Trinity: Unity in Diversity
By Beth Peltola,
Consider the Trinity - God.
Whose very life shows us ‘unity in diversity’. Togetherness, oneness, on-the-same-pageness. Seen in the life of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - three different Persons, united, sharing life together.
Consider this God who made all of us! God’s love of tribes (Genesis 49), multi-ethnic Israel (Ruth 1:16-17), blessing given to all nations through Abraham (from modern day Iraq) (Genesis 17:1-8), community, worship from all tribes, languages and nations (Revelation 5:9-10, Revelation 7:9-17). God is not afraid of diversity, He made it.
Imagine if all human beings based their life on this example!?
We’d belong to each other, care for each other, communicate with each other, love each other, trust each other, delight to serve one other, value each other.
We could fill the page with the delights of seeing this example play out in our daily lives: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit setting an example of unity as they delight in each other’s respective roles, their communal life, bearing their holy name, their character, their desire for their creation.
What a solution to the tumult we see today.
The Trinity challenges modern visions of ‘god’
The Trinity stands against modern visions of ‘god’. It defies the generalities so often imposed onto ‘god’. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit challenges any little-er notions our minds form about god.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, resist many a religious view of god - usually portrayed as a distant being; An unknown being; A being made in our own image; A higher power that we decide on; A higher power to fear; An unnamed higher power to love; A unnamed higher power who loves us (bit spooky this one); A singularity; A mathematical number, often ‘one’, or multiple gods individually chosen; A spirit; A legion of spirits; An angel; A plant; a chosen lifestyle; food types; love; sex; community; sport; self. The last one being one of the most prevalent gods of modern life, and perhaps the ‘god’ all people fall for at some point.
What kind of character do we think God has?
Can we use personal terms such as ‘he/she’ to speak of god? Can we use descriptions from planet earth to describe God’s nature, character and actions? Do we think God should remain utterly ‘other’, unseen, remote? If so, why would we want God to remain so? Is God angry, or is God loving? Is God caring or is God harsh? Is God unattached or is God active? Does God leave us to wallow in our troubles? Is God static and unemotional, or is God moved by our agonising world, our personal pain, our broken communities?
Meaning - is God real, with real emotions and actions?
Has our view of God, and our real and felt troubles, stirred bitterness in our heart, angst in our mind, rage in our soul? Or does our view of God bring us peace and calm when the world around us crumbles (Psalm 46)?
We could fill the page with our conflicting answers… That's likely because our starting point tends to be us and our personal opinions, rather than Jesus Christ, the Spirit-filled Son of the Father.
Can human visions of god save us?
Human visions of gods remain fairly… well, human. Or, just a bit above human-beings, either in their unknowability (probably not a word, but works in this context) or, in their half-human/half-god like makeup. You might like Superman, Spiderman, Black Panther, Thor, Apollo. There’s something appealing about these almost human gods - as if we perhaps too could be like them. Their occasional falls from grace make them relatable.
Or, you might personally fit into the ‘god is all knowing but unknowable’ group. Millions feel comfortable with this god. Something unknown, mysterious, beyond us; seems logical. God unseen, unheard, not like us. Certainly pagan religions feel comfortable acknowledging ‘the god’ who is less tangible, unnamed, an unreachable being/force/spirit/higher power.
Yet, can either vision of god - the almost human god and the unknowable god (and of course there will be other human visions of god) - stamp out abuse? Emotionally engage with human pain? Physically act with complete rightness and understanding? Empower and raise up the downtrodden? Destroy very real and felt evil? Better still, exemplify immense love? Live and work within and beside us in soul-satisfying harmony? Dwell in our communities with us? Delight in, and be the creator of our diversity? And in creating diversity, Is unity?
Would a half-man god, be able to do this?
Would ‘the god’ unseen, be able to do this?
Can the Trinity?
The healing and unifying outpouring of the Trinity
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have always loved Each Other and related to One Another beautifully and truthfully… which means they can relate to us! God actively tells us so throughout the Bible. They can defend us, live with us, heal us and forgive us. They understand when relationships are broken - often seen in racial, tribal and cultural prejudices, endless wars and arguments, broken families and communities. More importantly God can do something about it, and shows just this throughout history.
