Seeing the Trinity in Scripture
Or Invisible, In Touch and Inside pt. 2
If you’ve not read my previous piece on the Holy Trinity, you might have a look before reading this one.
Now and again you get the whiz kid who reminds you that Trinity “is not a Bible word” and therfore believing in — let alone proclaiming or invoking — the Holy Trinity is a terrible, soul threatening error and you need to come to the one, true church that he (it’s always a dude) has discovered to correct all of historic Christianity’s terrible errors.
Oh, you’ve got whole movements of dudes. Oneness Pentecostals, Muslims telling you you’re worshipping three gods, etc.
But in the Bible, the One God is revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit — one God invisible, in touch and inside all at once, all the time.
When the Archangel Gabriel visited Mary to announce the son she would bear, she wondered, How will this be, since I am a virgin? (Luke 1:34) Gabriel replied,
The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. (1:35)
The mystery of the Trinity is there in one Angelic sentence.
The invisible and mysterious reality and purpose of God the Father overshadowing;
The in-touch God the Son, gestating, passing through the birth canal, and eventually nursing (you don’t get more in touch than this);
The transforming God inside, the Holy Spirit providing the conception not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13).
The baby Jesus is presented at the Temple in Jerusalem, where the Holy Trinity is present in an encounter with an old man,
Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said (Luke 2:25-28)…
Simeon is moved to bless the invisible yet all so real God;
Simeon holds the in-touch, incarnate Son of God in his arms;
Simeon is moved by the Holy Spirit working inside him, imparting revelation that lets Simeon wait for years to see the Christ, and inspiration to be alert in the temple on that particular day at that particular moment.
And what a blessing Simeon offers up to the God who is all at once invisible, in touch and inside,
Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel. (2:28-32)
Anglican Books of Common Prayer offer this Song of Simeon as a canticle after the New Testament lesson at Evening Prayer. And at the end of Simeon’s blessing of the Holy Trinity (no, he didn’t know to call God that when he offered the blessing, but he sure knows it now!), the Church joins in with,
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Mary and Simeon are but two examples of the One God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit being revealed in Scripture. There are many others in the teachings, prayers and experiences recorded in the Bible.
Keep your eyes of faith open as you read.