Our Trinitarian view of God, unique to Christianity, is best set forth in the Athanasian Creed, sometimes read publicly in our churches on Trinity Sunday. Here’s a brief excerpt from that Creed which gives a sense of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity:

Now this is the catholic faith:
We worship one God in trinity
and the Trinity in unity,
neither confusing the persons
nor dividing the divine being.
For the Father is one person,
the Son is another,
and the Spirit is still another.
But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty.
What the Father is,
the Son is,
and so is the Holy Spirit.

And on and on goes the Athanasian Creed, one of the ecumenical creeds that Lutherans affirm along with the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.

Most festivals, lesser festivals, and commemorations in the church’s calendar mark events in the life of Jesus along with various people among the saints. A handful of days on the calendar depart from that norm, including Christ the King, Holy Cross Day, and Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. Trinity Sunday is among those rare days that is not an event in Jesus’ life or a person. Again, today we focus on our conceptualization of the revealed and experienced realities of God.

The two other readings appointed for today also hint at what would become the teaching about the Trinity.

The first reading is one of the creation stories in Genesis, where God speaks elements of the creation into existence. When it comes to the creation of human beings, the language is this: “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness’… So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27)

“Let us make humankind in our image” is a curious plural moment coming from the monotheistic God of Jewish heritage and tradition. Is this a throwback, perhaps, to the polytheism more common in ancient of days? Seen through the Christian eyes of what would become Trinitarian thinking, some may read this as a foreshadowing of the Trinity.

The second reading appointed for Trinity Sunday also hints at the Trinity perhaps. In this reading, Paul concludes his second letter to the church at Corinth with the words we know as the apostolic greeting that typically begins our liturgy: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” (2 Corinthians 13:13) Thus, in this verse God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are each referenced, the three persons of the Godhead.

Enough. This concludes my little teaching summary about this day and the appointed readings for Trinity Sunday.

Now I must move from teaching to preaching. And I have to ask that essential question for a preacher: So what? So what does our teaching about the Trinity have to do with what our nation and world are enduring right now?

So, what does the Trinity have to do with the pandemic? What does this teaching and understanding have to say to the economic collapse all around us? How does the Trinity speak to the racial divisions and injustices in our society that have led to so much unrest in cities throughout our nation, with Minneapolis being the epicenter?

These are not easy questions to respond to. But I begin by proclaiming, in short, that the Trinity exists for the sake of the world, our world that is in so much turmoil right now. The Trinitarian Godhead is not a self-contained unit that exists only for itself. No, enormous loving, merciful, healing energies emanate from this God into the world.

This God, first of all, created the world. So, God as Trinity is all about creative generativity, not just in the beginning but continuing to this day. Hence, the inclusion of one of the creation stories on this festival day. We confess that God’s creative work is still operating in the generation of new life, new ideas, new ways of organizing human society, and on and on. Our creating God is about life overcoming death.

Moreover, God as Trinity is a missionary God, a sending God. God the Father sent the Son, who then sent the Holy Spirit into the world. Why? To save the world. To save us from ourselves and each other. To heal us. To nurture God’s justice and commonwealth among and for all people and all of creation.

Furthermore, this three-personed God is a teaching God who seeks and identifies students (that’s what the word disciple means) and who desires obedience to the teachings and commandments of Jesus, our Rabbi, our teacher. Then in the power of the Holy Spirit, these students also become teachers, apostles, likewise sent into the world, for the sake of the world.

And what are the teachings associated with our Trinitarian God? There are so many. Let me focus just on the teachings alluded to in today’s second reading. There’s a lot in those three short verses. Listen again: “Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”

These brief verses reveal a great deal that has potential impact on our current crises of health, economy, and relations among races:

• A just ordering of church and society
• Seeking agreement with one another
• Living in peace
• When we greet each other, do it with a holy kiss
• And Christ’s grace, God’s love, and the Holy Spirit’s communion with mark and define our life together

These are all teachings which make for the healing of our nation. These are the teachings to which we are called to be obedient, practicing in the power of the Spirit what we preach.

God in three persons also offers us this promise and assurance: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” That is to say, Jesus Christ, our teacher, our sibling, our savior is with us all the way.

You see, therefore, in all of the ways I’ve explored, the Trinity is no abstraction, but is the divine reality that is all about the balm, the salve that can cure the fever in our blood.

May it be so. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.