GOD'S SELFIE

Phil
Jun 22
5 min read

“Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith. And the Catholick Faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.”

“Neither confounding the Persons; nor dividing the substance.”

“The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate:

and the Holy Ghost uncreate.

This is from the beginning of The Athanasian Creed, which you will find in the Book of Common Prayer,

sandwiched between Evening Prayer and The Litany.

The Athanasian Creed, it is suggested may be recited or sung at Morning or Evening Prayer today, on Trinity Sunday, and on those “Red Letter Days” such as Christmas Day, Saint John Baptist, St Simon and Jude amongst a few others.

What a treat!

Athanasius had no time for contemporary theologians who were peddling heresies concerning the Holy Trinity. He left no theological stone unturned in his own Trinitarian belief, and the Creed with which he was credited is a thorough Trinitarian theological treatise.

Athanasius goes on……

The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible:

and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.

There are not three incomprehensibles,

nor three uncreated: but one uncreated,

and one incomprehensible……”

and so on, in the same way for forty-two verses.

Dorothy L. Sayers, renowned author, writer of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries and Christian humanist, wrote of this Creed,

"The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible,

and the whole darned thing incomprehensible!"

She went on:

It’s a strange idea for a monotheistic faith, this Three-in-One stuff….I want to convince you that the Trinity is more than two men and a bird!"

Athanasius’ Creed goes into great detail as to how the Trinity works. Scripture makes clear that Jesus is God incarnate,

and that Jesus is but One Part of the Three Persons united in loving relation to one another; the Tri-Unity.

It IS more than two men and a bird!

How on earth can you picture the Trinity? The Son – at least he becomes God incarnate in the person of Jesus.

But what about the Father and the Holy Spirit? Historically we have the old man with a beard for the Father, and a dove for the Spirit….. that’s been the tradition in Western art.

But a dove lacks the “personhood” of the Holy Spirit, and while such imagery might tell us something about God’s work in creation and redemption, it tells us virtually nothing about God as God is.

Creeds have their place in preserving and perpetuating the truth,

but what if we could look in on heaven itself,

and catch a glimpse of God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost?

Orthodox Christianity has helped us to view the tangible Trinity. No statues in an Orthodox Church, but an Iconostasis full of icons. Icons in the Orthodox tradition, according to Rowan Williams, are far more than just pretty pictures of Mary and the Saints. He says - “the point of the icon is to give us a window that will make definitive sense of the world we inhabit.”

One of the most famous of all icons is the one you have in your hand today;

it was “Written”, (they are not painted!),in the late 14th century by Andrei Rublev,a monk at the monastery of Zagorsk, near Moscow.

It’s called “The Hospitality of Abraham”, based on the story in Genesis 18 about the three mysterious figures given hospitality by Abraham and Sarah,

who bring news to the couple of the birth of Isaac.

But what do you suppose this icon is really about? Here is a hint: its more common name is – “The Trinity.”

“you could call it “God’s Selfie.”

(Kim Fabricius – United Reformed Theologian). Rublev focuses our attention on these three persons imaged as angels – must be angels because they’ve got wings!

The angels are linked together by their common blue garments – blue, the colour of the sky, the heavens, symbolic of eternity.

The building on the left at the back represents the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem. And the whole scene is suffused with regal gold.

The angel on the right, introducing us to the Godhead, represents the Holy Spirit. His blue robe is covered by a green cloak –green, the colour of life, because the Holy Spirit (in the words of the Nicene Creed) is “the Lord, the Giver of Life”.

The angel in the middle represents the Son. His blue cloak overlays a dark red robe – red, the colour of earth,the colour of blood, symbolising the incarnation and the crucifixion.

And the angel on the left represents the Father,his blue robe covered with a translucent cloak,symbolising the eternal divine glory.

Look at the way they are sitting, angled towards each other. Look too at the family resemblance – they could almost be triplets – no old man, young man, and a bird here!

Observe the empty space at the front of the table: the perfect circle is also an open circle. Could it be that Rublev is inviting us, the observers, to stop being observers and step into the frame, to approach the table, to share in the holy communion

of Father, Son, and Spirit?

We come to understand the Trinity a little better through the rational mind of the Creeds; We come to see the Trinity through the Window of Art and Iconostasis

But most of all the World comes to view the Trinity

through the actions of God’s People.

People in the ancient world sought gods,

to try and become like the gods they worshipped.

Warriors looked to Mars, the god of war,

aspiring to his power, aggression, and fearlessness in battle.

Lovers invoked Aphrodite, longing for beauty and desire.

In Norse mythology, followers of Odin

sought wisdom and mastery over fate,

while those who admired Thor valued brute strength and loyalty.

We try to imitate what we adore.

And because we are made in the image and likeness of God,