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The Upload

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I pray that you’ve had a blessed week.

This Sunday is Holy Trinity Sunday. It is the one day in the church calendar where we celebrate a man-made doctrine and not a scriptural act or teaching. The word “Trinity” appears nowhere in the scriptures. It is a term and a teaching that the church created after hundreds of years of discussion and arguing. The doctrine is a way in which we have come to describe how God reveals himself to us, but it is very difficult to understand. But, if truth be told, the Doctrine of the Trinity is not something we should try to understand; instead, it is a doctrine that we should try to experience.

You know, when I was in college, I took a lot of business courses, which I loved, and I came to understand all kinds of theories and practices of business. But I also had to take other classes, some of which I just never was able to get anything out of. One such class was a music appreciation class. I remember the professor would challenge us to listen to music that wasn’t Rock & Roll and then ask us questions like, “So, did you feel how the composer tried to change your mood at a certain point?” Or, “Did you hear how the music was meant to sound like a certain animal or situation?” And every time, I would think to myself, no, it was just boring. To say I didn’t “get it” would be a vast understatement.

I remember the professor saying one time, just close your eyes and listen with an open mind to what the composer wants you to feel. But I never got it, at least not until years later. The same is true of my experience of studying the Trinity in seminary. Sister Nona, a Greek Orthodox nun with a Ph.D. in theology would use all kinds of words and phrases to teach us the meaning of the doctrine, but I never got it. I struggled to get the technical meaning. How can God be three persons, but not really, because God is still one? It was, and is, so confusing!

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I determined that the Trinity, the mystery of how God elects to reveal himself to the world, is something that we will never understand; instead, it is something I am supposed to experience, just like that classical music. To experience the Trinity, I have to let go of what I know and trust that God, my incomprehensible God, will enter into me and empower me to do things and be a part of relationships that I could never achieve on my own.

Like classical music, the Trinity is a mystery, and any attempt to define, label, dissect, or analyze a mystery keeps us at arm’s length from the truths it has to show us. When we try to define the Holy Trinity in clear, crisp, antiseptic language, we prevent ourselves from being drawn into the relationship with God that the doctrine of the Trinity reveals to us.

To this day, I still don’t understand classical music, nor do I understand the Trinity, but I am sure of two things: Both are mysteries to be explored, and as we explore this mystery of the Trinity, God has promised to always be with us, as together we seek to better understand him and his ways.

Have a blessed week!

Shalom,

Pastor Dave

Tags: Weekly Word