3^rd June 2013

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 26 May 2013

Lessons - Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

Christian worship is distinguishable by adoration, confession and intercession of the triune God - in stark contrast with monotheistic faiths of Jews, Muslims and Unitarians ('God is One') and with the pluralistic faiths of animists, New Age spiritualists and Hindus ('gods are many'). Trinitarian language is puzzling and seemingly incomprehensible. Can any sense be made of 'One in three' and 'Three in one' in speaking of God? Some think not. They claim that it is a primitive attempt to 'capture' God - an outdated 'faith explanation' that does not reflect reality and takes us away from the simple teachings of Jesus. This is a common view, in the community and the church.

It is a pity that profound reflections on the Trinity over the centuries are often dismissed as outdated speculative jargon. Trinitarian language was developed to affirm the 'reality' of God's incalculable love for us and as a warning against making God in our image. It is a teasing-out of faith in God, as attested in Scripture. It expresses God's love for flawed people that flowed out of the perfect love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Teaching about the triune love of God begins with the Incarnation. In response to beliefs that separated the divinity of God from the humanity of Jesus, Christian thinkers were compelled to give a better account of their experience of God's presence in Christ. References in the Old Testament (e.g. Genesis 1:2; Proverbs 8:22ff) and simple New Testament expressions of faith in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (e.g. John 16:12ff; Romans 5:1-5; Matthew 28:16ff) 'cried out for fuller elaboration'. (B Lohse, A Short History of Christian Doctrine, p41.)

Contrary to what the critics say, the Trinity is not a human invention to 'explain' and control God. It uncovers what is implicit in the Christian's thinking and experience of God's gracious self-revelation to the people of Israel and in the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. 'Faced with the choice between an invented God who could be understood without the slightest difficulty, and the real God, who could not, the Church unhesitatingly chose the latter.' (A McGrath, Understanding the Trinity, p151.)

As Christians reflected on God's presence in Christ they were forced to hold together two things that do not usually go together in our thinking or experience:

* The 'unity of God' (God is One). The 'relationships within God' (God exists in communion). They agreed wholeheartedly with their Old Testament forebears that there is One God, not many gods, and that God cannot be understood simply. God's love for humanity is so utterly magnificent that God's name can barely be uttered. Faith in the triune God is a deepening - not a discarding - of faith in the majesty of God!

* They had also experienced the fullness of God's love in Jesus. Therefore they were compelled to speak of the 'Son' as 'God incarnate'. In Jesus, they said, we see the embodiment of the love of the Creator; that is, 'God was in Christ . . . ' (2 Corinthians 5:19). They discerned too that the 'Son' and the 'Father' shared a uniquely intimate love. So they also had to speak of distinct relations within God. Likewise, they experienced the 'Spirit' as the One who opened their eyes to Christ's divine mission (Mark 1:10ff), united 'Father' and 'Son' in a bond of love, and revealed their love to the world through the Christian community (John 15 - 17). This is splendidly depicted in William Blake's painting 'The Trinity'.

As the Church reflected on the Father's presence in Jesus and the work of the Spirit they had to say that 'God is One' and 'God exists in communion'.

This way of thinking is strange to us. When we think about what it means to be 'a person' we think of 'an individual' with particular characteristics. Thinking about 'God' as a person leads us to faith in a 'Supreme Being' with particular divine characteristics. Naturally, we think of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as three aspects or faces of the One God. That is why it so hard to think of God 'existing in communion'
without ending up with three gods! However, what if we were to think of God as an essentially communal being? What if we were to follow Christian thinkers who give priority to the relational concept of the person in our understanding of God?

If we started with what it means that God is a 'being in communion', our concept of what it means to be 'persons' would be transformed. Then we will be able to speak about God as a free and mutual communion of love - 'a sort of continuous and indivisible community', 'a new and paradoxical (that is, seemingly contradictory) conception of united separation and separated unity'. (C Gunton, The One, the Three and the Many, 1985 p10.)

It certainly is not simple to put into words the triune mystery of God's being with us! But is not that a splendid thing - not a 'difficulty' to be side-stepped? On Trinity Sunday we have the opportunity to celebrate the awesome fact that the 'very Being of God' is characterised by the deepest Communion of Love - a Divine Tri-unity of love for which there is no parallel in our experience. Far from being a speculative theory and a barrier to 'simple faith', the Trinity expresses the unparalleled breadth and depth of God's free, costly and victorious love for people like us, who palpably fail to live in communion with God and our fellows.

The Communion of Love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit - a truly Holy Communion - is the foundation on which the Church is to worship God, bear one another's burdens, and exercise responsibility in the public arena.
Today, when many believe that 'love is never wrong', the Church is called to remind us all that true love - the holy communion between persons - is shaped by the immeasurable splendour of the triune love of God for our broken world.

Therefore, when people claim the right to love the person(s) of their choice, the Church is called to challenge this false love. That such individualistic and egalitarian views are now widely approved is a cause for great sadness. But it is also an opportunity to point to the unique and costly self-giving love between Father, Son and Spirit that overflows in love for the world by exposing, judging, forgiving and redirecting our false loves.

What could be more necessary, then, than to speak this word of grace and healing to a generation that believes that 'love is never wrong'? We have been created to live in communion with each other: to be persons-in- community, not individuals who have the right to choose what forms of 'love' are right for us. This has relevance for all our social relationships, including the way we treat refugees, indigenous people, the poor and those afflicted by addictions. Nowadays it is particularly necessary towards those who are refashioning marital and sexual relationships to suit their individual choices.

Belief in the triune love of God and worship of the Holy Trinity is not an abstract matter! It is wonderfully incomprehensible and splendidly relevant. The communion of love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit is both a critique of our relativistic society (where all gods are thought to be equal and individual choice is valued above communal responsibility) and an invitation to those who have lost their way or who yearn for
communion with God and others.

So, as we meet around the Lord's Table this morning - as members of the Body of Christ - may we be reminded of our calling to be a communion of very fallible saints who, by God's grace alone, are privileged to participate in the communion of love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit - a truly Holy Communion.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.