June 16, 2019 - Trinity Sunday - Is Explaining the Unexplainable More Than We Can Bear?

Today how this worship was planned, put together and prepared by different people and how it all perfectly aligned astounded me. Matt chose the Hymn of the Day which was Come, Join the Dance of Trinity. The words ae an invitation us to interweave with the dance to participate.

Pastor Ray also preached about the Trinity as relationship where God is never alone. Trinity is a doctrine to try to explain the unexplainable - how God relates to God's self. The sermon pointed out there is no direct reference to the Trinity in the Bible but that the Triune God is implied. All the metaphors we use can border on partialism from a doctrinal perspective because there is no metaphor for one being which is both distinct, has characteristics that can be split into three and yet all those three to be fully contained in the split.

If you are interested in partialism follow this link for greater detail. Pastor Ray preached about historical Christians like Augustine, John of Damascus, and Martin Luther but, at best, however meaningful their explanations, they must point to examples in the world which are naturally incomplete.

Pastor Ray then began to talk about experiences of the unbearable. When are asked to describe something that was unbearable in our lives we tend to focus on the negative. The unbearable can also be positive - from a joy cannot bear without our hearts enlarging. The Trinity can help us understand there are certain aspects of God that are like this as well.

Then Pastor Ray invited us to spend time in a prayer corner that contained Andrei Rublev's icon of the Trinity that is shown here. The art invites the spectator to become part of the circle of the Trinity. Pastor Ray provided this as an aid to devotion to experience after communion.

I did not know that any of the preceding would happen at worship but the Temple Talk fit in with how these ways of celebrating the Trinity. Worship is one more path to participate in the dance and to engage with the intertwining of the Triune God.

Since the Trinity is a doctrine I always thought the best way to pursue what this belief was truly about was to find the right metaphor or words. I thought language would eventually provide a superlative understanding of this doctrinal mystery. Today I learned another path to follow would be in the participation I am currently living. To help continue the Creator heartbeat that comes through weekly worship. To not be a spectator while God and the world dances.