Trinity: The God Who Loves Without "But"

A READING FROM THE LETTER OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

ROMANS 5:1-5

Sermon: The Rev. Dr. Maryann Amor

Think for a moment about the different ways you’ve experienced God in your life.

Maybe life was overwhelming…a looming decision, too many pressures all at once…then suddenly, a quiet moment of peace broke through, and you knew it would all be okay.

Or maybe things were falling apart…you’d made a mistake, people were upset…and someone held your hand and said, “You know what? Don’t worry about this. There’s so much more of value.”

Or maybe you were struggling with loneliness. Missing someone, sinking into depression. And out of the blue, a friend reached out and cared for you.

Moments like these come quietly. They’re often overlooked or quickly forgotten. But they’re holy…being moments of God, moments of Trinity.

Today is Trinity Sunday—and you might be surprised to know that the word Trinity never actually appears in the Bible. There are references to God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but no formal doctrine of a three-in-one God. The early church didn’t start using the word “Trinity” until around the year 180. And it wasn’t formally defined until the 4th century.

At times, the doctrine became really complicated…with people trying to explain how it was mathematically possible for three to be one. But at its heart, the Trinity isn’t about technical and formal doctrines—the Trinity is really about experience.

Early Christians had encountered a God who gave peace like a parent. A Christ who walked beside them. A Spirit who breathed into them, igniting them to move forward and spread the mission to the world. As time went on, they began to realize that God is not one thing for all people—but God is relational. God meets us, diverse human beings, in many diverse ways.

These diverse experiences of God led early Christians to conclude that God cannot be viewed as one thing, but must be viewed as multiplicity. So they began speaking of God as being three—a Trinity. And these aren’t separate gods, but one God who is relationship itself—unity in diversity, love flowing between and among.

We see the seeds of this thinking in Paul’s letter to the Romans—the Trinity described not as theology, but as lived experience.

Paul writes, “We have peace with God.” God the Creator, the Father—the one who brings peace.

Then, “Through our Lord Jesus Christ… we have access to grace.” Jesus is the one who brings grace.

Then finally, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit is the one who pours out love.

Paul goes on to connect all these experiences of God to human suffering: “We boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance character, and character hope.”

Paul is not saying that suffering is good and we need it to build character. Instead, he is saying that even in suffering, God is present. God’s peace, grace, love—these don’t disappear when life gets hard, but they are present because God is intimately connected with us.

The Trinity is not, then, some complicated theory, but a relationship. The peace of the Creator. The grace of Christ. The love of the Spirit. All three meeting us, right where we are. Not distant, not theory, but a real, close relationship.

And this is why the Trinity matters. Not because we need to solve some math problem about how three can equal one, but because speaking of God as Trinity gives us the language to express the reality of a God who comes close to us…in different ways, in different moments…but always, and this is really important, always grounded in love.

Now, I know I talk about love a lot. I know I say the word “love” often. But that’s because I believe, so deeply, that this is who God is. God is love. God is the love that creates. The love that walks beside us. The love that energizes us.

But trusting that this is the reality of God—that we are all worthy to receive this love from our God, in the ways we need it, at the times when we yearn for it—can be the hardest part of our faith.

The image on the screen is one that was posted in a Facebook group I’m part of, and I found it to be so deeply true. We might say, “Yes, God loves me”—but then comes the but.

God loves me, but I sin. God loves me, but I’m not a good person. God loves me, but I have not forgiven my neighbour.

We might do the same when we think about other people receiving God’s love.

God loves them, but they don’t go to church. God loves them, but they live differently than I do.

God loves them, but they haven’t made good life choices.

So many of us tend to add a “but.” We struggle to believe that God’s love could really be unconditional—that we and every human being is deeply worthy. That grace could really be given. That peace could really be present in suffering.

But if the Trinity teaches us anything, it’s this: God’s love is not one-dimensional, static, or simple. It shows up in many different ways, in response to the many sufferings and struggles in our—and everyone’s—lives. Just how we need it. Again and again and again.

So today isn’t about figuring out the complexity of the Trinity. It’s about receiving the Trinity.

It’s about receiving the love of a triune God, who reaches out to us how we need it—and letting this love transform us and move through us, so that we can live it out and share it with the world.

To believe in the Trinity is not just to say “God is three-in-one,” but it’s to say: I believe in a God whose very being is love. A love that creates, walks beside us, breathes through us. A love that is freely given to everyone—no buts.

Amen.