2 Corinthians 13:14

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you."

Reflection by Quinn G. Caldwell

Is there anybody else out there who doesn't get the Trinity?

Is there anybody else out there for whom 3 = 1 just doesn't compute? Anybody who fears they're the only one in church that doesn't have the triune God figured out?  If so, here’s good news:

Nobody.  Gets.  The Trinity.

Not in any rational, well-reasoned sense, anyway.  That's because God is not, finally, able to be reasoned out.  Here's what happens if you try to make the Trinity reasonable: the Athanasian Creed.  Can you say, "Uncompelling"?  Or check this link out: someone actually tried to diagram God!

Other people, of course, simply decided that since they couldn't make sense of the Trinity, they’d do away with it; just ask your cousin the Unitarian.

If you decide that the Trinity has to make rational sense, then those are pretty much your only options: either carefully ridiculous explanations and diagrams, or throwing it over altogether.

Try this instead: try approaching the Trinity with a faculty other than reason.  Like wonder.  Like awe.  Like appreciation for beauty (Google "Rublev Trinity," for instance).

Or try this: don't explain the Trinity, sing it.  Stand up right now and sing the Doxology, whatever version you know.  If it feels true when you sing praise, then it’s true enough.

Nobody gets the Trinity.  Then again, if we did, it wouldn't be God.

Prayer

Dear God, thank you for being big enough for me to worship.  Thank you for being too mysterious for me to get.  And if you ever catch me trying to diagram you, please smite my pencil immediately.  Amen.

About the Author Quinn G. Caldwell is Associate Minister of Old South Church in Boston, Massachusetts, and co-editor, with Curtis J. Preston, of the just-published Unofficial Handbook of the United Church of Christ.

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