1 + 1 + 1 = 3, but 1 X 1 X 1 = 1
And
that is about as close as we are likely to get to making mathematical sense of
the doctrine of the Trinity.
Isaiah,
however, has other things on his mind than making the sums work out correctly.
“Woe is me, for I am ruined!” When perfect relationship meets sinful
individualism, when triple-holiness meets utter uncleanness, when the Word
meets garbled speech, bad things happen.
“There
comes a moment,” chuckles C. S. Lewis, “when people who have been dabbling in
religion (‘Man’s search for God’!) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really
found Him? We never meant it to come to that!
Worse still, supposing He had found us?”
Isaiah formulated no
Doctrine of the Trinity; he reported what he experienced. The heat of a holy
God, too hot for angels to handle barehanded, so sears his speech that his
mouth pours forth incomprehensible riddles of reigning kings and suffering
servants in patterns so arabesque that it takes a risen Christ the whole road
to Emmaus to unravel them. (Lk 24.12f) He prophesies a theology never twisted
but so artfully intertwined that a bewildered bureaucrat must halt his
procession and call a dusty deacon into the back seat of his official limo to
trace its path from Eden to Gethsemane. (Acts 8.25f)
The truth of Trinity does
not arise from speculation but descends from revelation. It busts up logical
logjams and breaks open linear prisons. God does not demand, “Here I am!
Explain me!” but instead invites, “Here I am! Enjoy me!” For the point of the
Trinity is not calculation but relationship: the Truth that lies at the core of
reality is an ongoing dance of love.
And in the end, God
offers Isaiah a set of steps in this great dance: "Here am I. Send me!” With bowed
and bewildered heads, with burnt lips and burning hearts, we go forth
understanding less than we know but loving more than we understand, to tell the
world of the God who saves.
Welcome to the New Math,
Doug
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