Open thoughts

An upcoming sermon is about Christians acting with openness. Recent sermons have dealt with boldness and generosity. Below are a few "open thoughts" about openness.

Are you:

• Boldly open to new ideas?
• Open to the Holy Spirit?
• Open to constructive comments?
• Open to people not like you?
• Boldly open to a different style of worship?
• Open in a way that lets others "in" to know you better?
• Open to forgiving others?
• Open to not getting your way?
• Open to focusing on helping others -- open to generously giving of your time, talent, and money when you have more than they do?
• Open to letting others help you in your time of need?
• Open to changing your mind?
• Open to being a true servant leader?
• Open to discovering new talents? (You have to try something new to discover a new talent).
• Open to asking forgiveness when it's appropriate?

We may think we are "open" in many of the above ways, but would our friends, coworkers, and strangers agree?

God is with you

A posting at the Methodist Corner blog by Allen McGraw got me thinking about God-with-us. He referred to the song "Signs" by Five Man Electrical Band. I used Bing to find the song lyrics and then smiled as I couldn't help myself -- I started singing it (the song's guitar chords at a different site).

Near the end of the song, the man says, "thank you Lord for thinking about me, I'm alive and doing fine." God is with us during hard times. Not that he prevents suffering, but that he's right there with us. Jesus suffered on the cross ... in our place ... for our sins. God knows our pain. As a great piece of inspirational music from Joe Parks said, "We're never alone with Jesus."

The Trinity

Christians of all sorts believe in the Trinity, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (aka Holy Ghost). But the word "Trinity" is not specifically mentioned in scripture and the concept was not used until years after Jesus' Ascension. This has led to all sorts of "takes" on the concept.

Nazarites point to a pagan origin and say that the Torah does not mention the Trinity. Skeptics claim that the term was invented. Some claim that the concept was needed in the early church but that it is now an anachronism that is no longer needed.

Some even point to the term "Spirit" being feminine gender ("her") in Aramaic, the language that Jesus used. In Greek, the word in neuter gender ("it"). Only in Latin is the term masculine gender ("he").

I look at the concept of the Trinity as a way we try to understand God. We fallible mortals can never understand God perfectly, but the concept of the Trinity helps us get closer to an understanding.

What's your take? Is the word "persons" in "God in three persons" a mental stumbling block? Would a word such as "aspects" convey the concept better?

Related links

• United Methodist Articles of Religion - Article 1, the Trinity from the 2004 "Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church"
• Meaning of the Trinity, St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church (PDF)
• Holy Trinity is a mystery (Catholic); second, personal page
• Catholics, Methodist agree on Trinity
• Evidence of the Trinity in the Old Testament (Catholic)
• Trinity concept no longer needed
• Is the Holy Spirit feminine?
• Ode 36 of Solomon uses feminine gender for "Spirit"
• There is no Trinity (Nazarite)
• Holy Trinity invented (a skeptic)