Strange trinity

(Nathan Nettleton) “The God whose voice thunders across the chaos in creation, whose very word is enough to bring into being that which was not before, is the same God who sits weeping on a donkey sobbing, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if only you would have let me love you like a mother hen loves her chicks.”

I am he as you are me ....

When the Beatles were in their heyday they wrote a song called, I am the walrus. The opening words describe their life together as a group. ‘I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together’. Later in their life as a group on their last album they sang a song which described their life as they were falling apart, ‘I, me mine’.

In a way this epitomizes our choices as the church and as individuals. We can get sucked into the’ I, me mine’ that is often so prevalent in society and the church, or we can catch the vision and power of our Trinitarian God. The one who says that, ‘I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together’.  This is the life-giving model that the trinity portrays.

And we live in a modern culture that calls out the worst individualism in us. It can become all about how much I get out of the latest federal budget, or how wealthy and influential I can become. We are told that we pay too much in taxes to support the vulnerable, We are told to reject the pleas of the asylum seeker in case they affect our way of life.  I, me, mine! Instead, in the trinity, God challenges us to living as compassionate community. To open our hearts to each other and to the stranger.
...Today as God’s people in this place, we are called to be imitators, not only of “Christ, but more especially, of the trinity. You are called to be imitators of the Divine three in one, the God of mystery who somehow can hold difference together and make a whole, the God who is community and who invites us into the dance to be the ones who choose to live our lives as if we are in community with all other human beings and with all of God’s creation. To live this way is to live a compassionate and justice-seeking life and it is to live a life reflecting the God of community that we find in the concept of the Trinity.

So, next time you here the ‘Father, son and holy spirit’ thing, don’t give it up as ‘just history’ or irrelevant. I don’t think we could be living in a more relevant time to be challenged by the communal nature of God.