There is a one voice probably everyone here in Melbourne knows intimately now – Dr Brett Sutton. We came to know his face during Dan Andrews’ daily COVID-19 briefing and now Brett Sutton’s voice can be heard on the public transport network reminding us to wear masks. His voice is loud, yet calm, clear and delivers a message which is as stern as it is gentle. God’s voice is loud and powerful, commanding chaos through all of nature and in that assurance God’s people feel safe.
Trinity Sunday is fraught with completely unsatisfactory explanations which do no more than further complicate the Doctrine of the Trinity. Since Augustine of Hippo way back in the early fifth century CE to now some 2000 years later, our efforts to explain the Trinity are no less complex and unhelpful. At the heart of the Trinity lies a profound truth, God is a mystery understood in relationships with and through God and one another.
The natural world is being eroded away at a rate which has been classified as a climate emergency and the population, despite COVID-19, continues to increase. What has happened to the responsibility we have to care and look after creation and to be in healthy relationships with all that lives, human and non-human? It seems there is an urgency for all humanity to be reminded of the thunderstorms and the chaos inflicted on the gods of Ba’al. and to take immediate action. We can learn from and listen to the First Nations of this and other lands and live again in healthy relationships with creation and each other. Then we who are in God’s world can again say “Glory!” This is the mystery of the Trinity, God in relationship, three in one.
Marian Bisset
Candidate for Ministry of Deacon