This document contains excerpts from various sources discussing the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. It describes how the Trinity reflects an eternal community of mutual, self-giving love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It also discusses how understanding God as triune, rather than unipersonal, means that love, not power, is at the center of reality. Finally, it explores some of the metaphysical claims of Christianity, such as the idea that self-giving love is what sustains all life and provides meaning.

1. A Prayer For The People of God
God of delight, your Wisdom sings your Word
at the crossroads where humanity and divinity meet.
Invite us into your joyful being where you know
and are known in each beginning, in all sustenance,
in every redemption, that we may manifest your unity
in the diverse ministries you entrust to us,
truly reflecting your triune majesty in the faith
that acts, in the hope that does not disappoint,
and in the love that endures.
Amen.

4. John 14 & 16
TRINITY Sunday

5. DALLAS WILLARD
We should, to begin with, think
that God leads a very interesting
life and that (God) is full of joy…
(God) is…one great, inexhaustible,
and eternal experience of all that
is good and true and beautiful
and right…This is (God’s) life.

6. DALLAS WILLARD
(To God there is available…)
Towering clouds of gasses
trillions of miles high,
backlit by nuclear fires
in newly forming stars,
galaxies cart wheeling
into collision, and sending
explosive shock waves
boiling through millions
of light years of
time and space.

7. DALLAS WILLARD
These things are all
before (God), along with
numberless unfolding
rosebuds, souls and songs,
and immeasurably
more, of which we
know nothing…

8. John 14 & 16
TRINITY Sunday

9. I still have many things to say to you,
but you cannot bear them now. When
the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide
you into all the truth; for he will not
speak on his own, but will speak
whatever he hears, and he will declare
to you the things that are to come.
He will glorify me, because he will take
what is mine and declare it to you.
All that the Father has is mine.
For this reason I said that he will take
what is mine and declare it to you.
JOHN
16:12-15

10. Because I live,
you will live too.
On that day
you will know
that I am in my father,
and you in me, and I in you.
JOHN
14:19b-20

11. Because I live,
you will live too.
On that day
you will know
that I am in my father,
and you in me, and I in you.
We are in God, and God is in us
by the Spirit, so God is FATHER,
SON and SPIRIT, THREE in ONE
(i.e. the “Trinity”)
JOHN
14:19b-20

14. HolyTrinity
SaintAndreRublev(@1400)
ICON
a painting of Jesus Christ
or another holy figure,
typically in a traditional
style on wood, venerated
and used as an aid to
devotion in the Byzantine
and other Eastern
Churches.

15. HolyTrinity
Restored(1905-1918)
Reflects Abraham’s meal
with the three angelic
visitors in Genesis 18;
symbolizes the Trinity,
and our journey of faith…

16. Trinity(w/Icons)
ScottErickson

17. the MEANING of METAPHYSICS
the science of things transcending
what is physical or natural;
the branch of philosophy that deals
with the first principles of things,
including abstract concepts like:
being, knowing, substance, cause,
identity, time, and space

18. “…light is not so much what you
directly see as that by which you
see everything else. This is why in
John’s Gospel, Jesus Christ makes
the almost boastful statement,
‘I am the Light of the world’
(John 8:12)”
RICHARD
ROHR

19. THE REASON FOR GOD, by Tim Keller
“The inner life of the triune God…
is characterized…by mutually self-giving love.
Each of the divine persons centers upon
the others. None demands that the others
revolve around them. Each voluntarily circles
the other two, pouring love, delight and
adoration into them. Each person of the
Trinity loves, adores, defers to, and rejoices
in the others. That creates a dynamic,
pulsating dance of joy and love.”

20. “If God is unipersonal, then until God created other beings there
was no love…a unipersonal God (might be) power, sovereignty,
and greatness from all eternity, but not love. Love then is not
the essence of God, nor is it at the heart of the universe. Power
is primary. However, if God is triune, then loving relationships in
community are the ‘great fountain…at the center of reality’ (Lewis.)
When Jesus said you must lose yourself in service to find yourself,
he was recounting what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been
doing throughout eternity… God is a community of persons who
have loved each other for all eternity…You were made for mutually
self-giving, other-directed love (with God and with one another!)
”
THE REASON FOR GOD, by Tim Keller

21. the METAPHYSICAL claims of CHRISTIANITY
- Self-giving love, in the necessary
context of relationship, is what
pulsates at the center of the
universe; it is what gives and
sustains life, and what provides
meaning/purpose for all living things
- I am not at the center, nor is the
problem of sin at the center…

22. the METAPHYSICAL claims of CHRISTIANITY
- I believe these claims are unique to
the Christian faith, but they aren’t
exclusively applied to a select few,
nor are they to be used as dividing
lines to ascribe measures of worth
to people of other faiths, or to
people of no faith, or to those
who are still trying to figure out
what they do or don’t believe…

24. BAPTISM Sunday: SEPTEMBER 29 @ 10:30am

25. John 14 & 16
TRINITY Sunday

26. Benediction
God of heaven and earth, before the foundation
of the universe and the beginning of time,
you are the triune God: the Author of creation,
the eternal Word of salvation, and the life-giving Spirit
of wisdom. Guide us to all truth by your Spirit, that we
may proclaim all that Christ revealed and rejoice in
the glory he shared with us. Glory and praise to you,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and for ever.
Amen.