Is the Trinity Still Relevant?

The famous old hymn says, "Early in the morning, our song shall rise to Thee." About whom is the hymn speaking? The last line reveals it: God in three persons, blessed Trinity. 

But is this old hymn still relevant? Does it matter that we think, sing, and teach about the Trinity in the church today? Isn't the Trinity just a doctrine that Christians assume? Once you know it, there doesn't seem to be much else to do with it. 

The idea of one God in three persons is unique to Christianity, but is it useful to everyday life? It seems that many local churches market themselves as providing a community of care that is useful to everyday life. They may even market themselves as providing a life-changing experience on a weekend with practical follow-up for the whole family during the week.  

Imagine a church with a sign out front that reads, "Inviting your family to be formed by encountering the mystery of the Triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." It falls flat because God, as he has revealed himself, doesn't shrink down to fit advertising campaigns.  

But the most practical questions that people ask find their answer in who God is and what he has done. People want to know if their life has purpose. They want to know where they came from and what their final end may be. They want to know if someone is in charge of the world raging around them, and if so, what is being done about it? 

The answers to all these questions connect back to God - and not just God as a general higher power. That won't do, not to answer those fundamental questions. Who is God? What is he like? How could we know that with any certainty?   

The greatest attempt to avoid thinking soundly about God comes from those who say all religions worship the same God. That idea does a disservice to all religions. It's very dismissive. Yet it is often spoken by those who would say we need to respect all individual religions and views about God. 

Christians answer these questions by pointing back to God as he has revealed himself in the Bible, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The nature of who God is matters when answering life's most crucial questions.  

Do you believe God is an impersonal force? Then what do you believe about how that force created such personal beings in the world? How does that force interact with the lives of those beings? Can a personal force care about your mundane work life? 

Do you believe God is a transcendent personal being? How does he interact with the day-to-day lives of humans in our working, loving, living, and dying? How does one come to know a transcendent personal being? How is it possible that this God understands my home life here and now? 

Do you believe God wants humans to just be happy? What happens when humans have differing opinions on what would make them happy? How does God determine between the happiness of various humans? 

Knowing God, who has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, gives unique, logical, and experientially satisfying answers to these questions and many more. But answers to big questions require thoughtful time and energy. More than that, they require a self-revealing honesty that will make us uncomfortable because getting to know God is not the same as getting to know a subject in school, or the map of a new place you're visiting. It's not even quite the same as getting to know a new human friend.  

The Christian church is a unique institution because it has its origin and purpose in the triune God. How might modern Americans change the way we organize our church community if we saw it as a place where people are invited into a relationship with this God?  

Does our church position itself as a community center that produces spiritual experiences and practical living advice? I'm not sure what the sign should look like in front of a church where the mystery of God as Trinity invites us to a community whose reality satisfies in a way few of us have ever imagined.