Jun 10, 2011
Focus readings: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, Matthew 28:16-20
The Trinity is a difficult concept to understand. How can God be one and three at the same time. While the Trinity did not become "official" until about 300 years after Jesus, today’s readings show us that this way of understanding God had already begun among the early Christians. For them this idea of One God being in three parts was more than just an idea it was an experience.
One of our members tells the story of his daughter coming home with her boyfriend and telling her Dad that he is homeless. The family took him in. He completed school, he had a new family they married and have been together for more than 20 years. This young man's life was transformed by being included in this family relationship. This was the early church’s experience of God. It was like being drawn into a transforming family. Tax collectors, prostitutes, slaves, women, men, Roman soldiers, Pharisees like Paul, Fishermen, rich people, poor people, clever people, those who were a bit slow on the uptake, all of them, experienced God in this way. They were drawn into a transforming relationship of Love.
This is what the Trinity is, this is what God is like. God is not some abstract concept. God is relationship and love. God is Jesus coming among us as a gift, and bringing us to meet the Father who turns out to be not a tyrant but a loving Parent, who bathes us in the love of the Spirit and so we are one family or one body Brothers and sisters of Jesus Children of God, joined together as one.
Questions for thought or discussion.
Have you ever been invited into a friendship, group or family and felt welcomed? What do you think of the notion that this is what God is like? Have you been a part of a relationship which has transformed you or another person? What was it about that relationship which caused change?