What the Trinity Reveals about Human Nature

Today is Trinity Sunday in the liturgical year, the day when the nature and significance of the Trinity is recognized and celebrated

The Trinity reveals much about human beings, and unfortunately, it doesn't paint a very positive picture.  The trinity is the Church's theological acknowledgement and affirmation that God is revealed as creator, redeemer, and sustainer, and that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are of the same nature and substance.  That means that whatever Jesus did and said was reflective of the nature of God, because as the redeemer, Jesus and God are One.

If that is true, then let's review how God, in Jesus was perceived and treated by others.  The Romans thought he was a troublemaker and a political dissident.  We know this because he was crucified.  Crucifixion was a Roman form of execution that was reserved for one crime and one crime alone; political sedition.  Jesus would not have been crucified unless he was perceived as someone who was challenging the authority of the Roman state.

The Jewish religious establishment, closely tied with Rome, though that Jesus was irreligious and a blasphemer.  He associated with tax collectors and "sinners".  He did not follow all the Jewish religious rules and practices, such as healing on the Sabbath.  He did not acknowledge the supremacy of Jews over the Samaritans.  Jesus may have been crucified by the Romans, but there was a very close nexus between the Roman culture and its local representative, Pilate, and the Jewish High Priest and religious establishment.  The Romans and Jews both didn't think much of Jesus.

Jesus was rejected and cast out of his hometown, Nazareth.  We are told in Mark's Gospel that even his own brothers and sisters rejected him.  Jesus attracted large crowds due to his miracles and exorcisms, but the same was true of others in the ancient near east who performed similar acts.  There was actually an informally recognized vocation of "wonder workers" who traveled the countryside doing these things. The same crowds quickly turned against him in Jerusalem.

Let's think about what this means: God was uniquely revealed in Jesus.  God is perfectly good and without sin.  In God there is no darkness at all.  And yet God, in Jesus, was identified and treated as a political dissident and trouble maker, irreligious and a blasphemer, was cast out of his own hometown, and even rejected by his brothers and sisters.

I have no doubt that the way that God was treated in the ancient near east is no different than the way that God would have been treated if God was revealed in any time and place.  There is no greater manifestation of human sin than that.  And there is no greater indication about how much we need redemption and salvation.  The Trinity reveals much more than the nature of God.  It reveals the darkness within ourselves and our need for God's grace.

Celebrating the Ascension

Last Thursday was the Celebration of the Ascension in the liturgical year, which is the 40th day after Easter when the Ascension of Christ is acknowledged.

The Ascension used to be read in a way that localized Jesus and God above the earth.  The ancient and medieval Church believed that heaven was literally located in a dome above the earth, and that the story recorded in the gospels of Jesus being "taken up" meant that Jesus was returning to an actual physical location above the earth.

The significance of the Ascension is much deeper and significant than that.  What the story reveals is God's omnipresence and Christ's omnipresence--that the power of God as revealed in Christ cannot be limited to the earth, nor can it be limited in heaven.  Through modern technology, we have explored the skies, and there is no dome of heaven where the medieval Church thought it was.  Rather than seeing this as a challenge to our theology, we should recognize it as an affirmation of God's omnipotence and omnipresence.  God's presence cannot be limited or localized, and God remains revealed on earth as God was revealed on earth in Christ.

Our role as disciples is not to perceive the earth as a place where God is not present, with our goal being to escape to where God is fully present, but rather, to see that God is here with us now, and that we can, through God's power, make God's Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.