In an issue of the Reader’s Digest, Ann Spivack told this story: “While our friends from India traveled around California on business, they left their 11 year-old daughter with us. Curious about my going to church one Sunday morning, she decided to come along. When we returned home, my husband asked her what she thought of the service. “I don’t understand why the West Coast isn’t included too,” she replied. When we inquired what she meant, she added, “You know, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the whole East Coast.” Now, of course, we know that it’s the Holy Ghost and not the whole East Coast. But it illustrates in a way how confusing the idea of one God in three persons can be.

I once had a math professor who proved for us one day that 1 is equal to 0. It was a long and tedious demonstration that used many complicated Calculus equations. Now, we don’t have to be Calculus professors to know that 1 cannot equal 0. We just have to compare a hand with a pencil in it to a hand that is empty. The one pencil in the one hand simply isn’t equal to the empty hand with zero pencils. The math simply does not add up. When we talk about the doctrine of the Trinity, we talk about God as three in one. That is in fact what the word Trinity means: Tri meaning “three” and unity meaning “in one.” Mathematically, we know that this does not compute. Three cannot also be one, right? Now, perhaps my college Calculus professor could prove that, but that doesn’t make it true. In fact, if you were to analyze his proof of 1 being equal to 0, you can find one very small, almost unnoticeable mistake. And it is that mistake that made the difference.

So, is the concept of the Trinity a mistake? Is God not really three in one? Are there really three Gods? Or is there only one God, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not actually God? There have been and continue to be many who choose one of those options because the doctrine of the Trinity seems incomprehensible. The math simply does not add up.

So, why do we proclaim it as truth if it seems outside of logic? And beyond that, the word Trinity never appears in the Bible, nor does it expressly say anywhere that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are in fact one God. So, where does the idea of the Trinity come from? Well…first off we must note that the Bible is pretty clear that there is only one God. The Apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the church in Corinth, “There is no God but one.’ Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— yet for us there is one God.” The doctrine of the Trinity does not deny that statement. It upholds the idea that there is only one God. Yet it proclaims that that one God exists in three persons. Here is where it really gets complicated.

So, we know that God the Father is God. That is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jakob. That is the God who spoke to Moses through a burning bush. That is the God who created the heavens and the earth, who led the people of Israel out of Egypt, who parted the Red Sea, who spoke through the prophets, who sent his only Son into the world to save it. But what about Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

Many theologians look to our two passages for today as proof of a Triune God. In Matthew, Jesus is about to ascend to heaven and says to his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” That last line: “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We hear similar statements like that alot during our worship. Can anyone think of a place where we might hear that spoken? (pause for answers: baptism, the end of a sermon, we hear a version of it in the benediction, gloria patri, doxology, the creeds perhaps). That Trinitarian formula is deeply embedded in our worship. Yet the early church, the first followers of Christ, did not consider Jesus to be God. And until Pentecost, they did not really have a concept of the Spirit of God.

So, let’s look at Jesus a bit. The Nicene Creed, which was written in the 4th century A.D., talks about Jesus in this way: I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made.” Already by 325 A.D., the church viewed Jesus as God. But we can go back even further to the gospel of John. John’s first words in his gospel say, “In the beginning was the Word” (the Word being Jesus), “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus came to earth as the living Word of God. And John tells us that this Word was with God and was God. The gospel of John is thought to have been written about 60 or 70 years after Jesus’ crucifixion. So, already by then Jesus was thought to be God.

This shows up in many of Paul’s greetings to the various churches when he says something like, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” And we see even during Jesus’ life some hints that he did things that only God could do. Perhaps you remember the story of the paralytic who was lowered through a roof by his friends in order to reach Jesus. And Jesus says to the man, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” And the scribes who are in the crowd are furious and say to one another, “Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Understanding Jesus to be God isn’t too difficult a conclusion to come to.

The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, is a bit more challenging. We can start at the creation of the world when we see the spirit of God hover over the waters as God is turning the void into an entire universe. Then in 1 Corinthians we read, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God.” And in the gospel of John, when Jesus talks to Nicodemus, he says that we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless we are born of water AND of the spirit. But perhaps these arguments for the Holy Spirit as God do not seem all that convincing. Well, let us then turn to the story of Ananias in Acts 5. Ananias sold a piece of property and kept back some of the proceeds. Then he and his wife gave only a portion of the proceeds to the apostles though they claimed it was the full amount. The truth was revealed to Peter and he confronted Ananias. He asked him, “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?” Then just a few sentences later, Peter says, “You did not lie to us but to God!” The subtle implication here is that the Holy Spirit and God are one and the same.

If we take these snippets of information about the Holy Spirit and then remember the Trinitarian formula in our passages for this morning, we can make a strong argument that the Holy Spirit is God, just as God the Father is God, and Jesus the Son is God. So, if all three persons are God yet God is one, that is the basis for the doctrine of the Trinity.

But why is it even important for us that God is Triune? The idea of the Trinity is the idea that God is fundamentally relational. In theology, there is this beautiful idea called perichoresis. Perichoresis comes from Greek meaning “going around.” There is also a Greek wedding dance that is called perichoresis. It is a dance for three or more dancers and they dance in a circle. As the dance continues, they begin to speed up. And soon they are moving so quickly that it becomes almost a blur yet still maintain their individuality within the dance. This dance, in many ways, is like the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit move together in perfect harmony. They move together in relationship with one another.

Because we have been created in the image of God, we were created to be relational beings. We are inherently designed to be in relationship with one another. Our dance may not always be smooth. We may step on each other’s feet sometimes or trip over each other, but we have to keep dancing. It’s a part of who we are.

I’m not much of a dancer myself. But something I’ve found out about dance is that when you allow yourself to join in with others, even if you have no idea what you’re doing, you will find that that movement opens you up. It is an act of vulnerability with others, but you will find that it will draw you closer to one another as you move around. And you may find your hearts lifted up into the divine dance of the Trinity, where love and mercy and grace will encircle you.

I want to end with a poem I found, written by Carla Jordan, entitled Perichoresis.

the dance of Holy God
rotating beyond space and time,
giving way to One Another
in the cosmic Love dance–
the gateway to God open
inviting all to enter kairos.
our feeble minds often choose
to remain in the known,
the understood time of chronos
but from there we cannot
join–we cannot even witness–
the dance. for God lives
outside of our knowing him,
apart from our comprehending him.
God lives inside and around,
a Perfect Unison intersecting humanity
with Love intimate as Life;
praise God for all Love
has done with Christ and
Spirit, the Three in One.

Amen!