Mystery of The Holy Trinity in Christianity

I remember as a kid on the 4th of July using punks in order to light the fireworks. when you first put the lighter to the punk the punk end would get red hot. With it being red hot, you could light any firework you wanted to. But as you were getting other fireworks ready the red tip on the punk would become white.

All you had to do was to blow on the end of the punk to get it to bright red again. But the longer you waited the punk end would go from white to black. Once it was black it didn't matter how much you blew on it you could never get it red hot again. Once the punk was black all you could do is to re light it with a lighter.

Today, as we celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday, our attention is drawn to the continuing work of the Holy Spirit, as part of Trinity in our lives. It is the work of the spirit to keep the sparks of faith, the sparks of love, the sparks of God’s presence in our lives going. Our fire of faith, our fire of commitment needs to be continually blown on with the breath of the Holy Spirit.

On this Holy Trinity Sunday, we need to look at the work of God, the creator in our lives, the work of Jesus as redeemer in our lives, and the work of the Holy Spirit who brings God’s presence, who brings God himself into our lives.

We are quite familiar with the work of God the creator, and Jesus the redeemer in our lives. We look all around us, and we are caught up in God’s creating work. God is still creating, still molding, still forming his creation. As we discover more and more about the workings of this world, God is unfolding to us more and more of his creative power. The more we discover, the more we believe and trust in a creative force behind the wonders of creation.

And we have no difficulty in understanding and trusting in the saving work of Jesus. Sometimes, we get so engrossed in talking about Jesus and his redeeming efforts in our lives, that we forget about the creator, and the spirit who are also at work.

The average Christian refers to God. Then there are the lesser deities, Jesus and the Spirit. If God the Father is held exclusively, we become Unitarians. If Christ is supreme, we over-rate him to the down-grating of the Father and the Spirit. And for some, the Spirit overshadows the father and son. There needs to be a balance in our thinking, in our relationship to the three parts of the trinity, to the three manifestations of God in this world. And it is the work of the Spirit to keep reminding us of this balance between the three parts of the Trinity.

Here is a little story to help us with today’s gospel. 'Two sailors were shipped wrecked and had been clinging to boards for so long that they were near death. There was water all around, but ocean water being salty was worse than no water They moaned like the Ancient Mariner saying, ’Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.' Then a passing boat came into sight. It came closer and closer. The sailors cried for fresh water, From the other boot came the reply, 'Dip your hands and drink.' They did and found they had passed from salty water to fresh water.

Those two sailors knew they were close to fresh water when their ship wrecked, but they forgot or hadn’t thought of the possibility they could of been in fresh water. They didn’t use the wisdom and knowledge they had. It was as if they forgot everything they had learned. They needed to be reminded about the truth, the knowledge they possessed.

Jesus says in our gospel lesson, 'When the Spirit of truth comes. he will guide you into all the truth'

The Spirit gathers us together in a community of faithful people so again and again we can be reminded of all the truths we have learned about God. We cannot understand everything, we cannot even understand a majority of God’s truth, but we have been given the faith to accept, the trust to believe and the power and courage to stand by our convictions.

For some this is difficult because our minds, our souls want to understand everything so we can be in control. There is a mystery about God which I am willing to live with and I hope you are, too. We need some mystery, some holiness, something beyond ourselves in this world and God is just that.

This is the season of planting gardens. And many years ago, we had a small garden and we also planted some seeds in pots inside so we could plant flowers outside. And our children helped, they were especially curious about how those seeds would turn into flowers, or vegetables. they looked at the pictures on the seed packages, saw the tiny seeds in their hands, and you knew they were wondering how those tiny seeds would turn into those pretty flowers and vegetables. As the seeds grew into flowers and vegetables, they continued to wonder, they asked a lot of questions and we did not have any good answers. We would say the rain, the sun helped them grow. But what exactly turned those seeds into flowers and vegetables, we couldn’t tell him.

The Holy Trinity, the many truths of God’s dealings with us are as difficult for us to understand as it was for the kids to understand about the seeds growing. There is mystery about God, a mystery we just simply have to accept. The mystery of the Trinity is difficult, but the Holy Spirit of that Trinity leads us and through our faith, we accept, we believe that mystery.

How can God be three in One? How can God be the creator, and the redeeming Son, and the teaching Spirit? It is a mystery? I cannot understand it, but I believe in it. I read somewhere, that God being three in one means that God is never lonely. He always has a companion. But maybe that is too simple of an idea. However, as we try to completely understand this idea of the Trinity, there will always remain a mystery. But the Spirit will continue to lead us and as we mature in faith, our understanding, our knowledge, our belief in the Trinity will mature also. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13: “11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”

So, it is important to stay faithful. It is important to be involved in the body of Christ, the church so that our faith may mature and grow. Have you ever been in a town that has a clock tower? And on the tower is a clock that has four faces , so no matter in which direction you are coming into that town and around that square, you can see the hands and the face of a clock and it tells you what time it is.

During one trip, I stopped to think whether there are four different clocks running each set of faces and hands, or whether there is one clock somehow running those four faces and hands. It is a mystery how those faces and hands on that clock tower really work.

At the same time, a thought also popped into my mind, isn’t that the same mystery we have concerning God as three persons in the Trinity. We have God, the father, creator, God, the son, the redeemer, God, the Spirit, the comforter, the counselor, the one who makes us holy.

We see the three faces of God, but we have only one God. Like that clock on the tower, God has three faces, but only one God. Each face of God tells us something about God. God, the father, creator tells us about the God of the universe, God who creates, God who is powerful. God, the son, Jesus, shows us the love of God, the saving, redeeming quality of God, and God, the Spirit shows us the God who is with us through all our lives. God the spirit who brings the son into our very souls, hearts and minds.

And I trust in that clock to tell me the time, all four faces, even though I have not climbed up on a ladder and crawled into the tower to see how it works. So, it is with the mystery of the Trinity. I cannot go see how it works, but I trust and believe in it. And as time has gone on, I think less and less about how those clocks worked, but just focused on what they were telling me, the time. So, I think it is with our trust in the Trinity. The more we mature in faith, the more we trust in the gospel of Christ, the more we allow the Spirit to fill our lives, the less likely we are to question the Trinity, we just trust and believe.