The round table in my kitchen has four chairs. A fifty-pound bag of high-gluten flour sits on one of them. It is too big to fit in the cupboard. I take out flour from time to time when I need it for baking bread. Most of the time, Dan and I don’t notice that the bag of flour is there. It just sits with us at the table.
I have a friend who enlivens every party. She sat in that same chair. She laughed and I laughed and we talked all afternoon without stopping. After she left, I smiled for two hours, flooded with friendship, full of the joy of being together.
It is Trinity Sunday. What is the Trinity? Is it like a delicate clover with three petals? Is it like a noble flame with light and heat and a wick? What is it? In theological thinking, the Trinity has often sat at the kitchen table like that sack of flour, an “it” to be taken out from time to time when needed, but mostly just . . . there. Why does the Trinity even matter?
Jesus hints at deep friendship with the Father and the Spirit in today’s Gospel reading. The Spirit shares that which is of the Son and glorifies him; both of them exalt the Father, in a mutuality of intimacy. We don’t know specifically what the Trinity “is,” but we know that there is delight in what the Father, Son, and Spirit do. The Trinity is not an “it” to be analyzed, but a Who to be enjoyed: One who bursts with love and delights in the human race.
Divine friendship is also meant to be ours. Human life may afflict us, but the Holy Spirit has flooded our hearts with love, St. Paul says. The Holy Trinity is the life of the human party, sitting at the table, ringing with laughter and joy.
Consider/Discuss
- Who or what is sitting at your table? Have you been taught to see God as someone who is just there, like a big sack of flour, useful to have when you need it? Or does God the Father/Son/Spirit make you smile, flood you with friendship, and bring you joy in being together?
- Do you know all of the U.S. presidents in order? The countries of Europe that belong to NATO? The boiling point of water? Once it was important to have that kind of memorized information. (It still helps to know that a green light means go and a red light means stop.) Nowadays, most information can be found online in a fraction of a second. But wisdom? That is altogether different from information. How do we partake of the wisdom of God? Where have you encountered wisdom in your life?
Living and Praying with the Word
Holy Trinity, One God, flood us with your friendship. As we pray, fill us with the joy of being together with you. The vastness of your Being is too big to fit into our limited minds; we do not grasp what it means that you are Three-in-One and One-in-Three. But all through history, you been at work in various ways and at various times. You delighted in us at the moment of creation. You have become one like us in all things but sin. You dwell with us now. You lift us from our afflictions. You strengthen our character and give us hope. O Lord, our God, how wonderful is your Triune Name in all the earth!