Christianity is not in theology or doctrine.  It is in the experience of the living God in our lives and our loving service to and compassion with others.  “The first commandment is love God.  The second is on par with this: love your neighbor.”   This is the life-giving heart of the Church, a reflection of God who, as this doctrine teaches, is at heart social, at heart communal. 

 

Liberation theologian Leonardo Boff writes the following: 

 

“We believe that God is communion rather than solitude.  Believing in the Trinity means that at the root of everything that exists and subsists there is movement; there is an eternal process of life, of outward movement, of love.  Believing in the Trinity means that truth is on the side of communion rather than exclusion; consensus translates truth better than imposition;  the participation of many is better than the dictate of a single one” (Leonardo Boff, Holy Trinity, Perfect Community).    

 

Here is the core of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.  It expresses why it was so right to name this Church here in Ashland “Trinity.”  Community, consensus, free give and take and mutual service—this is what makes us who we are. 

 

Thanks be to the Triune God,  Amen.