Sunday Sermon - 15 June
In the name of the Holy Trinity - God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In honour of it being Trinity Sunday, I’ve broken my homily into three sections:
Understanding the term “Godhead”
The terminology of the Trinity
Using Words to Describe our Experience with God
The Godhead
The Godhead is perhaps one of, if not the hardest to understand, concepts of Christian theology and belief. We sing, “God in three persons - blessed Trinity.” God in three persons, what does that even mean?
When we speak of the Trinity, God in three persons, we often use the term Godhead which is a theological word used to describe the divine nature or essence of God. When people think of the word Godhead, they tend to think of it in a hierarchical manner because of the way we use the word ‘head’ to mean top of or in charge. The ‘Big Boss’, if you will. In fact, the word Godhead has nothing to do with the word ‘head’, rather the term Godhead comes from the Old English term, Godhede ‘h-e-d-e’ which is better defined as God-hood, which refers to God’s state of being, the essence of God - God’s divine nature.
The word Godhead seeks to capture the unity and mystery of God as experienced in Scripture, in three ways by three beings - God as the Ultimate Divine Being, God in the human form as Jesus and God in the spiritual form as The Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost.
The King James Bible, authorized by King James in 1604 and published in 1611, only refers to the term Godhead three times; Acts 17:29, Romans 1:20 and Colossians 2:9. The translated term has been regarded both as contentious (due to the argument of some theologians that the Holy Spirit is not a Divine Entity) and theologically as an inaccurate translation of the original Greek text which, in each case, uses three different words - Theotēs, Theiotēs and Theon. Which is to say, the Godhead as a concept is complicated. The term has not been used at all in our more contemporary translations of the Bible. So, for easier understanding, we tend to use the word “Trinity” more frequently when we refer to the concept of God - in three persons.
The Terminology of the Trinity
The word trinity is not found in Scripture at all but has become the preferred term to use when speaking of the divine nature of God - it seems more accessible to us as a more familiar or common word for three people or things.
However, in more recent years, the words describing the Trinity have become inaccessible for some. The traditional language in reference to the Trinity has been Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or Ghost.
It’s important now to acknowledge that the terms Father and Son are masculine references. God is anthropomorphized as male, with male descriptors. Jesus, referring to the historic human Godbeing that walked the earth, was born male and as He has been referred to in Scripture as the Son of God, the identity of the God-essence was given the masculine term Father. In the age when Jesus stories were being told and Scripture was being written, societies were patriarchal and masculocentric. In the early days of the church and throughout the ages, church leaders were all males. Scripture was written by males for males and in many ways, not much has changed.
The Godbeing, the ultimate essence of God, has no gender. God took on a human form as Jesus (a male human being) but God, the Godhead, is not human. That said, in order for the concept of the Trinity to be inclusively understandable and relatable to all, it has been broken into its three constituent parts in a variety of different ways.
In fact, in what is referred to as “inclusive” liturgies, the words used for the Trinity tend to emphasize what God does rather than who God is.
Some examples referring to the Trinity, and I’m sure you’ve heard some of these terms before, are:
Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer
Creator, Saviour, Spirit
Maker, Liberator, Advocate
Source, Word, Breath
Source, Servant, Guide
Lover, Beloved, Love (St. Augustine’s)
Source of Life, Word of Life, Breath of Life
Fountain, Stream, Living Water
Root, Branch, Fruit
Sun, Light, Warmth (which is an ancient metaphor and one that works for me, I’ll explain more on that later)
Song, Singer, Music
These are some of the many examples, in the English language obviously, that are, and more continue to be, created in order to describe the ineffable identity of our experience of God.
I know that many people get offended by those who use ‘non-traditional’ terminology for the Trinity, so I’d like to make this point. First, language is limited and is limiting. There are no words in any language that can fully capture the majesty and power of our sacred experience with God. The word ‘God’ itself is limiting and unfulfilling. God is so much more than any human word can describe and, I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I try to explain my experience with God to my non-religious friends, words fall short. There are no words to describe the love I know that God has for me and I have for God. Regardless, let’s look at the words we use to describe our experience with God.
Using Words to Describe Our Experience With God
I am reminded of Shakespeare’s famous quote from Romeo and Juliet:
“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” William Shakespeare uses this line in his play Romeo and Juliet to convey that the naming of things is irrelevant. I disagree.
Shakespeare is trying to say that names don’t matter and the power of the sweet smelling rose isn’t diminished by any terminology, which is true. But I disagree with Shakespeare on this point because names are not irrelevant, they create access for us to understand our relationship with that which is being named.
Names don’t change the being that is named, they change the person who has created the name.
Take me, for example (and I am sure you can think of yourself and your different names in a similar way). I have many names, and it doesn’t matter to me what I am called - my name doesn’t change me.
Most people call me John.
I am known by most students and staff at LCS simply as Runza. However, some of the staff and students call me Reverend Runza or Father Runza.
My camp friends call me Johnny, and my Italian family members call me Giovanni.
As I said, none of these names changes me but what someone calls me tells me the nature of our relationship and how they see me.
They see:
Runza as the scary Assistant Head of School in charge of discipline.
They see:
Reverend or Father Runza as the school priest and Chaplain.
They see:
Johnny as the fun loving, free wheeling, party camp guy.
My essence doesn’t change. Who I am and how I behave doesn’t change when I am called different names but my understanding, our mutual understanding, of our roles in relationships is more clear.
My point is this, when people use different words to describe the Trinity, they aren’t changing God’s essence, they are seeking to better describe and understand their relationship with God. Whose place is it to judge or condemn another’s quest for understanding?
In these cases, if you hear someone referring to the Trinity in a manner that doesn’t ‘work’ for you, be kind, be sensitive and seek to understand those who feel distanced by exclusively male or imperial terms. Expanding the language we use when describing our relationship with God creates a richness in conversation and worship and gives us a liturgy that deepens, not just our understanding but our engagement with the mystery of God’s essence that is alive and active in all of our separate lives.
I am going to close with probably my favourite simile for God.
God is like the sun - an ancient and universally spiritual metaphor.
I love this because without the sun none of us would exist, life on this planet wouldn’t exist, the planet, likely, would not exist. It is the source of all life.
The sun is like God because it has three entities that act in our lives. The sun itself, the physical entity that is there, we can see it in our sky, it exists - it’s the source of all light and life. Just like God. The sun is like God because it has light - a visible presence, sunlight tangibly shines upon us and enables life to grow. It is active on this earth just as Jesus was active on this earth. The sun is like God because it also has an invisible but powerful presence in our lives, just like God - the Holy Spirit. The sun’s warmth is unseen but it is real, we can feel it, it is comforting and life-giving.
Just as these three—sun, light, and warmth—cannot be separated, so too the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God in three Persons: distinct in role, yet united in being.
Today, on this Trinity Sunday, we give thanks for God’s presence in our lives in three powerful, ultimately ineffable ways, and let us remember this sacred truth:
That the God who is Creator, the Christ who walks beside us, and the Spirit who dwells within us is not a puzzle to be solved, but a presence to be lived, a love to be trusted, and a calling to be followed.
The Trinity is not distant or abstract—it is God’s radiant light, like the sun—warming, illuminating, and giving life.
May we turn our faces toward that light and reflect its love into the world.
Amen.