A Trinitarian Blessing—Lectionary Reflection for Trinity Sunday, Year A (2 Corinthians 13:11-13)

 

 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹¹ Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Be restored; listen to my appeal; agree with one another; live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. ¹² Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.

¹³ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

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                Trinity Sunday lacks the impact of Pentecost Sunday. For one thing, the day lacks a specific color scheme like the red of Pentecost. In addition, there isn’t a singular biblical text that describes the Trinity, such as Acts 2 in the case of Pentecost. In fact, the New Testament lacks explicit trinitarian statements, except for the baptismal formula found in Matthew 28:19-20. There are, however, passages that hint at something that looks trinitarian, even if it will take several centuries before the Christian community comes to some kind of consensus on the triune nature of God. Even that effort would not resolve all the questions about a doctrine of God that is complicated. After all, how do you explain that the one God is three persons? If you play the numbers game, it doesn’t work. But perhaps this isn’t a math problem. The trinity may end up being something of a mystery, but the doctrine does help us make sense of biblical statements about God, about Jesus, and about the Holy Spirit.

                Although the dominant view of God among Christians is trinitarian, not all Christians embrace the doctrine. Or at least they offer the opportunity to agree to disagree on the matter. This is essentially the stance taken by my own denomination—the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)—the founders of the movement of which the Disciples are one branch sought to discern a simple form of Christianity that made sense to the common person, a form of Christianity that held tightly to the explicit teachings of the New Testament. The Trinity didn’t fit well, especially since there isn’t an explicit definition of the Trinity, and the word Trinity does not appear in the New Testament. So, it would not be surprising to attend a Disciples congregation on Trinity Sunday and not hear a word spoken about the doctrine. That has not been true of the congregations I’ve served, but then I’m more comfortable with the doctrine than some of my colleagues.

                The reading from 2 Corinthians 13, which the Revised Common Lectionary offers to us, is a brief statement that is intriguing, though by itself it might not be convincing. Nevertheless, it provides an invitation to reflect on this vision of God’s identity. It is a vision of God that seeks to hold together both the unity and the diversity that is God’s nature. It wasn’t until the fourth century that the churches found language that seemed sufficient to the task. Even today, we struggle with language, such that there isn’t just one doctrine of the Trinity. The baptismal formula we find in Matthew 28 speaks of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This language is, of course, rather masculine, which presents its own problems. Many of the proposed solutions, such as speaking of the triune God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, fail to protect the personal distinctions of the three members of the Trinity.  Those distinctions are important if we are to affirm both the unity of God’s nature and the diversity inherent in that unity. As Catherine Mowry LaCugna reminds us, “The doctrine of the Trinity is the attempt to understand the eternal mystery of God on the basis of what is revealed about God in the economy of redemption. Theology of God is at the same time theology of Christ and the Spirit. The economy of salvation is the basis, the context, and the final criterion of every statement about God” [LaCugna, God for Us, p. 22]. Ancient theologians from Athanasius to the Cappadocians to Augustine all agreed that salvation was the impetus for the doctrine of the Trinity.   

                The reading from 2 Corinthians 13 serves as a final word to the Corinthian Church. The Corinthian letters reveal a congregation is struggling to define its identity. Conflict is prominent in the community, which is why Paul has to deal with the many problems that present themselves to him. If we step back to verse 5 of 2 Corinthians 13, we hear Paul tell the Corinthians: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test!” (2 Cor. 13:5). In our reading we hear Paul tell his spiritual siblings in Corinth to “Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace be with you.” The word here is “put things in order,” assumedly by listening to Paul’s appeal so that they might agree with each other and live in peace. If they are to move forward as a united community in all of their diversity, they will need to order their life together. Peace and agreement rather than the chaos that seems to be present in the community.

                As I read this word, I am very aware of the chaos and conflict that is ripping apart the world. The world is broken because we as people are broken. That brokenness inflicts itself not only on the world but on the churches. So, Paul speaks this word to us, asking that we agree with each other so we can be at peace with each other. The next word acknowledges the intimacy that Paul envisions for the church. He calls on them to greet each other with a holy kiss. There are still cultures that greet each other with a kiss, though that is less common in the Anglo-American world. It is too intimate for us. However, by invoking this act of greeting, Paul is emphasizing the kind of intimacy he hopes this community will embrace. If holy kisses are not culturally appropriate, then some other form of expression will be needed, perhaps a holy hug or even a holy fist bump.

