Trinity Sunday: God is a Dance of Love

The Trinity: A doctrine of confusion, a litmus test for entry into heaven, or the ever-flowing essence of Love? If you’ve been bewildered or angered or hurt by the way the Trinity has been explained or used or… weaponized… Adam and Lindsey can empathize! They grew to love this doctrine when they saw that, rather than condemn or separate, the Trinity reveals our participation in the relationship of Love.

For Trinity Sunday, Adam and Lindsey dive into this doctrine, using Matthew 28: 16-20 as their springboard. “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.”

These proto-Trinitarian words might not have been an exact quote of Jesus. The evangelists tried to capture the essence of his message, but his words weren’t written in real time. But it says no less for the Trinity if this reference to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all together did not come straight from Jesus’s lips. In fact, it shows that the evangelist was able to piece together the connection – the shared divinity – from the larger message, the words and deeds of Jesus’s lifetime, the meaning of his death and resurrection, and the light it sheds on all of scripture before him.

The doctrine of the Trinity may not have been codified until the 4th century, but the nature of God as the relationship of Love – love that engendered creation, love that lived in solidarity with the outcast, love that empowers us to comfort the afflicted and work for justice – had become clear.

The Trinity is the Love-dance of God. Love is not solitary, it is ever-flowing in relationship. And the nature of God’s relationship is a dance of harmony. The difference between the relationship among God’s own Self and our relationships with each other is that within God, there is no rivalry, only everlasting love. And that difference shrinks as we grow into our destiny as living images of God, following the model of Jesus.

Jesus, again, speaks to the crowds from a mountain in Galilee.

Jesus has work for us to do, even in our doubts and imperfections. Make disciples of all nations… doesn’t this conjure imperialist imagery? Not if we remember that to invite the way of Jesus is to live into the message he first gave from that mountain. Humble ourselves and be in solidarity with those most in need.

Show that God is Love so that all can be swept joyfully into the Dance.