on the triune god

 

Christians speak of God as ‘one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.’

Why do we speak of God as ‘Father’?

Because Jesus taught us to call God our Father in the heavens. To see the One who is over and above all things as intimately connected to, and concerned about, us. Relational. And why not Mother? Because, in Jesus’ familial imagery, it is the Church who is our mother (and that, in itself, bears further reflection).

Why do we call Jesus ‘the Son’?

Christians believe that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human. But when we speak of him as the Son, we are leaning into his humanity—the belief that God so loved us that he chose to become one of us. We are all children of God (as Paul reminded the Athenian philosophers). Jesus most commonly referred to himself as the Son of Man, which was a way of saying Mortal, or, human. Others called him the Son of God, which was a title given to the (human) king in Jerusalem almost a thousand years earlier. Others called him the Son of David, or, the descendant and rightful heir of that king. Still others called him the Son of Joseph, his father; or the Son of Mary, his mother. All these ‘Son’ titles highlight his humanity—he is the Word of God made flesh, the human god—but also honour our connectedness—he is our brother—in the way some cultures refer to biologically unrelated persons as son, daughter, brother, sister, cousin, auntie, uncle.

What about ‘the Holy Spirit’?

The Holy Spirit is the name we give to God at work in our lives—and in the world around us—bringing about such divine qualities as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Empowering us to participate in the life of love, for God, ourselves, our neighbour, our enemy. Animating us. Transforming chaos into harmony.

We greet one another in the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We depart from one another with words of blessing—of recognition, affirmation, and the desire for one another’s good—in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We initiate people into the church through baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

That God is both One and Three is a mystery: something that cannot be fully contained in our rational mind; only experienced, entered deeper into, in our comings and goings, in our common lives in our shared world.