Trinity is Love: Luke 11:2-4 - Holy Trinity Sunday

When you drive a small car, like I do, some vehicles feel like trains in comparison.

Last week, I was at a red light behind a yellow Jeep. The tires had to be a foot wide, and most people would’ve needed a stepladder just to get inside. The tail lamps were protected with metal cages.

On the licensing plate, there was a tag that said, “it’s a jeep thing. You wouldn’t understand.”

He was right. I don’t understand how someone could spend thousands of dollars customizing an already expensive vehicle. But I have been off-roading before. Eight years ago, Elizabeth and I took Rebecca to visit her home state of Colorado. We took a Jeep tour of the Rocky Mountains, and the sights we saw still take my breath away. So maybe I understand a little…

So many things cannot be understood without experiencing them firsthand, like sushi, skydiving, and the Holy Trinity.

The Trinity is one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith. How can one God be three persons? If Jesus was God, why did he need to pray? Wasn’t Jesus praying to himself? How can Jesus be God when he must obey his Father’s will? And what is the Holy Spirit: a bird, a fire, a ghost? Should we use masculine or feminine pronouns when talking about the Spirit, or none of the above?

Image by Thomas from Pixabay

Let me offer just this one explanation: the Trinity is love in relationship. And there is no better way to experience that gift of relationship than in prayer.

Today, we begin a four-week journey through the prayer that Jesus taught us, starting with the first petition: “Our Father in heaven…”

The instant you pray those words, you are drawn into the communion of the Triune God. By praying the very words of Jesus, the Holy Spirit eliminates the distance between heaven and earth and puts you into the presence of God.

That may not sound like a big deal. But remember: in the Old Testament, no human being could ever approach to God and live, unless you were Moses, a prophet, or a priest. You, on the other hand, have been washed in the blood of Jesus and the waters of your baptism so that you can approach the throne of God as Christ himself did.

And even though you can probably pray the Lord’s prayer by heart and not even think about what you’re praying, the Holy Spirit intercedes for you with sighs too deep for words. You need not bother yourself with worries that you aren’t praying the right words or asking with the right motives.

You know what matters most to God when it comes to prayer? That you take the time to do it. That you enter the doors of grace that Christ has opened for you. That you pray because you can, rather than because you should.  For the only way to pray wrong is to not pray at all…

None of us will ever pray as we should—any more than any one of us will understand how our one God can be three persons. God is three persons because God is love. God wants nothing less for you to be as close to God’s own self as Jesus was to his Heavenly Father.

And more than any book or seminary course, my understanding of the Holy Trinity has been shaped by what I’ve witnessed.

The Holy Trinity is the sound of a child praying the Lord’s Prayer. Even though they mispronounce some of the words and barely know what any of them mean, a child’s faith is a miracle to behold. The Triune God is in action. When people gathered at a graveside who haven’t set foot in a church for years are praying the Lord’s prayer, the Triune God is in action.

I’ll never forget visiting a woman in the final hours of her life. She asked me to pray the Lord’s Prayer with her, and we prayed it, over and over again, for probably over a half an hour. A man lying in his bed across the hall heard us praying. He then got up, walked into the room, and asked if he could pray it with us, because he hadn’t prayed the Lord’s Prayer since he was a boy. In that moment, a dying woman’s prayers helped to rekindle his faith. And I believe that sister in Christ prayed “our Father in heaven” until she herself was in heaven. That was the Triune God in action.

The Holy Trinty is “a God thing” no human being will fully understand. And that’s okay. But the Holy Spirit is speaking your name, to give you faith to be as close to Jesus was to his Father. You will never be as close to God as when you are in prayer. To pray is to dwell within the Trinity of love. And God’s love makes miracles happen.

So [Jesus] said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, may your name be revered as holy.

    May your kingdom come.

3     Give us each day our daily bread.

4     And forgive us our sins,

        for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

    And do not bring us to the time of trial.”