The Trinity speaks out against human abuse, stands against suppression of the vulnerable, and enacts justice when humans remain incapable. The Trinity empowers the lowly, gives joy to the broken, heals the wounded (Isaiah 61:1-3, Luke 4:18-30). The Father sent his Son Jesus to walk with humanity, live through their abuse, be abused by His own creation, live as a suppressed people-group under tyrannical dictators, and became the clearest vision of judgement -by taking the sin of both his abusers and the abused onto Himself; feeling, experiencing and becoming our sin.
What kind of God does this!? One NOT made in humanity’s image. God who stands against human definitions of deity. God who cuts through to the deepest prejudices tearing our world apart. God who enacted justice upon Himself, for human beings who simply can not get enough justice…
Who of us are good enough to truly act justly, to save and help humanity? (Hebrews 4:10-5:10). None of us. But God is just and God acts justly and God acts to rescue humanity, through the one event every human being will face - death.
God’s death is for victims who don’t see justice (this side of eternity) for atrocities done to them.
God’s death is for those too evil to receive forgiveness by any other means; those who we struggle to forgive.
God’s death is for those who do not think they need forgiveness.
God’s death for you, and for me.
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit defend their family
We all love and treasure those we call family. Those closest to us (biological or chosen) we protect, we lift up, we stand for, we protest for. For them, we expect value and respect.
And so does the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Belong to God’s family and you have the Emperor and Creator of the universe on side!
Reject the Emperor of the universe, then human solutions and behaviour are your only hope. No further comment is needed as the hopelessness and fear of that reality sinks in.
Imagine if every one of us acknowledged, trusted and asked the ultimate Father, Creator (Jesus) and source of empowerment (the Holy Spirit), to step in and change our hearts, change the hearts of those who wound us and our communities. To witness God’s character manifest in our own lives, know how to run nations, and live in joy with one another.
Belonging to the family of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, heals our lands
For those of us who love and know, and better still, are known by the Trinity, it is difficult to reign in our delight and the felt power of living in the beauty of that reality. When known by the Trinity, we experience healing just by seeing the life, love and relationship of our Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Belonging to God makes His truths delightful. The opposite is true if God's family is not your reality.
Belonging means we rest in God's strength. We know we are valued. We change to become the people we were made to be - like God! God’s character becomes real for us - imagine a world where love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, mercy and self-control was normative! (Galatians 5:22-23). Millions, literally, feel His delight.
Christians live knowing they will one day live in a restored perfect world one day (Revelation 21:1-7). We live knowing we will worship and communicate together in one, and in many languages. We know one day we will all understand and appreciate each other; wholesome unity in our diversity.
That reality begins now, when the Church simply applies God's two life-changing commands "Love God with your mind, body and soul" and then you will "love each other".
How society would change, simply by believing we are all created in God's image.
The very first verses of the Bible tell us God created human beings in God’s image -'male and female’ (Genesis 1:27-28), beautifully designed in our mother’s wombs (Psalm 139:13-17) before we were even thought of by our earthly parents. These words are simply too beautiful not to write out, so here they are:
For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvellous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skilfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. (Psalm/Zabur 139:13-17).
I am, you are, made in God’s image. Integrally valuable. Incredibly designed. Made for eternity, to live in family, unified diversity with the Trinity - alive, seen, real. The Trinity is the basis for the Church’s unity. Human beings, with all their different cultures and tastes and preferences, can get along together and be united in love and service… making room for one another … celebrating one another’s differences … in Church, because of this Living God: Father, Spirit, and Son. God’s actions in history and today is to give us a secure and incredible destiny (Psalm 48), lived together as Church, God’s bride.
The ultimate aim of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for those who belong to God, are summed up in these awe-inspiring, hope-filling, life-restoring verses. An eternal promise spoken by Jesus of the destiny He wants you and I to have:
“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts." (Revelation 21:3-6).
Till then, as we draw near to God, here’s a few passages to think on: Exodus 3, Psalm 46, Psalm 121, Matthew 28:19, Ephesians 1:15-23, Revelation 19:16, Revelation 21:3, Revelation 21:4
