Trinity Sunday

Today I was at my parents' church and we celebrated Trinity Sunday, a day marked out to reflect on the fact that we worship a "triune" God, one God in three persons, one "what" and three "whos."

On this day in many liturgical churches the Athanasian Creed is read, a creed attributed to the fourth-century bishop Athanasius, but likely written later. I've linked to it above if you'd like to read it (and you should!) because it is far too long to post here (just a note to my fellow Protestants: the word "catholic" used in the creed is a reference to the universal nature of the church and is not a reference to the Roman Catholic church per se).

The creed gets very thorough (and quite repetitive) about how the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God. Or how the Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, and the Spirit is eternal, and yet there are not three eternals but one eternal.

Two points I'd like to make about the Trinity on this Trinity Sunday: the first is that it emphasizes that Christianity is more than monotheism. Christians believe in one God, yes. However, we believe in a God that has a multiplicity of personhood. This means that attributes of our lives such as community, relationship, fellowship, and love are part of God's very being. Think that one over for a minute.

The second point is that though we cannot understand the mystery of the Trinity, we can state it clearly as the Athanasian Creed does. And this is essential, because our lives as Christians are bound up in the entire life of the Trinity, with God as our Father, Christ as our Savior and brother, and the Holy Spirit bringing us to faith, living within us, and conforming us to the people that God wants us to be.