Karl Rahner once commented that “we must be willing to admit
that, should the doctrine of the Trinity have to be dropped as false, the major
part of religious literature could well remain unchanged.” Now, Rahner believed
passionately in the Trinity, indeed he recognized it as fundamental to
Christian belief, but what he was acknowledging and lamenting here, was that
for the most part – in day to day Christian life - people don’t ‘get’ the Trinity and behave as
if God was either One or Three but not Three and One.
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| Tardis - Wikimedia Commons (aussiegall 2015) |
How can God be three and one at the same time? Admittedly if
we try to get our heads around it we struggle, but this doesn’t mean we cannot
say some important things about the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity is God and
God is so far above our understanding that we only ever really glimpse
fragments of the mystery – but these fragments are enough for us. There are, however, certain pointers in nature
and in our world that help us to understand something of the vast mystery of
the Holy Trinity. When we think of
water, for example, the same substance, H2O can be a liquid: water, a gas:
steam and a solid: ice. This is not exactly like the Trinity, because we are
not saying that God changes into different forms. If we could somehow have the
same molecules of water, molecules of steam, and molecules of ice together at
the same place at the same time this would be a better image for us. When we
are talking about the Holy Trinity sometimes it is helpful for us to say what
it isn’t:
-
The Holy Trinity is not One God who appears as
different beings. So it’s not like God wears different hats when he is doing
different things. He doesn’t wear the Father hat when he is fatherly and
creating, the Son hat when he is being obedient and serving and the Spirit hat
when he is loving. This is a wrong understanding of the Holy Trinity.
-
The Father and Son and Holy Spirit are not parts
of God. They are all fully God, fully perfect, and fully individual.
Sometimes when we are trying to think about things that are
outside our everyday experience, it can be helpful to draw on stories and
analogy. Modern science fiction and fantasy can often give us a language and a
way of talking about the eternal mysteries of God. Understanding the Holy
Trinity poses us with a fundamental problem: how can the same being be
different persons?
The longest-running
science fiction program Doctor Who can perhaps help us to think about the Holy
Trinity. Whether you have watched the show or not you will probably know that
the main character is an alien, a ‘Timelord’ called the Doctor who has been
played by several actors. He is
particularly fond of earth and saves our planet and the universe on numerous
occasions. Timelords are an interesting race of people. Although they look
human and reproduce sexually as humans do, they have very long lives. They can
regenerate. A Timelord normally can regenerate twelve times. This means that
when a body is old, injured, or dying, every cell in the body regenerates and
the Timelord becomes a different person.
The same being, the same Timelord, with the same memories and the same
history, but with a completely different body, mannerisms, temperament, voice:
a new person. So how does this help us? Well, the character of the Doctor
remains the same being, the same Timelord throughout the close to sixty years
that the show has been on air, but he becomes literally a different person.
You could say that this is very similar to our ‘One God with
three hats scenario’ which I said was wrong and you’d be correct. So we need to go further than this. There are times when for complex and not
always clear reasons the laws of time are suspended and the Doctor meets up
with other incarnations of himself to face off some evil together. On these
rare occasions we get a glimpse of a fantasy world which can help us to think
about the Holy Trinity. Most recently
in the Fiftieth anniversary special ‘The Day of the Doctor’ the actors Matt
Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt all played different doctors in the same
adventure. These men were all the Doctor, they were the same Timelord. They had the same memories, a shared history
and identity. But they were of course very different from each other. They
existed in relationship to each other; they could talk, hug, cry and argue with
each other. What is more, David Tennant’s Doctor was not anymore the Doctor
than Matt Smith’s and John Hurt’s Doctor, and their Doctors were no more the
Doctor than David Tennant. In that
particular episode we saw one being, and three persons, and all were very much
the Doctor!
Although this might seem to some (who are not Dr Who fans) a
little silly, I think it is a useful illustration of how the Holy Trinity can
be both three persons and One God. For
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are of the same being, the same substance, but
they are three different persons at the same time. The Dr Who image is not perfect, it is just
an image to help us to try and think about things that are beyond our normal
experience. It is important not to get
confused and think that the persons of the Holy Trinity are like avatars or
incarnations, they are not different versions of God! Rather, each person of the Holy Trinity is
unique, perfect, and complete. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always
existed - there was not a time when they did not exist!
Now all of this might seem all well and good, but we may be
tempted to ask: what does it mean to me? What difference does the abstract and
inner life of God make to my life? The answer: Everything! To believe in the
Trinity is to believe in a God of love and to believe in God who exists in a relationship.
Because we are made in the image of a loving and relational God, we can have a relationship
with him. Through baptism we regenerate! We become new creations and we share
the very life of the Triune God. The God who comes to live in us and with us is
the God who dances in an eternal dance of love. As Christians, we are invited
into the dance of love. We are to learn the movements of the Spirit, to partner
with God and share in the dance of love for Eternity.
To dance with God for eternity – that’s what the Trinity
means for us, and that is everything!
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