As Christians, we are so used to the Trinity, that we don't often stop to think about how it came about in the human history of God.
The Three-in-One notion mathematics of one plus one plus one equals one, does not work for persons of more radical monotheistic belief, Jews and Muslims, in particular.
However, since Jesus was a Jew, and he himself did not think that he was proposing a relationship with God which was outside the Hebrew Scripture tradition, how is it that the Trinity came to be regarded by some as a polytheism or belief in more than one God?
We probably can blame it on the evangelical success of the Jesus Movement and on the Greeks. The early great paradigm shift in the Jesus Movement was the inclusion of Gentile followers of Jesus without making them adhere to all of the ritual customs of Judaism.
Gentiles were steeped in the cultural and philosophical traditions which derived from the Greeks of Athens. Since Alexander the Great, a form of the Greek language had been a prominent lingua franca throughout the world. Many of the great scholar saints in the first three centuries of Christianity were educated in the Greek philosophical traditions so what happened? When the more Hebraic, story and wisdom traditions were translated into the more systematic Greek thinkers, things were lost in the translation. Also new insights and presentation of the Gospel message occurred. What does a movement do with evangelical success? Like the individual MacDonald's restaurant of Downey California which went nationwide and had to "standardized" the preparation those 15 cent gut bombs, and fries and shakes, the successful Jesus Movement had to begin to standardize the presentation of God, of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. How one believed and articulated the reality of God became an administrative issue of church unity, and for the Emperor Constantine who called the Council of Nicaea, it became an issue of Empire unity. Nicaea was a triumph for the articulation of the relationship of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit within the Greek philosophical categories.
Theologians, Bishops, priests, pastors and scholars can and have gotten very worked up about the presentations of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They have fought and divided and declared each others as heretics. They have even persecuted and killed in the name of the Trinity.
Rather than centering on the division that has occurred because of the Hellenization of the presentation of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I think it best to return to Scripture words wherein the three Persons of the Trinity are implicit.
Why are we Trinitarians? Simply put: Because of the words of Jesus about his relationship with the ones that he called Father and Holy Spirit. Forget about the fighting church over the Trinity; just return to the words of Jesus.
He said that he and the Father were one. He said that he would send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit who would share with his followers his very mind and words.
Why is this presentation of God important? Why did it become a part of our baptismal formula in being baptized by water and the Spirit, and of the Father and of the Son?
What does this world so full of diverse majesty need the most? We need strategies of how to live together in harmony? We need the high standard of Unity in diversity within a Perfect Fellowship.
Unity in diversity in a Perfect Fellowship; this the long and short of the Holy Trinity. It is a dynamic Unity of profound relational fellowship.
As the Holy Trinity is the Perfect Model of Profound relational fellowship, this love in the relationship fellowship was also directed toward us in our world. God so love the world that God wanted the love of perfect relational fellowship to come to us.
And Jesus is God's perfect evangelist for this relational fellowship to be promoted and modeled within our world. And this is glorious meaning of the life of Jesus: Announcing that God loves this world.
But there is a great responsibility which Jesus left for all who embrace his mission: We are called to model together the profound relational fellowship of the Holy Trinity.
And you know, we've had some colossal failures at successful relational fellowship. But the good news is that we've had enough success at the fellowship of love, that we know what we are supposed to be aiming at in our lives together.
Let us be thankful today for the Profound Relational Fellowship of the Holy Trinity. Perfect Unity among diverse persons. And today we prayer, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit, keep spilling this perfect love into our lives today. Amen.
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