Praying Together 15th June 2025

Three in one and one in three?

In the ranks of clergy, there is a widespread feeling that preaching on Trinity Sunday is best left to either the Bishop or the Curate. The exam question is ‘How can something be three independent entities but also be one entity – at the same time?’

People tell you it’s not actually that difficult really – we just need to understand that God is one person – but three persons. Er…

OK that doesn’t help. Try again, Michael. What does it say in today’s creed? That we ‘acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity and in the power of the divine majesty worship the Unity.’ Yes but how?

The singer John Pantry recorded a song called ‘Builder, Buyer, Occupier’ (I couldn’t find it online, unfortunately) that helps in understanding the Trinitarian Roles of God the Creator, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit; and it’s theologically spot on. But in practical terms, I sometimes use the example of a kite.

In Euclidean geometry, a children’s kite is a flying quadrilateral with reflection symmetry across a diagonal, the area A of which may be calculated as half the product of the lengths of the diagonals p and q. So A=0.5 (p*q) Did that help? No, I didn’t think it would.

Much better to ask a child, who will explain patiently that a Kite is a collection of sticks, paper and string glued together that blows in the wind. Three things in one thing.

The sticks, paper, and string are created by God. The glue that puts them together is Jesus our Redeemer. But that isn’t all. For a Kite to be a kite, it has to fly – which needs wind – or, you might say, the Spirit, the breath of God.
The sticks are still sticks. The paper and string haven’t lost their properties either. The wind blows whether there is a kite or not. But when they come together, they are one. Just like a church – God’s people created as unique individuals, brought together with a common creed, and living as the body of Christ in the power of the spirit. The whole is greater than the parts – in the case of the Kite. But in the case of the Trinity, each part is great in itself, so in that case, the kite metaphor breaks down. We need a better one. Answers on a postcard, please.

p.s. just a thought – you couldn’t fly a kite inside a church building –for the Kite to fly you’d have to go into the windy street outside. Where does that place the need for the Spirit to act???