Issue #1
We take the life and inter-relationship of the Triune God
as the inspiration and model to live and understand
the Christian life, formation, vocation and witness.
God in Three Person, Blessed Trinity
CSF is 21 years young this year. Still young, and still maturing. Over these years, CSF has offered hundreds of retreats and courses related to spiritual formation. Our community companions have sat with hundreds of fellow Christians. We come alongside them in their desire to walk closer to God. The most common desire is to know God’s will. But many, many more came tired and hurt, seeking rest, consolation and healing from God. And God met them. Over these years, we also became more clear-eyed that it is not us who ministered to those who come through our doors in this place that we called the BE space. No, we are mere innkeepers and ushers, ushering them into God’s Presence. His Spirit alone is the true and only Spiritual Director.
21 years is not a long time. In this first issue, we thought we will revisit and share with you our vision, values and missions – why are we still doing what we have been doing?
The statement at the start of this article is the first of our five value statements. Biblical teaching holds that God exists as three persons. Three persons, but not three Gods. This is the mystery of our Christian confession, the mysterium tremendium, incomprehensible to believers, non-sense to non-believers. I well-remembered my first introduction to this mystery in a course on the Trinity at Regent College (Vancouver, Canada). A whole new portal opened up for me. I glimpsed a reality and the potential of a deeper knowing and experiencing of God that is way beyond all that I have been taught or known then as a Christian of 20 years. That was in 1997. I was born again in 1976. That young Christian come of age in his 21 years of faith.
The Trinity as Our Life Centre
Our first value statement is cryptic but all-encompassing. TLC for short. In fact, that was our first name – Trinity Life Centre. Years of ongoing meditation on God as triune, I discovered that the Bible does indeed revealed God as three distinct beings or persons: God, Jesus, Spirit; Creator, Saviour, “Spiritual Formator”; Father, Son, Spirit.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1).
Another cryptic statement. There was a time, “in the beginning”. There was a Presence, “God”. There was an act, “God created”. Once upon a time, this Presence’s act of creativity brought “heavens and earth” into existence.
“In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1).
Yet another cryptic statement. Here is another beginning. A beginning that is before the Genesis beginning. A beginning that really cannot be pinned, only peered at. Who and what was “the Word” was not explained to us as well.
The first verse of Genesis and John (Old and Testaments) announced that God is the creator, Jesus was with God in beginning before creation, and the Word was Jesus, and Jesus was God.
John chapter 1 revealed much more. The Word in the beginning with God, who was God, has now became the Word made flesh. God has now come to us and dwelt amongst us! Eugene Peterson was graphic in his contemporary translation “And the Word became flesh and moved into our neighbourhood.” Really? Wow! If so, it is much, much more than “Wow”! He also revealed God as Father. to us as our Father. “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”(John 1:18)
In the Upper Room, Jesus further revealed that there will be another Helper who will be with us forever. Just as amazing, we find that this “another Helper” had also been present with God in the Genesis beginning! The opening verse of the first book of the Bible recorded that “the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” (Gen 1:2) This Helper was also present in the closing chapter of the last book of the Bible: “The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.”” (Rev 22:17). In fact, He is also present and active before the advent of the Son of God. The angel Gabriel announced to Mary that “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” (Luke 1:35).
So, our holy scriptures reveal to us a three person God. Three persons, but not three Gods. Father, Son, Spirit, God in three persons, blessed Trinity.
The Life and Inter-relationship of the Triune God
It was from my professor James M Houston that I learnt this intriguing description of the inter-relating of the Father, Son and Spirit: “Our God is the God who honours the Other”. God as three persons also mean that there is a community of persons. There is each person in their “individual being”, and each relating to the other in this community of (three) beings or persons. Our triune God is a community of persons, each honouring the Other.
Further, two bible passages, Philippians 2:5-11 and John 16:12-15, gave further insights into this inter-relationship. The Father sent Jesus to live amongst us. God the Son, though he was God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. Instead, he emptied himself, becoming human to die the death of a criminal on the cross. The Son honours the Father.
What about the Father? He highly exalted the Son and bestow on him a name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, in heaven, on earth, or under the earth, and every tongue confess that He is Lord, to the glory of the Father. This is the reciprocal honouring by the Father to the Son.
Jesus further prayed to the Father to send the Spirit. The Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost. It was the Spirit who empowered the apostles to preach the good news of Jesus, the Son of God. We have already noted much earlier that it was the Spirit who had prepared the way for the Son’s advent.
The Spirit will not speak on his own authority. Whatever he hears he will speak, and he will glorify the Son, for he will take what is the Son’s and declare it to the followers. This is the Spirit who honours the Son, not himself.
This is our God, our three person God, a community of beings, each honouring the other. No self-will. No ego-tripping. No “I” as my life centre.
Friends, these truths are amazing, are they not? What strikes you most about our God being Father, Son and Spirit?
In truth, much more need to be elaborated. This brief exposition is already too long. But friends, this is what we mean by the Trinity as our Life Centre. It is the foundational conviction and posture of CSF as a resource and learning community serving the Christians in Singapore.