God For Us

"The doctrine of the Trinity is ultimately a practical doctrine with radical consequences for Christian life."

With this revolutionary concept Catherine LaCugna begins her book (check the title link and scroll down).

LaCugna shows the history of this understanding of God to be rooted not, as some are tempted to believe, in the dusty towers of men with bloated brains contrasting their atrophied bodies and souls; but rather this understanding of God is born of the concrete experiences of the first disciples of Jesus. The common misconception is that the doctrine of the Trinity was conceived and delivered by theologians in the great church counsels of the first centuries of the church; LaCugna argues that this doctrine is rather a description of the fundamental elements of Christian communal life.

There is God; the great transcendent, and self-reliant Creator.

...and then was Jesus; the lover of people, radically challenging established concepts of God.

...and then was the Spirit; the empowering presence in our midst, guiding us into God and His purposes.

And God had long promised the coming of Jesus and the Spirit; Jesus Himself continually spoke of the coming Helper. And all three were God.

God our Father, Creator and Source of All.
God our Redeemer, God come near and in the flesh; the image of God in human terms.
God our Helper, leading us into Truth, guiding our common life.


What are some of the practical outworkings of a trinitarian God?

God is love, even before there was a creation and creatures for God to love, He was love within Himself; a joyous dance of selfless submission and sacrifice, an ecstatic union of essence and purpose, a unity of plurality.

This implies that man, made in the image of the triune God, is also created to enter into this dance.

We are invited into fellowship with the trinity, experiencing Him and His joy.

We are also experiencing a joyous fellowship with each other as multitudes from every tribe and tongue join in the dance with their Creator.

We enter the dance, but we follow His lead, and the Lord of the Dance leads us to Gethsemene, Gabbatha, and then Golgotha; but the dance continues beyond the tomb to the Emmaus Road, the Sea of Tiberius, and beyond. The triune God leads us, as we experience His love, to follow Him outside, to those who are cast away and despised, we dance in His power from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the Earth.

Finally, as God has revealed Himself to us and taught us and empowered us, so we too will follow him in the revelation, education, and empowerment of others. The Church of Christ is the Kingdom's cutting edge, bringing the loving presence of the King to those in outer darkness.