I love gardening, though the complexities of soil nutrients, or of why different crops prefer different seasons, are things I have never really understood. I am an avid hiker, and yet even on my favorite, most frequented trails, I do not know the placement of every little stone, every flower, every turn of the path. This Sunday I will graduate with a “Master of Divinity” degree, yet I don’t believe anyone ever fully a “master” of the divine, which is so far beyond the realms of human knowledge. I may not have perfect, total, and complete understandings of gardening, hiking, or divinity, but that does not diminish the love, understanding of, or relationship with each of those things that I have built over many years.
This weekend we celebrated Holy Trinity Sunday, where we explore the age-old question: Is God one or is God three? And the answer is yes. Trinitarian theology is complicated, and hard to fully wrap our minds around. Nearly any way you try to simplify it, any image or metaphor you use, while often well intended, ends up falling under the category of heretical. Yet, we hold steady in our faith in our 3-in-1 God, remembering that like so many parts of our faith, the holy trinity is a mystery.
We see a glimpse of the complex glory of our triune God, knowing there is more to God than we could possibly imagine. And still, we stand in awe of the Creation of God the Father. We take comfort in the presence and the grace of God the son, reconciling us to the triune God. And we follow the leadings of God the Spirit, who is with us as our advocate, our guide, our partner. However, we experience God, we take comfort in knowing that much like gardening, hiking, or even divinity, we do not need to fully understand something to know it, to love it, or to be a part of it.
For those of you interested in a short and cheeky yet informative lesson on trinitarian theology, I leave you with a link to this video:
Joyful Life Lutheran Church 