Brief synopsis of the readings: On the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity we begin in Exodus where Moses ascended Mount Sinai with two stone tablets. The Lord came down from a cloud and passed before Moses and announced that he was merciful and gracious. Moses then asked that the Lord come with him as the “stiff necked people” were in need of pardon from wickedness and sins. John’s Gospel proclaims that God gave his Son so that those who believe will be saved.

A few weeks ago we read in Matthew’s Gospel about Jesus’ command to go to all nations and baptize all peoples “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Interesting that today’s Gospel is John 3:16, a verse prominent in sports stadiums but not mentioning, or even alluding to, the Trinity.

When we think about the Trinity, frankly, most of us don’t think about it all that much. But our forebearers spent centuries grappling with this doctrine, not settling it until the year 325, deciding that the Father, Son and Spirit were three persons with one essence. Not exactly a clear definition.

I believe that this gives us an opportunity to look anew at what we believe and why it matters. Virtually all Christians believe in the Trinity (the Jehovah’s Witnesses being the primary exception) and that sets us apart from most other religions. Some believe in many gods with different and complicated relationships and we call that paganism. Other faiths hold that there is no personal god but a force or energy that makes the universe work; that goes by names like Buddhism, Hinduism, Pantheism, and others. The three “monotheistic” religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, believe we were created by a singular God who holds us to account. Only we Christians believe in a singular God with three Persons.

When we think about three persons it’s almost inevitable that we explore the relationships between them. We talk about how strong a marriage is, or how well a team works and plays together; they are evaluated on their dedication, commitment and love. How well do they share common goals, support each other and resolve conflicts? How can they build a stronger marriage/team/company? And we devote huge resources to this: counselors, advice columnists, busybodies. In fact, the entire legal industry is built on how best to resolve conflicts and help people get along better.

So when we look to improving our relationships do we look to the Trinity for our path? Well…. Yes, but it’s a qualified yes. Simply put we’ll never get there and we need to avoid temptations to get there sooner or make it easier. We are a people of organizational charts and always know who we answer to and who answers to us. And if we’re honest many of us envision God the Father as “over” God the Son and God the Spirit.

And if we seek harmony in our relationships it’s hard to get away from the pressure to conform, to decide that one person is right and the others need to agree. This isn’t “three persons, one essence” no matter how much we want it to be true. No matter how much we love one another we’re simply not always going to agree.

So what do we do? Well, a couple of things. We can begin by being OK with the fact that the Trinity is ultimately an unsolvable mystery. The fiction book industry shows how much the reading public loves a good mystery but we mostly love solving a good mystery. When we think about our most intimate relationships I think we’d agree that we love the idea of always learning about each other and that we’d be disappointed if there was nothing left to learn. If we believe that about each other, how much more should we believe that about God? As children we learned about God from what we were told, and later by what we read, particularly Scripture. But part of the role of the Holy Spirit is to constantly reveal God to us, in our experiences, in our prayer, and in our love. If the Trinity is a mystery not to be solved but to be embraced, well that’s a good thing.

Finally perhaps it should give us an insight into how we relate to each other. When we gather to decide an issue or discern a next step we acknowledge there is a wisdom in community. We can promise loyalty to another person but we step into danger when we surrender completely to their will. This is how cults happen but it can also be seen on a national level. A hundred years ago our world saw the dangers of fascism, of following one person blindly. We know their names: Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Stalin. They promised utopias if only we did what they told us. We learned through hard experience that there is no such thing as a benevolent dictator. Any institution that relies on the consensus of the group and is committed to listening to everyone runs with a certain amount of chaos and frustration but ultimately runs. I once read that democracies sail slowly, constantly needing to find the right wind and all the time bailing water but do progress. Dictatorships run straight and true, right up the moment they hit an iceberg and sink.

Anyone who has served on a church committee has known that we are flawed people doing the best we can. Our quest for unity seeks the “three persons, one essence” but should never cause us to sublimate our own truth for the sake of unity. We can begin with consensus (“It’s not how I would do it but I can live with it”) and move toward unity (presenting a united front) on the path to a united essence that we can only see in Heaven. It’s important the recognize that the three persons of the Trinity surrender none of their free will in joining together.