I am one who appreciates stretching… Maybe not to the point of rupture, but close… One of, if not the greatest forms of stretching has come through my faith seeking understanding. It is a stretching brought on through the inquiry of who is this God celebrated at Christmas, elevated at Easter, awed by the multitude, and crucified by the many? Who is this God called Trinity and why follow Him? Is it more profitable, more comforting, more secure to follow the one they call Christ, or should I continue on my own way, forging ahead on my own, self-made path?
Stepping into the dialogue of faith and life happens through a multitude of ways, yet arguably no way stretches, contorts, illumines, or calls upon us for a response more so than a step into the truth of Jesus. Who is this man who claims to be God? And what is the connection between Jesus and me? That is, the human is created in the image of a God who is relational, so what then are the implications for life, for church, for our engagement of the world? How does the Christian understand Jesus so to then understand the one standing in front of me?
So where does one go to know Christ? To know the Christian God, and who is this God called Trinity? How does a Trinitarian, Christ-centered theology play out in my life and how I see the “other”?
As the Christian Scriptures reveal, the human is created in the image of the Trinity – A Godhead that does not remain absent or quiet throughout the course of history. We are not talking about a God hidden behind divine revelation. Rather, God is for us fully revealed and fully concealed in His self-disclosure. As a result, the Christian Scriptures invoke participation… they beckon the reader to transformation. The movement to God, with God, from God is not a static event, something that happens once in a lifetime, but a continual process. And for those whose inflamed heart burns for the Son they find themselves pining after… longing for… continually turning toward the Son, who leads us, in union with the Holy Spirit, into an ever-deepening relationship with the Father. Thus, we are brought into the very life of the Trinity, that communion of love without end.
The Trinity is the paradigm by which we are to live. It is dynamic in relation; thus, God's being is His eternal, intrinsic communion. The Trinity provides not only the paradigm but also the process and protection of the relationality of humanity. For it is through the action of the Godhead that humanity gains relational access to the riches of the dynamics of revelation.
The words of Gregory of Nazianzus draw this to mind as he writes of the Triune God: “No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the splendor of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the One” (Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 40.41).
Trinitarian theology is rooted in a relational foundation that recognizes people are created in the image of a relational God and as such, are not things, generic products, or numbers, but mysterious and unique subjects with inherent worth and the right to self-determination in fostering vital community. Therefore, we should not use and abuse one another. Yet today we experience the loss of personhood through the promotion of consumption. Forget what lies ahead. Push aside the risks. Consume. Consume.
In our push for consumption we consume— inadvertently at first - one another. Now, in our intentional consumption, we not only gain the whole world, but experience the loss of personhood. Today, the widespread loss of personhood and the reduction of persons to things robs all of us of our priceless worth and leads us to consume, deconstruct, and devalue the one sitting before us.
Trinitarian theology is communal and as such recognizes the truth, the necessity of community. It is best done in community, a community in which there is space for otherness and difference given God’s personal space for otherness in the divine life and in the world.
Our identity as relational people of the Triune (relational) God is foundational to our purpose and our activity.
As the great Dr. King illumined:
There is still something to remind us that we are interdependent, that we are all somehow caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. Therefore whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.
As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a million dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than thirty years, I can never be totally healthy. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.
As those created in the image of God, we must account for each human person in all their distinctiveness as being important in addition to their shared humanity. We must cherish each human person as equal in worth and dignity. We must focus upon the heart of the person and not their behaviors, their productivity, so that we might be as Horton the Elephant who reminds us, “after all, a person’s a person, no matter how small.”
