Love, the Lover, and the Beloved—that’s what St. Augustine says the doctrine of the Trinity is all about, theologically expressed as “one God as to substance, and three persons as to individuality and expression” (Dictionary of Christian Theology, Peter Angeles, p.200). One in three, three in one; that’s how God reveals Godself to us. That is how we experience God. As we come to know God, the Father, intimately as Abba—Daddy, loving and caring parent, nurturer, the protecting one, we are led into a deeper relationship with God, the Son, Jesus Christ, savior, healer, brother, friend, the one who has gone before us to pave the way, by God the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, the inspiring one, the empowering one.

It is out of God’s self-giving love that God creates, redeems, and sanctifies us and makes us children of God. As we experience the power of God’s love working in our lives, transforming us into the image of Christ, we are awakened to God’s majestic holiness, to our patent unworthiness. We know how Isaiah felt when he “saw” the Lord; we recognize our uncleanness. But just as the Lord didn’t leave Isaiah in despair, the Lord cleanses us with God’s steadfast love so that our hearts are filled with gratitude, worship and praise. Filled with joy, we want to glorify God with all that is within us, to join the heavenly host in singing, “Holy, holy, holy.”

In an unending cycle of giving and receiving, God’s love is always reaching out to us, drawing us ever deeper into God’s unifying love, so that we may incarnate that love in the world, so that we can be his hands and felt and voice wherever we are, so that we delightedly join Isaiah in saying, “Here I am; send me.”

Those who may be interested in learning more about the background of the doctrine of the Trinity and its relevance in today’s world are welcome to participate in Trinity’s Adult Education Program on Sundays at 9:00 a.m. where we have just begun a study of The Creed by Luke Timothy Johnson.