                Then comes Paul’s implicit if not explicit trinitarian formula. It comes in the form of a brief benediction that is often used in churches as the final benediction: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Cor. 13:13). Grace, love, and communion. Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. The qualities and three persons within the one Godhead. The three qualities, each of which Paul connects with a personage of the Trinity, help us to better envision God’s nature, especially when it comes to salvation. Grace is the starting point for restoring the broken relationship that exists between humanity and God, as well as humanity and creation in all its parts. Grace provides the foundation for reengaging with God, who is, by definition, love. As we read in 1 John, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them” (1 John 4:16b). To know God is to know love. Whatever else we say about God starts with love. Then there is the communion of the Holy Spirit. Paul Nimmo writes of this communion:  “The reference to the communion of the Holy Spirit highlights the new work being done by God, tearing down barriers between people and creating and sustaining fellowship, both vertically, between the believer and the Spirit, and horizontally, between believers.” [Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship (kindle p. 54)].

                Paul Nimmo’s reference to the work of the Spirit tearing down barriers to create sustainable fellowship serves as a reminder of the relational nature that is the triune God. This is especially true of the social trinity doctrine, which is exemplified by figures such as Jürgen Moltmann and Catherine Mowry LaCugna. While some shy away from this understanding because it can risk sliding into tritheism, I nevertheless find it compelling. This is especially true since I embrace a more open and relational theology.  The point of the doctrine of the social Trinity is to emphasize the internal relations that exist within the Godhead. Moltmann uses the idea of perichoresis to describe the internal relations of the three members of the Trinity. He writes here of the interrelationship of the three persons of the Trinity:

An eternal life process takes place in the triune God through the exchange of energies. The Father exists in the Son, the Son in the Father, and both of them in the Spirit, just as the Spirit exists in both the Father and the Son. By virtue of their eternal love they live in one another to such an extent, and dwell in one another to such an extent, that they are one. It is a process of most perfect and intense empathy. [Jurgen Moltmann. The Trinity and the Kingdom (Kindle Locations 2544-2548). Kindle Edition.]

Building on this understanding of the Trinity, supporters of the social Trinity idea connect the interrelationships of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with the concept of humanity created in the image of God. Thus, human relationships reflect the relationship that exists within the Godhead. Another way of speaking of the social relationships that connect the three persons of the Trinity is to speak in terms of a dance, such that the three persons engage with each other as in a dance.  So, as Catherine Mowry LaCugna points out, while the philological evidence for this idea of dance is not great, it is an effective metaphor. She writes:

Choreography suggests the partnership of movement, symmetrical but not redundant as each dancer expresses and at the same time fulfills him/herself towards the other. In interaction and inter-course, the dancers (and the observers) experience one fluid motion of encircling, encompassing, permeating, enveloping, outstretching. There are neither leaders nor followers in the divine dance, only an eternal movement of reciprocal giving and receiving, giving again and receiving again [LaCugna, God for Us, pp. 271-272].

As we ponder these concepts, it is important to remember that when it comes to God’s essence, we do not have access to God’s internal relations. We can only encounter God in the ways God is present to us. Theologians distinguish between the economic and immanent Trinity. One of the reasons why the founders of my denominational tradition sidelined talk of the Trinity is that it tends to be rather speculative. Trying to figure out the inner workings of God tends to get us in trouble. So, for Alexander Campbell and others of his generation, it seemed wise to steer clear of such debates. Nevertheless, this is the traditional Christian description of God, even if much of what is involved remains a mystery. That being said, perhaps we might find value in thinking of the three persons of the Godhead engaged in a dance into which we are drawn. As such, we can reflect God’s nature in our own relationships through the communion of the Holy Spirit, who binds us together with the Father and the Son. As Catherine LaCugna reminds us, to live the trinitarian life is to live “together in harmony and communion with every other creature in the common household of God, 'doing all things to the praise and glory of God.’ Living trinitarian faith means adhering to the gospel of liberation from sin and fractured relationships: liberation from everything that misleads us into false worship, from everything that promotes unnatural, nonrelational personhood, from everything that displaces us to an exclusive household, from everything that deceives us into believing self-aggrandizing archisms” [LaCugna, God for Us, p. 401].

So, on this Trinity Sunday, may we seek to embrace the ways of God, reflected in the grace, love, and communion that is God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May we set aside abstractions that distract us from God’s desire to be present with us, so that we might join in the dance that defines the nature of God. If we do this, then there is hope that the brokenness this world experiences will not overwhelm us, but that we might join together as the Body of Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, so we can work toward the common good.