What are the different roles you maintain? If asked I'd list my highest priorities as Christ follower, mother, wife, pastor, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend. Although my list gets longer as I contemplate my roles as a member of the Presbytery of Northern KS or as a member of the Topeka community, I notice that my roles aren't so much job or duty related, but they are relational. I am defined as one of God's children by my relationship to God and to my neighbors, both near and far. Yet in all these roles at different times and places, I am always me - myself - one person.
Looking at John 16: 12-15, we see that God is defined in relationship to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. As Jesus says farewell to the disciples (and to us), he makes promises for our sustenance. Here he promises: that the Holy Spirit (the spirit of truth) will guide us in Jesus' absence; that the Holy Spirit will tell us what we need to understand what is happening; that He will send the Holy Spirit; that He and God the Father share all things; that the three are so intermingled that they are a trinity of love and knowledge. Notice that "trinity" is not specified here or anywhere else in scripture. Instead people of faith have taken this scripture (and others) to explore the mystery of God. Although we cannot know all things about our transcendent God, God desires to be known. One way to "know" God is how God is revealed in creation (Creator God) or through the stories/parables/challenges of Jesus or the promises with his resurrection or through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
The doctrine of the Trinity shows us how God relates to Godself and to us. The image of perichoresis is one metaphor for envisioning these relationships. Peri means around (think perimeter) and choresis is the origin of our choreography. Envision God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in a mutual dance of love and accountability to one another with anticipation of each other's actions - interchangeable in their knowledge of each other. Envision the Irish ceilidh in which a pair of partners engage with each other with the same movements and change partners and engage again in the dance.
What does the doctrine of the Trinity have to do with us beyond a way to know God? We are all created in the image of God. As we participate in a dance of mutual love and service with each other, we are transformed even more closely into the image of God. If we participate in the dance with the Godhead at the center, calling out moves/guidance/encouragement, do we not bring the kingdom of God on earth a bit closer to realization? Through the variety of roles that our trinitarian God plays in our dance of life, we can see and know and relate to God as we experience God as Father/Creator/Sovereign or through Jesus as Redeemer/Counselor/Friend or the Holy Spirit as Sustainer/Power/Presence.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelley
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