God Is Not Zeus: A Humble Approach to Trinity Sunday

The Temptation of the Doctrinal Test

Trinity Sunday. Have you heard preachers carry on about this? I have. Thanks to the church calendar, it sits there amongst the Christian festivals as a kind of doctrinal challenge since the Middle Ages.

We needn't see it that way. The Holy Trinity is not a Biblical pronouncement, yet some preachers have viewed it as some kind of test to discover how well they can teach Christian doctrine. I'm not going to try doing that with you. Celebrating Trinity Sunday should not be some kind of theological test for you or for me.

Choosing Humility Before the Majesty of God

Today, we choose to be humble before the majesty of God, who cannot be contained in any kind of formula.

Given the horrendous behavior of humans towards one another in the world, we are wise to be humble. The cartoonist Bill Watterson has written:

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."

It's better to start humbly from human experience. Trying to define God could be seen as a kind of blasphemy. Certainly, Jews and Muslims have often found the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity confusing. If we, as humans and as Christians, simply bear witness to our experience, surely that is a more appropriate road.

Diagrams and images, though intriguing and may be interesting, are only ways of explaining a doctrine of the Church within the Church. At the risk of some kind of heresy, my own approach is not to explain the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It is instead to regard any understanding of God that we may have as a concession or gracious gift from God—not a totalized revelation of God's essential nature. The fullness of Trinitarian teaching is surely to affirm above all the oneness of God.

Martin Buber and the Humble Approach

Further to this humble approach, I've always been impressed with something the Jewish philosopher and spiritual leader Martin Buber wrote in 1950:

"From my youth, I have felt that Jesus was my elder brother. That Christianity has regarded and still does regard him as God and Redeemer has always appeared to me a matter of the utmost seriousness, which for his sake and for mine, I must try to comprehend."

Paul's Blessing: Grace, Love, and Communion

One of the few texts that appears in Christian lectionaries for this Sunday is Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, where he blesses his readers with these words:

"Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you."

Is Paul expressing any kind of proto-doctrine? Probably not, but I cannot be certain. What matters is that his readers were blessed by his greeting—that it was both a comfort and an inspiration to keep living by faith. It is a blessing that unifies us with the God who is one in relationship with us through grace, love, and communion.

God Is Not Zeus

Have you ever heard the Greek mythological story of Prometheus? Very briefly, he was the Titan who gave the gift of fire—and therefore knowledge and technology—to humanity. The father of the gods, Zeus, disapproved of any such action that empowered human beings. Consequently, Prometheus was condemned to eternal punishment for siding with humans. He was tethered to a mountain, and each day was to suffer having his liver—regarded as the center of emotions—eaten by an eagle, forever.

Why am I telling you this? Because the world from which our Christian faith emerged regarded the gods to be at best indifferent and at worst hostile towards human beings.

Notice, please, that what St. Paul is saying could go something like this: the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ bears witness to the unconditional love of God and the eternal communion of God's Holy Spirit. Jesus embodies the eternal love of God.

What a proclamation! St. Paul, for whom the terrible cross of suffering is central to our faith, says: God is not Zeus. God is not hostile to humanity but shares God's self with humanity in the person of Jesus.

Trust the Love of God

Amazing grace. Amazing love—how can it be?

Trust him. Trust the love of God. That's not easy. It's hard. Ask Jesus. Yet it's worth it. Humanity has hope after all for new life in Christ.

Practice your faith in the power of God's Holy Spirit. Love your neighbor and your enemies.

God bless you. Amen.