Tomorrow is the Day of Holy Trinity. The Church reflects on and celebrates God’s essence. However, for many of us the concept of Trinity is difficult to grasp: the three personas of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or Creator, Saviour and Comforter being distinctly different and at the same time the same and one God. So, I thought this might be a good time to write about it.

Let me begin with a cultural experience in London, one that some of you might have had also. About 17 years ago my family had a weeklong stopover in London. Among our activities, we went to the theatre. My two older teenage sons were first totally against it, but came along.

The first show we watched was The 39 Steps, a real modern classic based on a novel by John Buchan and a film by Alfred Hitchcock. The slapstick spy thriller is famous for having just four fearless actors play over 130 roles in 100 fast-paced minutes.

We all, including our sons, had such a great time. The actors just used a different hat, or glasses or other items to play a different role, changing in seconds back and forth. It was hilarious.

In the days of antique theatre, actors used handheld masks to do the same thing. As their voices sounded through the opening of the mask’s mouth, those masks were called “persona” (in Greek per meaning through, and sona meaning sound). The same actor was able to represent several personas. The oft-used pictogram for theatre has such masks stills today, one sad and one happy.

I had to think of this experience in London and the antique theatre world when I was asked lately how God can be one and still be divided in three persons, the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Christian faith believes that there are three distinctly different persons but only one God in the Trinity. While the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father, they are still of one being or essence. Each one is fully and totally God, and together they are God, the same God.

Another analogy might be our own being. Holistically speaking we are “body, mind, and soul”. When people see our body, they see us, even when we are “absent minded”. When the body gets hurt, we hurt. Our body is us.

When we think and reflect, the mind that does it, is that not what we would call “I” as well? And our character, our soul, our emotional being, our feelings and sensitivity, that is us as well. The body is not the mind, the mind is not the soul and the soul is not the body, all three are “us” and together they are still one being. They form our identity together.

We have the doctrine of Trinity because the Bible talks of the Trinity. While the word Trinity is not in the Bible, the concept is quite often. Here are just the most obvious locations: in Matthew 28:18b-29 (NIV) Jesus told his disciples: “All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 13:14 (NIV): “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

When Jesus got baptised in the River Jordan (Matthew 3:13-17, Luke 3:21-22 and Mark 1:9-11), the Holy Spirit descended in form of a dove and the Father’s voice spoke from Heaven: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Thus the creeds of the early Church like the Old Roman Creed for baptisms (2nd century), the Apostle’s Creed (3rd century) and the Nicene Creed (4th century) also document the Trinity as fundamental doctrine of the Faith. Only those who believed and confessed the Trinity were allowed to be baptised, as the baptism was performed as Christ commanded in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The creeds explain the Holy Trinity like this: The “persona” of the Father is an image for the creator, the one who formed the universe and everything in it, filled the Earth with life and also keeps everything running by constantly recreating life.

In the persona Jesus Christ God came into human flesh. Before His earthly birth the Son was the Word of God. According to Genesis 1 God created everything through the Word, so John can start his Gospel (John 1:1-3 and 14, NIV) with the famous words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made … The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Finally, when God works within human beings and among us, he has the persona of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit literally “inspires” people. His Spirit inspired the witnesses who wrote the different books of the Bible and those who decided over the final biblical Canon (which scriptures should be part of the Bible), the Spirit inspired the true prophets of the Old Testament, the Spirit strengthened the great characters of God’s Story with us humans like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Miriam, Gideon, Ruth, Esther, Daniel and so many others.

In New Testament times Jesus promised this Holy Spirit to the believers so that they would never be alone but always have God to guide them (and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age).

We believe that the Holy Spirit is present when Christians come together as the Church, and that the Holy Spirit is actually causing any and all faith. Without the Spirit there is no faith. Faith is Grace, and not anything we decide on.

Christ said in John 15:16 (NIV) to his disciples: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last — and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV): “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.” People who believe thus are not better people who still have doubts. However, we have the certitude of being saved by Christ, which is a great joy and makes life often easier.

Still, this doctrine is a difficult one. When it comes to God and his “nature” our perception is limited, we can only speak in pictures, symbols, and images about God and compare and relate God to what we can know or understand.

Just like the universe and eternity is actually beyond our understanding, God is as well. We can only know about God what He revealed to us in his Word and through his Spirit. Faith is thus always developing and never a finished thing or possession we get once and for all and can pack away into our pocket.

It is a living faith, a gift every day, and when we read God’s Word, when we meet with other Christians in Church or small groups, we actually invite God’s Spirit to talk to us and change us from inside out, so that we may be a new creation.

Happy Trinity Sunday, my fellow Bermudians.

• Karsten Decker was the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Bermuda from 2010 to 2017, and after returning from Germany is now the temporary pulpit supply at Centenary United Methodist Church in Smith’s