Because this became a weekly blog not long after my arrival in Los Angeles, I've written about Trinity Sunday at least once a year since 2016. Trinity came up in the lectionary rotation a few times earlier when I was teaching, too. Now it's that time again!
What will I say for Trinity Sunday 2025? First, here are four from previous years that cover concepts such as Nicaea, Perichoresis, theophanies:
• Trinity Sunday 2017 with the upcoming Ordinary Time Season of Pentecost
• Trinity Sunday 2020 during active Covid tide with "Rise, Shine, You People!"
• Trinity Sunday 2021 with "Come, Join the Dance of Trinity" and "Holy, Holy, Holy"
• Trinity Sunday 2022 and I observed, "we're not yet post-Covid." We now know we never will be.
Assorted Notes
Orthodox Christianity is Trinitarian. If it's not Trinitarian, it may be Christian, but it's not orthodox. Examples include the Christian caucus in the Unitarian Universalist Church, Disciples of Christ, and Latter-day Saints who speak of a tripartite godhead but not a trinitarian one.
The word Trinity isn't in the bible, but the concept weaves through both old and new testaments.
The popular liquid – ice – vapor trio of water forms isn't a good Trinity analogy. Nor is listing some of your relationships such as offspring, sibling, spouse, parent, friend. All of those end up with the heresy of modalism. What about a 3-leaved shamrock or clover? That's even worse, because all the leaves appear so similar and function almost identically.
My header image is the Hospitality of Abraham icon by Russian Andrei Rublev. Based on Genesis 18:1-8, it's often considered an Old Testament manifestation of the Trinity. You might appreciate this devotional article that includes a reflection on the icon by Henri Nouwen.
If you asked me about the Trinity, I'd focus on our baptism into the Triune God. Matthew's gospel tells us Jesus charged his followers:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20
Matthew 28:19 is the only occurrence of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit formula in the Bible, but that was one of many later additions to the text. Matthew is the most heavily redacted or edited of the four canonical gospels. The early church probably baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus, Jesus the Savior, or used similar words. Jesus' early followers could not have imagined baptism into the Savior wouldn't also have included participation in the Creator and the Spirit.The first recorded mention of the Trinitarian baptismal formula was late in the fourth century.
In our baptism Jesus is with us in the church in the world in his followers—in us! We live immersed in the creative, redemptive, sanctified, and sanctifying life of the Trinity.
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