In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
–John 1:1
One of the unique characteristics of our Christian tradition is our belief in one God in three persons — Father, Son, and Spirit. The “Trinity” (as we call it) recognizes that Jesus was not only the Son of God but that Jesus was, in fact, the same God that created all the world, and that the Holy Spirit is likewise one and the same as the Father and Son. Honestly, the Trinity is a mystery that can boggle the mind at times, and while there are all sorts of ways of trying to explain it, it is something that we ultimately have to recognize as unexplainable and something that we affirm through faith.
For me, the central truth of the Trinity is that we believe in a God who at the very core is relational. Our belief in the Trinity should (if we really reflect on it) should help us see that Christianity is never something that is individual but rather always about relationship. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, understood that an individualistic approach to faith was dangerous to the church and God’s Kingdom. He wrote, “I shall endeavor to show that Christianity is essentially a social religion and that to turn it into a solitary religion is indeed to destroy it.” He would later say that “Holy solitaries” is a phrase that no more consistent with the gospel than holy adulterers. The gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social; no holiness but social holiness.”
We live in a time when there is a great focus on individualism — both in the secular world and in the church. We talk about Jesus as our “personal” savior and folks will talk about how they don’t need the church because it’s all about “me and Jesus.” But to make the message of Jesus about personal fulfillment without being part of a relationship is to miss out on the relational God who created us for connection.
A friend of mine recently told her story of coming back into the church after being outside for a while. She had developed a friendship with a Presbyterian pastor who didn’t hit her over the head with a bible or tell her how sinful she was, but rather simply loved on her. At one point she looked at him and told him that she was “spiritual, but not religious…” (a phrase I often hear among younger folks these days). He looked back at her and said “That’s like saying I play football, but not on a team.”
During the month of October, we’re going to think about what it means to believe in a God who is relational, and how we are called to be in relationship to that God, to one another in the church, and to the world. I really believe that Christianity is a religion that is all about relationships. Our calling as Methodist people is to proclaim a faith that absolutely believes that we are interconnected to one another, that we called to seek after God in community, and that the church is a place where Christ can be seen and experienced in a very real way, for the church IS the Body of Christ.
For sure, we are broken humans who often disagree — but in a world so polarized as what we experience today we have an even greater responsibility to model that we are still one body, even in the face of our disagreement. What is more important than our right belief (orthodoxy) is making sure that we maintain right relationships with God, with one another, and the world.
I hope you will join me this Sunday morning at 8 or 10 a.m. as we think together about what it means to follow a relational God.
–Jay