Insights
Rev Gav
How can God be three and one?
John 3.1-17
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.’
Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’
‘How can someone be born when they are old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!’
Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’
‘How can this be?’ Nicodemus asked.
‘You are Israel’s teacher,’ said Jesus, ‘and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.’
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Reflect
Trinity Sunday is the day we celebrate the doctrine of The Trinity — a God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although the term ‘trinity’ does not exist in the Bible, from scripture we learn that God is both one and three at the same time. There is one God but this one God is community.
Over the years pastors have tried to explain how God can be three and one at the same time. They have used metaphors such as an egg. An egg is one but with three parts — shell, white, and yolk. Or perhaps they have described God as being like a Jaffa Cake with chocolate, orange jam, and sponge. Or perhaps as a maple leaf or shamrock with three fronds. However, all these metaphors fall down because each member of the Holy Trinity is NOT just a part of God. No, each member — Father, Son, and Spirit is fully God. Therefore, over the years, I have found it more useful to simply embrace The Holy Trinity as a paradox — something that seems to contradict itself but is true. There is one God who is community and each member of the Trinity is fully God.
I like that the omnipresent and infinite or eternal God is a paradox — something I, a mere human, cannot get my head around. God does not fit in a neat box labelled ‘God’. Perhaps, if God could be labelled, quantified and fully understood, then God would not be God?
We encounter this community aspect of God throughout scripture. In fact, right at the beginning, in the creation account in Genesis, we encounter the Spirit hovering over the waters of chaos to bring forth order out of that chaos. And then in Genesis 1:26 we read this:
Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
This one God uses the pronouns ‘us’ and ‘our’. This one God is community and the rest of scripture is an unfolding narrative of the relationship between Father, Son, Spirit, and humanity. But, for now, let us explore this idea that God is community.
Firstly, community is about relationship, for you cannot be in community without being in relationship, and this is where it gets interesting. We are reminded in 1 John 4:8 that:
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
The relationship which binds together the members of the Holy Trinity is love. This community of God reaches out to us with love and wants us to join with God so that we may also be in community. John 3:16 reads:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
We are called to be in community with God — that means being in a loving relationship with one another and with God. Love is the glue that binds us all together.
And as God is eternal (or infinite), when we are welcomed into that community — called The Kingdom of Heaven or The Kingdom of God — we go from being finite to infinite — from transient life to eternal life. This is what eternal life means.
As God the Holy Trinity is eternal then how could we be anything but the same when welcomed into God’s infinite community?
Therefore, perhaps the Kingdom of God could be defined as God and humanity (Father, Son, Spirit, you and I) — an eternal community bound together through relationships of love.
God, the glorious Trinity of community stands holding her arms open to us, longing to embrace us, to join in with the eternal heavenly dance. God longs to embrace us with his love. Jesus has made it possible to become community with God, and all we have to do to step into God’s loving arms is trust and believe.
Amen.
and then