The ancient craft of letter or scroll reproduction was done entirely by hand, from the choices of the leather artisan to the scribe’s font sizing choices; these little human differences could mean that at the end of a letter there might be space for another verse. A scribe might add a postscript like Colossians 4 “(PS)Luke and Demas say hello”.  Galatians 6:11 states “Look at the large letters I’m making!” Presumably because Paul had bad eyesight and so Paul added a line after the scribe finished!

Modern readers read Corinthians or Colossians knowing the church has canonized these letters as Scripture. We trust that God still inspires us through these old letters. The first readers of Corinthians did not read the letters as Biblical texts but as a message from their friend Pastor Paul. Paul who was a tent-maker, theologian, prophet and perhaps always brought pita chips and amazing humus to church potlucks. 

Our Second Corinthians 13 post script reads:  “Finally,  siblings, good-bye. Put things in order, respond to my encouragement, be in harmony with each other , and live in peace—and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet each other with a holy kiss. All of God’s people say hello to you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”  It is a lovely farewell reminder for any group of Christians. “Everyone here says hello, we are rooting for you, remember to strive for harmony, be peacemakers, show genuine kindness and affection to each other, give everyone a hug, and may God’s Love and Peace surround you.”  These verses make it into the lectionary cycle due to a little trinitarian tagline at the end,  “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”  

Today, the church calendar celebrates Trinity Sunday!  We celebrate: the grace of Jesus, the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.  We celebrate God in “relationship”. There is a deep connectedness within the Trinity:  God, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit but also Love, Grace and Fellowship. We believe God exists and works in “relationship”. The EUB Confession of Faith in Article I defines God with images of the Trinity. ( I am choosing to replace the definition’s gendered pronouns with simple more direct nouns as no pronoun is sufficient for God.) “We believe in the One True, Holy and Living God, Eternal Spirit, who is Creator, Sovereign and Preserver of all things visible and invisible. (God) is infinite in power, wisdom, justice, goodness and love, and rules with gracious regard for the well-being and salvation of humanity, to the glory of (God’s own) name. We believe the One God reveals (God)self as the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, (Parent, Child, and Holy Spirit) distinct but inseparable, eternally one in essence and power.” 

“Distinct but inseparable, eternally one” That is a beautiful definition of the Trinity or Love! If we gathered Baptists, Methodists, and Orthodox theologians we might spend hours parsing over that definition.  But before we get too worried over who is closer to being right, let’s remember the word “Trinity” does not even appear in the Bible.   Type “TRINITY” into your favorite bible app and the word will not appear in a verse.  The closest you will get is a rare verse like ours that mentions God, Spirit and Christ in the same verse: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”  

The idea of Trinity emerged as the early church thought about Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit.    What does it mean that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness? How do we understand Jesus’ prayers in the garden, outside of Lazarauth’s tomb or on the cross? How do we human beings relate to the Risen Christ who “goes before us”?  What does it mean that we are “in Christ”?   Is Jesus “with us to the end of the age” as promised in Matthew 28 or did Jesus send the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth as in John 14 or could it be both?  Is Paul making an actual distinction in Romans 8 or using “in Christ” and “being filled with the spirit” interchangeably? 

I once was trying to explain the Trinity to a group of elementary students and feeling frustrated, we took an impromptu detour into the church kitchen, where I tossed some of that wonderful Sonic-like airy ice into a commercial frying pan and firing up the big stove melted the ice. We watched the solid ice become liquid water and the water being transformed into an airy steam.  Three in one. Did my object lesson help the young learners grasp the mystery of the Trinity or better Love God and neighbor?  Thanks be to God that Jesus is not a sharp elbowed theologian. When pressed Jesus often turned away from fixed formulas and asked deeper questions with stories.  When a legalist asked Jesus to define “neighbor”, Jesus told a story about a guy being beaten up, robbed and left for dead, and how a foreign born stranger defined “neighbor” by “showing mercy”. (Luke 15)  

Maybe this Trinity Sunday we need to leave our definitions behind and humble ourselves in worship of The Holy Mystery: “distinct but inseparable!” Trying to define “Trinity” may steal its beauty, power, and mystery. I once rented headphones before touring an art museum- I found myself missing the beauty as I focused on the narrator’s chatter  about the angle of the brushstrokes. Instead of being critics evaluating and ranking, let us wander the Biblical gallery gazing upon the images with awe and wonder: God as Creator, Moral Center, Giver of Life, voice in the burning bush, Liberator through the Red Sea, With Us in a manger, feeding 5,000, praying in the garden, flipping over tables, God Crucified, Dead, Buried, Raised, God Going ahead of us, God Present, God of Prophetic Fire, God of our bitter tears and silent fears, God of Hope, God of comfort, God of Change, Creator, Christ, Spirit… distinct but inseparable.    

Ponder the images of Creator in Psalm 19: “The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the Creator’s handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.”

Consider God in Christ, how Jesus, as fully God and fully human, shows us truths about Godly living that no Biblical rule, powerful miracle,  or lovely poem can teach us.  So remember John 8 where Jesus is teaching in the Temple, when hard-hearted church leaders drag a woman before Jesus like a prop instead of a beloved person: “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery.  The Law commands us to stone women like this. What do you say?” Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger. There is holiness even in Jesus’ pause, but they will not let it go and so Jesus stands up and says, “let anyone who hasn’t sinned throw the first stone.” Bending down again, Jesus wrote in the dust some more. The crowd trickled away beginning with the elders, the anger left the circle, until only Jesus and the woman remained. Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Is there no one to condemn you?” She said, “No one, sir.” Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on, don’t sin anymore.”  God needed to become one of us to teach us how to live like that! 

And the Spirit- always the most dangerous member of the Trinity, few of us are deluded enough to claim to be Jesus or God, but the Spirit might grab hold of any of us, filling us with prophetic zeal. Someone might shout out like in Micah 3: “I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, with justice and might, to declare to our nation it’s sin!” A new Elijah, John the Baptist, or Phoebe Palmer might be finding their prophetic voice right now on a youth choir tour.  But the Spirit is not just a fire for justice, God’s Love is poured into our hearts and strengthens our weak knees. Paul tells us the “Spirit helps us in our weakness”, when we do not even know how to pray, the Spirit takes hold of our deepest cries and carries them to God so that we can know that nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8) 

On this Trinity Sunday let us marvel in the mysterious Love of God: God in relationship: Creator, Christ, and Spirit distinct but inseparable, eternally one in essence, (Love) and power.  Amen