When it comes to understanding the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, we often find ourselves, like Nicodemus in John 3, in the dark. Approaching the teaching of one-in-three and three-in-one with more questions than answers.

From the beginning of the life of the church there emerged a distinction of three ways of encountering the one God – the God who creates and fills this world with majesty; the Son who is God with us in the flesh; and a stirring Spirit which blows like wind and moved the first disciples beyond their fear and their closed rooms and into the world to share this story!

Talk of the Holy Trinity can seem pretty esoteric to us, but it was vital for our early ancestors in faith who were attempting to communicate the oneness of God into a cultural context where pantheons of gods and goddesses were the norm. The fourth century world understood and worshiped many gods by many names, but the first teachers of the church, returning again and again to scripture, developed the doctrine of the Holy Trinity – God is both Three and One – as a way to witness to God’s revelation in scripture and in the world around them!

This suggests that Holy Trinity is not so much an answer to a question as an invitation. An invitation to look deeply at the God revealed in scripture and to ask where do we see this same God revealed around us today? An invitation to see how God is, at the core, a relationship of equals. An invitation to ask: what if Holy Trinity is simply a name that expresses our experience of God’s revelation, but isn’t intended to limit our experience or our understanding? And what if the incomprehensibility and mystery inherent in the Holy Trinity is intended to provide enough spaciousness and room to include all earthly experiences of the divine?

The Holy Trinity isn’t a dead doctrine or a relic of history, but an invitation to keep our eyes open to the presence of God all around us. Our ancient ancestors understood that God’s revelation is expansive! Holy Trinity is big enough and diverse enough to be glimpsed by a prophet like Isaiah, or a teacher like Nicodemus, or a persecutor of the church, like Paul, or any number of unnamed women and men who approach Jesus in the gospels seeking freedom. And if that is the revelation of Holy Trinity in scripture, certainly God is able to be experienced by you, and me, and our neighbors far and near.

Whether we experience Holy Trinity revealed in majesty, in immediacy, or in movement, we are called to come alongside Nicodemus and so many others before us, and join the dance of Trinity!