One plus One plus One is ONE

John 15:26 – 16:15

“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

“I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts.

Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

I don’t know about you, but I find simply living my life as an average human being, I have so many roles so many facets so many faces

I am Son, Father, Lover, Preacher, Counsellor, Teacher, Friend and sadly, Enemy too. All of these are based on the experience others have of me which determines the name they would give to me.

If I have so many aspects that I can only begin to imagine the many ways God has been experienced

The doctrine of the Trinity like all other doctrines is an attempt to describe what has been experienced by people who have experienced God

Trinity Sunday invites us to realise again that in the Judeo-Christian tradition God has been experienced as Father, Son and feminine nurturing Spirit. This is a wonderful image of our relational God. It was however a very difficult doctrine to formulate. Not that it was more complex than say the doctrine of the Incarnation, I mean, how did baby Jesus still remain the divine Logos at the heart of the Universe? No, the doctrine of the Trinity was challenging because it flew in the face of a very hard won understanding that Jews express succinctly in their Shema, “Behold O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is ONE”

It had taken centuries and many battles and bloodshed, for Israel to come to the conclusion that there was to be only one God. Molech, Baal, and earlier Isis and Ra, were abandoned in favour of Yahweh, the great I am. Having come to this conclusion as a united Israel in their promised land, they clung to their monotheism as the key to their unity. When the New Israel, the church, experienced Jesus and later the Spirit, this experience had to be integrated into this monotheism and thus the doctrine of the Trinity was born. A beautiful work of theo-philosphical reasoning that retains the unity whilst recognising the diversity of operation and experience of the being we call God.

However, to step back just a moment, in the formulation of the Jewish monotheistic dogma the men (and they were all men) who did this reasoning could not conceive that perhaps Baal, Molech, Isis and Ra along with the pantheon of other Middle-Eastern deities vying for market share, could possibly be valid experiences of the same God too! Judaism, wasn’t particularly good about inclusion of “Other” in their thinking. Clawing for their self determination did not make them the most inclusive society in the Mediterranean neighbourhood. So I understand the blind spot, whilst ruing its missed opportunity. Some ideas take centuries to ripen.

I would like to suggest that the Trinitarian doctrine of God is ripe now. Ripe for fruiting a further step along its logical path.

Before I move to suggest the next step for the doctrine of the Trinity, I need to publish a disclaimer. I am fully aware that this is very volatile ground. After all, wasn’t it the filioque debate around the Trinity that led to the first Great schism between the Eastern and Western Church? So I am cautious yet compelled to make my suggestion…

I think we are outgrowing the Trinity.

More correctly I believe that in the miracle of the global village encounters we are having of trans-cultural, trans-national and thus trans-religious relations we have to face the fact that for others on the planet, the “One” whom our tradition has experienced as Father Son and Mother Spirit, has also been experienced as Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Tao and Vishnu by our spiritual siblings in other religions.

Remembering that the Trinity is a doctrine born directly from our collective experience of God in God’s modes of being experienced, can we begin to acknowledge that in other cultures and parts of this planet the names and roles of God are multiple, far more than three, and go on and on, just like God does.

Risking redundancy, let me recap that the Old Testament is amongst many other things, a record of Israel’s discovery that God is much more than a limited tribal idol God whom they thought to be only concerned with their own particular national and political salvation project to the exclusion and detriment of all others. The New Testament reflecting on the inclusivity of Jesus and the expansive vision of Paul had to realise that God was not a God of tribe nor of nation.

Could it be our task in these days to realise that those inclusive and expansive embracing arms of the Father Son and Spirit are reaching even wider? In this process of expanding our thinking, every group, creed and religion whom we are trusting enough to embrace in the inclusive love of Jesus, will bring to us their names and roles of God as they have experienced and named God on their journeys of discovery.

The Church Fathers were at pains to teach the early church that there were not three but one essence in the being of God although the attributes of this being were experienced by specific names and energetic encounters.

I would like to believe the Fathers and Mothers of the Church would invite us today to realise that there is still only one essential divine heart beating at the centre of the universe. To think that we are the only ones to have authentically heard that heart beating or felt its compassion directed to us, is not only narrowly erroneous, it is also arrogantly exclusive.

God is God in every corner of the planet and dimension of the Universe. God is God in every place of worship, and most importantly God is God in every heart of those God created to be called human.

Name God, Draw God, Describe God, Record God as you will. God is only ONE, the only ONE, and every person on this planet no matter how they name God are children of the one Father and Family of the one multi faceted faith community.

Does that mean that we have to make one generic porridge God in the pot of global religious encounter? Definitely not! As Christ followers we have the standard of Jesus who made it very clear that it is by the fruit of love that we will discern how valid the other experiences and names for God are. Permit me to attempt such a check list, that may still exclude Molech but may include some of the more popular and populous names and experiences around. Perhaps, if we allow ourselves to risk looking at God though another lens, our Christ following will be enriched and empowered. This has been my personal experience.

So here is a discernment list for Inter Faith exploration:

• Do the followers of this manifestation and experience of God reveal deep compassion for others even beyond their group?
• Does this path lead to greater human unity and the diminishing of violence and segregation?
• Does this name of God heal the planet?
• Does this group have the ability to be self-critical and are they able to laugh at themselves (or even cartoons of themselves)? (In South Africa this week a Muslim judge set aside the Interdict application by the Muslim Council to have a Zapiro Cartoon of Mohammed banned) read the Mail and Guardian Article here
• Does this path encourage selfless generosity and service for all in need?
• Is this name of God tolerant of the many different ways of being human, sexually, culturally, economically, politically?

This is a very rudimentary list, and red-faced I have to admit that in certain very orthodox quarters of our Trinitarian faith there are groups that would not pass this discernment test. However I believe the list is descriptive of the unique revelation received in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

It is also descriptive of the founders and followers of many of the other World religions that I have encountered.

To return to my initial suggestion, I wonder if we are ready to amend our doctrine of Trinity of God being God, and begin dreaming of a doctrine of Infinity of God being God?

No matter how many names and manifestations of God we add together, the sum will always be ONE.

(You can listen to a podcast of how the sermon, based on these thoughts, sounded, by clicking here)