Submitted by Jan on Mon, 09/06/2014 – 20:12
Year A (2013-2014)
Bible Book: Genesis
Chapter: 1
Verse: 1 – 31
We live in a divided world. We can’t avoid the many ways we divide ourselves and others – in term of race, class, status, faith, language, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, intellect, ability …I can go on and on.
Trinity Sunday shows us a different reality. This reality is difficult to understand and nearly impossible to explain – even for learned theologians.
The explanation on Wikipedia starts as follows:
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (from Latin trinitas “triad”, from trinus “threefold”) defines God as three consubstantial persons, expressions, or hypostases: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit; “one God in three persons”. The three persons are distinct, yet are one “substance, essence or nature”.”[i]
From there it becomes even more confusing!
What is clear however, is that God is inherently relational. Even in God’s being, God is in relationship.
In the prescribed text in Genesis we read that this relational Creator created a relational creature.
Gen 1:27 “So God created mankind in his own image; in his own image God created them; he created them male and female.”
When you read this reflection, I will be in London, attending the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict together with Ministers and participants from more than 140 countries. While preparing for this event I was overwhelmed by statistics and stories of horror. Over and over I asked: “How could these atrocities happen?”
I have read many explanations, but I think at the deepest level, we have forgotten our relatedness. We have forgotten that we are the image of God, as male and female. We have forgotten that this gives every human being a value and dignity that no human division can take away, not race or class, not status or faith, not language or gender, not sexual orientation or nationality, not intellect or ability.
In this week of the Global Summit, I pray that our eyes are opened, that we see each member of mankind as created in the image of God.
[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity
Written by: Lynn van Rooyen, Director, CABSA
Author: van Rooyen L (Ms)
Language: English