Chapel Matters
This week at school we have been celebrating Pride Month, while in the Christian calendar, we have just celebrated Trinity Sunday. I think these two things work really well together – for three reasons!
Firstly, the Trinity is a mysterious idea central to Christian belief that is actually really difficult to explain logically. For centuries, people have tried to explain how God can be one and three at the same time, often by using analogies: St Patrick tried to show it with the three-leaved shamrock; others liken it to the way water can be ice, liquid, or steam; while others suggest it is like how 1 x 1 x 1 is still 1. But each of those analogies is problematic theologically. And I love that! It reminds me that mystery – and something downright queer – is right at the centre of Christian faith.
Secondly, the Trinity is about three, not about two. Western society has been dominated by binaries –pairs of ‘opposites’ where there is often a hierarchy – such as men and women, heaven and earth, right and wrong, etc. Yet in the Trinity we have a three! Twoness has been ambushed by threeness! And this reminds us that life is much more about diversity; it is not black and white, but a rainbow! I read recently that while it might take two to tango it takes three to be divine!
The third powerfully queer thing about the Trinity is that it is all about the flow of love and relationships. Each person in the Trinity loves the other one, completely and equally, and that love then flows out to us. Christianity isn’t meant to be a binary of a singular God ‘up there’ and me on my own ‘down here.’ The Trinity is about a dynamic, flowing dance of love throughout the universe with each one of us invited to be a vital part of that. God loves every weird and wonderful thing in the universe and we are called to do the same.
Pride Week is the perfect week to celebrate the Trinity – this fabulous combination of a mystery that defies logic, a threeness that defies twoness, and a dynamic dance that invites us to love and be loved for who we are.
