The Dance of the Trinity: Trinity Sunday 18th May 2008: Susannah Underwood at Tewin (Evensong) and Ayot St. Peter

Today is Trinity Sunday and one, which I am told, preachers often fear to tread. I understand that the concept of three separate persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, may not seem to sit easily with the solid assertion of the Christian faith of one unbreakable, indivisible God. But it has always struck me that Christianity is so full of paradox - love your enemies, strength in weakness, dying in order to live - that I have never felt too phased by the concept of one God in three. I suspect also that my being utterly inept in mathematics and all the sciences has helped a lot, I spend a lot of my life having to accept things I don’t understand – televisions, how space never ends, why aeroplanes don’t fall out of the sky…but I expect God would flumex even the most talented scientists. Anyway this sermon won’t be an attempt to explain the mechanics of the Trinity, for I’m convinced that would be rather dull and I would only get it wrong, but rather by using images and metaphors, which most of our speech about God can only ever be, I hope we can explore a little of what may be learnt about the central character of God, by his Trinitarian nature.

In the fourth century, Christians who were trying to explain the relationships within the Trinity used the term perichoresis. The word, with its roots in Greek, literally means “to dance around”. With this image of dance these Christians attempted to describe the Trinity as three individual persons who are engaged in a constant movement of mutual indwelling. Not three isolated realities, but existing only in relationship and habitation of the others. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit can be recognised as distinct persons with distinct roles, sometimes understood as the Father – as the Creator, The Son – as the Redeemer, The Spirit – as the Sustainer, distinct yet all are engaged in the acts of the other, in permanent movement perhaps imagined well by this early image of dancers dancing. This morning, I would like to explore three images of the Trinity as a dance, to see whether they may be helpful in our understanding of the relationship between Father, Son and Spirit and also our part in that. I suggest you get ready to use your imagination!

The first image I would like to suggest is that of street or break-dancing. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with this kind of dance, but its popularity rose in the 1980’s, when groups of young people would meet in the street, with their ridiculously large stereos (or ghetto blasters as we called them), and proceed to do the most incredible, energetic, athletic displays of dance, often spinning on one hand, on their back, or on their heads. While they take it turns to take centre stage, so to speak, their friends dance on the side lines and applaud the individual’s skill. One dancer might show a particular move, and then someone else will come and add to that. The dance is organic and involvers dancers playing off each other. God break-dancing, although not an image the 4th century Greeks probably had in mind with the term perichoresis, still may provide us with a sense of the relationship of the Trinity. Spontaneous, creative, energetic - in a break dance the persons of the Trinity applaud each others uniqueness, but not as impassive audiences, but rather as moving to the same beat, as stepping forward on to the floor of the dancer for a moment and adding to the dance their own essence. The music of this Trinity plays so loud it can physically be felt by those who pass by, it vibrates in our whole being. With this great out-pouring of energy, the Trinity can be seen as the ultimate break-dancers “Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted” says Isaiah in our first reading today “but God does not faint or grow weary”. Our eternal God, older than time but ever young, the Trinity as street-dancers, head-spinning, body-popping, whooping and cheering, each celebrating the life, energy and creativity of the other, they dance on our street corners well into the night. They are still dancing when we rise in the morning.

A second image of the Trinity, that I would like to suggest, perhaps one which is slightly more refined, is that of a ballet. Here the dancers come in to embrace and support each other, sometimes showing the individuality of a dancer, and at other times creating a harmony of movement, where the dancers mirror each other so precisely that they become unified. This coming together and moving away, coming together and moving away, can remind us perhaps of the indwelling and yet separateness of the Trinity.

But most importantly perhaps is that often ballet is not a dance for movement’s sake, but rather a living expression of a story. The famous ballets that still sell out theatres, Swan Lake, the Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, narrate tales of vulnerability and love. In this I think we can see an image of the Trinity. The Trinity as a ballet. How would you see them? I imagine a tale of passion and love, of strength and vulnerability. Through arabasque and pirouettes the dancers of the Trinity move with elegant precision, with absolute perfection, holding each other high, and entwining to become one. With the rising and ebbing of the orchestra, we see the dancers express a story of relationships, a story of longing and joy in one another. As they soar across the stage the Trinity displays complete perfection in the combining of solid strength with utter, utter grace.

And it is in the grace of the Trinity that we discover that this relationship of God within himself extends outwards to us. The two images of dancing that I have suggested may be able to hint at something of the relationships within the Trinity, the separateness and yet unity of the persons, but there is more to God than an indwelling in himself. In the creation stories we see the Creator making humankind, breathing his breath into us and seeking relationship with us. In Jesus, we see the Son, the Redeemer walking, eating, laughing, crying and dying among us. In Pentecost, which we celebrated last Sunday, we recall the story of the Spirit, the Sustainer being sent to live in us. The Trinity does not move in endless circles around its own being, but calls us to become part of the dance.

The expression of our relationship within the Trinity is heard in the reading from 2 Corinthians this morning. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion (or fellowship) of the Holy Spirit be with you all”. It is a greeting that in Christian circles we are most familiar with. It is a greeting that reminds us that our bond together, is because of our bond with God and because of his threefold bond within himself. As a church community we are held together within that Trinitarian relationship of grace, love and fellowship. As a church community we are invited to live within the relationship of a Trinitarian God, whose nature is to invite us all into his dance, so to speak.

And so the final image of a dance that I would like to leave you with is that of a Maypole. Now I don’t know if any of you (who amongst you here) were involved in the May Madness festivities recently, I was sadly not able to be there, but I understand that Maypole dancing was to be one of the attractions! And there is something about Maypole dancing, which is suggestive of how God invites us in to the dance of the Trinity. The Trinity as a Maypole dance, inviting each of us to take hold of the ribbons of grace, love and fellowship, to clasp the colours of creation, redemption and life of the Spirit, and to join in the dance of the Trinity. We can imagine ourselves as weavers of those ribbons, creating different twists and patterns depending on how we move amongst each other. The dance ever-changing by those who leave and those who join but rooted by God at the centre. Each dancer unique and separate but brought into unity by participation in the life of the Trinity. Celebration, community, laughter and colour – always moving, always inviting others to the dance- some of the marks of life embedded in the Trinity.

And so, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit, make us street-dance with excitement, produce pirouettes of pure joy, and weave us together with the ribbons of fellowship, now and ever more. Amen.