Trinity Catena 2

The shalom of the persons is the eschatological shalom of the people of God, which we are called to and long for, which we await with all creation, and to which we summon our neighbors.

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Humanity is not peaceful. Groups negotiate, press, compete, and conflict. “The thunder of many peoples, they thunder like the thundering of the sea. The roar of nations, they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!” (Isa 17.1) There is no peace in politics. And individuals fare no better. As Søren Kierkegaard said, “There is not a single living human being who does not secretly harbor a disharmony.” What we want is a garden; what we have is a flood.

Shalom (שָׁלוֹם) is the Hebrew word for peace. It is a rich, rich word that means more than the absence of hostility. Pastor Timothy Kellner defined shalom as “a multidimensional, complete well-being—physical, psychological, social, and spiritual; it flows from all of one’s relationships being put right—with God, with(in) oneself, and with others." Shalom is what Jesus offered when he pitied the discord of the crowd and said, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” And shalom is what Jesus procures for his people by his death and resurrection.

The hymn of praise in Colossians 1 says that the cross made such a peace as to affect the reconciliation of all things “whether on earth or in heaven” to God. The embrace of Colossian’s shalom extends from the individual, to the household, to human communities, to thrones, dominions, rulers, and powers, and to all of creation. “He himself is our peace.” (Eph 2.14a) It is the joy of the church to summon the world’s peoples to this peace. But it is a shalom begun, yes, but not fulfilled–not yet.

So, as we wait between the roar of the nations and the harmony of peace, we search out the very vision and archetype of the shalom we hope for. That vision is the quiet unity of the persons of God. All other definitions of peace, peace of self, of community, of nations, of creation, are a thousand reflections. The pure oneness of the godhead is its very seat. "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you" (Augustine). "When I am united to you, there is no more sorrow or toil. Only you, my God" (Gregory of Nyssa).

Trinity Catena 1

The story of redemption is the perfect and absolute love of the persons for each other being separated (for our creaturely sake) like light through a prism on the wall of history. The Godhead does as it is.

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This paragraph transports us to a shadowy room in 1666. Across the space is a man, Sir Isaac Newton, standing beside the only window. The sun shines eagerly through the panes. And in its light, Newton holds a prism of glass. He stares at the opposing wall. There, the reflected light divides into a band of glowing colors. The sunlight outside is colorless of itself, but when Newton splits it with a prism, we see it is full of colors.

Here, Newton’s light experiment sets the table for a short exploration of what the church means when it says God is triune. The life-giving and illuminating light from the sun stands for how God is in himself, where the unity of God is so prominent. When they talk about the theology of the Trinity, theologians call this side of Newton’s experiment the immanent Trinity. The immanent Trinity refers to God as he is in himself, independent of creation. Now, there is also the other wall of Newton’s experiment, where light has passed through the prism and is divided for all to see into many colors, from red to violet. This is called the economic Trinity, and that is the Trinity as we look at it in time.

When Christians look at God in time, they are looking at the story of redemption. A long time ago, people called this the “economy of salvation,” where economy refers to something as an ordered list of tasks–the house-law (eco-nοmοs). The economy of salvation is how salvation gets accomplished over the events of history. The economic Trinity is the doctrine of the Trinity considered from our time-and-space bounded point of view. From our point of history stretched over the moments of time and space, the unity of God divides (not really--it is a metaphor) so that we can see what is always there but is made visible: that God is a godhead, a unity and a trinity. We can see the persons as God the Father, the creator, God the Son, our Redeemer who does the will of the Father, and God the Spirit, who through the action of the Son brings about the Father’s purpose. The colors are always there in the light, the colors do not cease to be the light, nor is the light something without the colors. The prism has allowed us to see and understand. So, the story of redemption, the story the Bible tells, helps us see and understand. God does not have to tell us anything about himself. But he loves us, he wants to tell us about himself, and he is glad to bring us closer so that we can confess him as three persons in one unity.

The final point of our guiding paragraph is “The Godhead does as it is.” Karl Rahner, a Roman Catholic theologian who taught in the mid-twentieth century said it like this, “The immanent Trinity is the economic Trinity and the economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity.” What he means is that the persons as we see them acting in redemption–the economic Trinity–tell us how God really is–the immanent Trinity. What the triune God tells us about himself and how he acts demonstrably to save us is a revelation of who the triune God is. God acts how he is.