Trinity Sunday
Before It Was a Doctrine
The World Council of Churches reminds us that 2025 is the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. In 325, the Roman emperor Constantine summoned a gathering of 318 bishops, aiming to establish greater stability across his empire. The council’s crowning achievement was the formation of the Nicaean Creed, which laid the foundation for our doctrine of the Holy Trinity,
Today we lift up this great teaching stating that the one God is revealed in three distinct ways, as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit. When someone joins our church, we ask only one question regarding belief: Do you believe in God as your Creator and loving Heavenly Father, in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, and in the Holy Spirit as your Comforter and Sustainer? On the foundation of this belief, children are baptized, youth confirm their faith, hands are joined in marriage, the dead are buried, and we as followers of Jesus Christ live out our faith. But even as we embrace this teaching, a mystery remains. How can three be one and one be three? What kind of math is this?
Long before the Trinity became a doctrine, it was an experience. Centuries before the Council of Nicaea, the Trinity was a lived reality of the earliest followers of Jesus. They knew God as their Heavenly Father and Creator. They encountered God in the unique personality of Jesus the Christ. They were moved by God as a mothering Holy Spirit, nurturing and empowering them into the compassionate, reconciling, and nonviolent way of Jesus.
Before the Trinity was a doctrine, it was an experience. We might not be able to fully understand it, but like those earliest disciples, how good it is nonetheless to enjoy it.
John D. Rights, pastor, Konnoak Hills Moravian Church
Winston-Salem, North Carolina