The Sunday after Pentecost is celebrated each year as Trinity Sunday in churches that use the liturgical calendar, a day on which the church meditates on the mystery of our God, one divine unity of three distinct presences. Each way that we speak about the Trinity is inadequate. Indeed, a God we could fully understand wouldn’t be much of a God.

The doctrine of the Trinity invites us to consider how a God constituted by relationship — the Father with the Son, the Son with the Spirit, the Spirit with the Father — draws us into that relationship with God and one another. Gradually or suddenly, through the work of the Spirit, we come to know our belonging to the Father and to Christ’s body.

In such a loving relationship, truth is discovered. But people cannot bear the truth all at once, so discipleship and faith formation are gradual processes of listening for the Spirit’s voice. Christian practices such as worship, learning, and service are occasions for people of all ages to be “guided into truth.” Such practices are rooted in baptism, in which God draws us into a lifelong relationship in which we grow into truth and love over time — guided by the Spirit, accompanied by Jesus, and having peace with the Father.

The gospel text for the upcoming Trinity Sunday, June 16, 2019 is from John 16:12-15 and is part of what is traditionally called the Farewell Discourse. Since it is a short text, I am going to include it as part of this article.“I have much more to say to you, more than you can bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take what is mine and make it known to you.” (NIV Bible)

The Farewell Discourse takes place immediately after the last supper and before Christ’s arrest and crucifixion. Much of it is a trinitarian discourse, Christ expressing through prayer and proclamation a clear sense of who he is in God, and how the Spirit, the Father, and the Son each share in one another’s lives. The Farewell Discourse is not just about the Trinity — it is an example of the Trinity in action.

Here in the Gospel of John the Trinity itself illustrates how and why some truth claims are stronger than others. The Spirit of truth guides into all truth because it does not speak on its own but speaks what it hears. It’s as if the Trinity says together, “We’re all saying this together, in order to raise the level of reliability.”

John’s gospel, written in the late first century, alternates narratives that are usually referred to as “signs” with “discourses,” long speeches that declare the intent of the sign. Today’s gospel comes from the longest discourse, chapters 14-17, which precedes the greatest sign, Christ’s death and resurrection. Jesus promises that the Father will disclose the truth, which comes in the Spirit of the Son. In this early proclamation of the Trinity by John, the Father and the Spirit both attest to the truth of Christ. The evangelist is assuring the Christian communities that they have received the truth, despite the controversies that were dividing the unity of early believers.

But for most of us the doctrine of the Trinity is beyond our ability to explain and to fully be a part of our daily faith journey. Martin Luther once said that the best way to use the doctrine of the Trinity is to sing it.

Hymn writer Richard Leach took Luther’s advice and in 2001 published a hymn entitled Come, Join the Dance of Trinity (2001 Selah Publishing Company). With his text Richard Leach made available to contemporary worshipers an image used by those early church fathers who wrote of the dancing around, the interweaving, of the persons of the Trinity in the divine life. The stanzas proclaim the dancing God as creator, as Jesus Christ, and as the Spirit of freedom, and we are invited to join in God’s dance. The image of dancing with God is a welcome addition to the church’s dominant far more stagnant picture of the Trinity. It actually allows us to proclaim the love and joy that is the Trinity. I would like to share this hymn with you.

1. Come, join the dance of Trinity, before all worlds begun — the interweaving of the Three, the Father, Spirit, Son. The universe of space and time did not arise by chance, but as the Three, in love and hope, made room within their dance.

2. Come, see the face of Trinity, newborn in Bethlehem; then bloodied by a crown of thorns outside Jerusalem. The dance of Trinity is meant for human flesh and bone; when fear confines the dance in death, God rolls away the stone.

3. Come, speak aloud of Trinity, as wind and tongues of flame set people free at Pentecost to tell the Savior’s name. We know the yoke of sin and death, our necks have worn it smooth; go tell the world of weight and woe that we are free to move!

4. Within the dance of Trinity, before all worlds begun, we sing the praises of the Three, the Father, Spirit, Son. Let voices rise and interweave, by love and hope set free, to shape in song this joy, this life: the dance of Trinity.