The Sunday after Pentecost is Trinity Sunday, one of the seven principal feasts of the Church Year. Since I agree with Michael F. Bird that renewed Trinitarian theology is one of four things that is needed to renew the evangelical churches, I’m grateful for anything that draws our attention to the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
On the other hand, setting aside one Sunday to focus on the Trinity risks isolating the doctrine and reinforcing the common notion that it is a confusing and esoteric belief—necessary to affirm but basically irrelevant. Pastors who are weak in their own trinitarian theology may feel compelled to speak about the doctrine, regurgitate a few common propositions, fall back on some misleading illustrations, and ultimately do more harm than good. Ben Myers once began a 58-tweet thread on the Trinity by asking, “How to combat trinitarian heresies? Start by abolishing Trinity Sunday, that fateful day on which preachers think they have to explain it.”
While I don’t think that we should abolish Trinity Sunday, here are some “dos and “don’ts” to make the most of Trinity Sunday.
Do
1. Look back to what came before in the Church Calendar. Trinity Sunday is right after Easter (the 50-day season from Easter Sunday to Pentecost) for a reason. We celebrate how the Father sent the Son to live, die, and live again, then we celebrate how the Son ascended to poured out the Spirit from the Father. It’s in the missions of the Son and the Spirit that the Trinity is revealed to us. We know that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because the Father sent the Son and the Spirit into the world for us and our salvation. The logic of Trinity Sunday is that after Pentecost, it is fitting to reflect back on the unity of the divine economy, to acknowledge that the various colors on which we have been focusing are refractions of one brilliant gospel light—the light of the Triune God working for us and for our salvation. Trinity Sunday celebrates the good news that the Father sent the Son and the Spirit. Don’t forget the gospel on Trinity Sunday.
2. Keep doing what you always do, but make an effort to point out how it’s already (hopefully!) Trinitarian. A sudden, heavy dose of explicit Trinitarianism can impress people with the idea that “this Sunday we are focused on the Trinity, then next Sunday we’ll get back to our regular worship.” Instead, consider emphasizing how Christian life and worship is already thoroughly and inevitably trinitarian. Our prayers, songs, Scripture readings, and blessings are saturated with trinitarian reference, so much so that it tends to fade into the background, and Trinity Sunday is a day to highlight that all-encompassing theological framework. A major goal of Trinitarian teaching should be to help raise awareness about the ways in which every true church is already immersed in the life and worship of the Triune God. (NOTE: If your weekly worship is not already thoroughly Trinitarian, you need to take a long, hard look at your liturgy!)
3. Say the Athanasian Creed. Every week, our church says the Nicene Creed or the Apostles’ Creed. The Athanasian Creed is much longer, but we say it a few times a year, especially on Trinity Sunday. Its teaching is surprisingly clear and straightforward. If you don’t use the Athanasian Creed (I hope that you do!), then at least use the Apostles’ Creed or Nicene Creed and point out their Trinitarian structure. All of the events in the history of creation and redemption are comprehended under three articles: Father, Son, and Spirit. The Creeds remind us that the Trinity is not one doctrine alongside many others that Christians must believe. It is the “biggest” doctrine, the one that encompasses all other doctrines.
4. Sing explicitly Trinitarian hymns. For example, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.”
5. Say or sing the Gloria Patri and the Doxology. We sing or say them every week, but if you don’t, use the Gloria Patri near the beginning of your service and the Doxology near the end.
6. Use an explicitly Trinitarian benediction. For example, the Grace: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.” Or, John Wesley’s Trinitarian benediction: “Now, to God the Father, who first loved us, and made us accepted in the Beloved; to God the Son, who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; to God the Holy Spirit, who sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts, be all love and all glory in time and to all eternity. Amen.”
7. Read and preach from key Trinitarian texts. For recommended passages, see the Revised Common Lectionary. Or, consider preaching from a text like Ephesians 1:3–14. For an exemplary sermon on this passage, see “The Blessing of the Trinity” by Fred Sanders.
8. Prepare a Trinitarian prayer. There’s nothing wrong with writing your prayers out in advance. The Spirit can use prepared prayers just as much as he can use extemporaneous ones. Write a prayer that mentions or calls upon each person of the Trinity. Also, consider using a Trinitarian collect, like the one from the BCP: “Almighty and everlasting God, you have given us grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity. Keep us steadfast in this faith, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
Do NOT
1. Do not use illustrations. Nine times out of ten, Trinitarian illustrations are misleading at best and heretical at worst. On Trinity Sunday, please, for the love of everything holy, don’t say that God is like an egg, clover, flower, H20 molecule, or man with three hats. (See the article “God is Not Like an Egg: Teaching the Trinity without Using Misleading Illustrations“).
2. Do not get out of your depth. Pastors should work hard—really hard—to strengthen their Trinitarian theology and get a firm grasp on the Church’s teaching. Sadly, many pastors are weak in this foundational doctrine, and they know it. Yet on Trinity Sunday, some feel compelled to try to explain it. Don’t do it! Take at least a year to dive deep in your own studies, then circle back around when you are better equipped to teach your church. (See my article “Who is God? Introduction to the Trinity” which concludes with a list of resources for further study.)
3. Do not become preoccupied with explaining the threeness and the oneness. Trinity Sunday is not, in my opinion, the best time to teach or preach through a series of propositions about the Trinity, e.g., that (1) there is one God; (2) the Father, Son, and Spirit are each God; and (3) they are distinct persons. On Trinity Sunday, it’s better to focus on how the Trinity is like the gospel, because that is how the Trinity is revealed.
If we avoid treating the Trinity as an isolated doctrine, highlight its connection to the Easter season, and emphasize how we are already thoroughly Trinitarian, Trinity Sunday can be a blessing to the life of a local church.
