The Trinitarian Dance of Divine Love
The Trinitarian Dance of Divine Love.
“What might it mean to live fully and freely in the life of the Trinity, knowing and loving God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as they know and love each other?” (R. Thomas Ashbrook, Mansions of the Heart).
Beyond Human Understanding. Perhaps the most confounding mystery in the Christian faith, the truth that is most difficult if not impossible to describe, is the Trinity. The early church theologians tried to describe the indescribable Three-Personed Godhead in many ways, but perhaps the most effective metaphor that was introduced soon after the church began in earnest was known then as the “perichoresis, which means to dance around, to make room around, to make space around itself for the others.” This was the term used at that time for a typical Greek wedding dance in which at least three dancers celebrated the joy and love of the occasion by joining together and weaving in and out in a synchronized movement that kept increasing as the dance continued. As the speed increased in intensity, the three dancers would nonetheless remain in perfect rhythm together, and then at a later point in the dance the dancers ended up effortlessly moving together so quickly that they became a blur.
Here’s how biblical scholar Eugene Peterson described the perichoresis in his book, Christ Plays in 10,000 Places: “Imagine a folk dance, a round dance, with three partners in each set. The music starts up and the partners holding hands begin moving in a circle. On signal from the caller, they release hands, change partners, and weave in and out, swinging first one and then the other. The tempo increases, the partners move more swiftly, with each partner between and among one another, swinging and twirling, embracing and releasing, holding on and letting go. But there is no confusion, every movement is clearly coordinated in precise rhythm, as each person maintains his/her identity. To the onlooker, the movements are so swift it is impossible at times to distinguish one person from another. The steps are so intricate that it is difficult to anticipate the actual configuration as they appear.”
The ”perichoresis” was one imaginative way to describe the relationship within the Trinity, in which the Three Persons share an intimate fellowship, an eternal communion with each other, and each Person is fully present within the other, sharing the same divine essence without being mixed or indistinguishable. The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity are forever distinct, and yet they are inseparable. They are somehow inside each other. If this isn’t a mystery, what is? Here are a number of different Christ-following believers who have tried to describe this “Divine Dance”:
“The Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in conversation, in a fellowship of free-flowing togetherness and sharing and delight – a great dance of shared life that is full and rich and passionate, creative and good and beautiful… If we took the joy and the fullness and the love of the Father, Son and Spirit, their mutual delight and passion, the sheer togetherness of their relationship, its intimacy, harmony and wholeness, and rolled them all into one word, it would be ‘holiness.’” (Baxter Krueger, The Great Dance).
“This Trinitarian dance is like a circular dance between the Three Persons, such that each is in the other two, while the others are in each one. All three Persons occupy the same divine space but remain separate. We cannot see God without seeing all three Persons at the same time. You cannot have one person of the Trinity without having the other two, and you cannot have any Person of the Trinity without having the fullness of God.” (Kevin DeYoung).
“The perichoresis is the interpenetration of the Three Persons of the Trinty, a cleaving together, in which they have their being in each other without any commingling.” (John of Damascus, 675-749 AD).
“The Divine Dancers experience one fluid motion of encircling, encompassing, permeating, enveloping, outstretching. There are neither leaders nor followers in this divine dance, only an eternal movement of reciprocal giving and receiving, giving again and receiving again. The divine dance is fully personal and interpersonal, expressing the essence and unity of God.” (Catherine LaCugna).
“Perichoresis asserts that the divine Persons permeate one another mutually with such perfection that one is as invariably in the other two as the other two are in the one.” (Karl Barth).
“The great Trinitarian dance sets the whole universe in motion. This symbol of the Trinity, an expression of joy, dance, and integration, invites us to be joyful and to celebrate. It is precisely the Gospel that shows us joy as an integral part of the Divine identity, as the truth of His being and the revealed aspect of His face. The Christian God cannot be understood, nor can we enter into a relationship with Him, if we don’t perceive His joy, and we do so by experiencing it… “His master said to him, ‘Well done, you admirable and faithful servant! You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little; I will put you in charge of much. Enter into and share the joy – the delight, the blessedness – which your master enjoys.” (Maria Gette, quoting Matthew 25:23).
“No sooner do I conceive of the one Person than I am illumined by the splendor of the Three. No sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one. When I think of any one of the Three, I think of Him as the whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of that One so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the Three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light.” (Gregory of Nazianzus, 329-390 AD).
“Father and Son dwell in a face-to-face relationship with the Holy Spirit, Who is the bond of love that unites them. Through this never-ending dance, the divine Persons exist so intimately with one another, for one another, and inside one another, that they constitute a single, unique, and complete unity by Themselves. The Trinity is a mutual indwelling.” (Katerina Pavelova).
Welcomed into the Circle Dance:
“The great dance of life shared by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the womb of creation… Because of Jesus Christ, we can participate in the living out of trinitarian life inside human existence.” (Baxter Kruger, The Great Dance).
Before the divine invention of time, before the foundation of the world, the triune God existed in a profoundly intimate community of three Persons. Because God is love, they created the world so they could share that intimacy with the human race. They did not hoard their eternal love for each other, but instead they included humanity in their relationship. In creation, God shared His life with humanity, providing a truly life-giving relationship with Him. The Spirit of love binding the Father and the Son has proven to be the energy source of all the love in the world. The trinitarian relationship became the engine of the universe. Without the virtues within the life of the Trinity, there would be no virtues in the world, no truth, goodness or beauty. The passionate interaction within the Godhead is the spark of communion that ignites the presence of intimacy in the world. The original source of everything right in the world lies within the everlasting togetherness of the Trinity.
“The prime purpose of the incarnation is to lift us up into a life of communion, of participation in the very triune life of God.” (James Torrance, Worship, Communion and the Triune God of Grace).
There is a mystery to the depth of unity between the three-Personed God. Their love for each other is too deep to understand, yet close enough to experience through Christ. St. Bernard of Clairvaux once tried to describe the intimacy within the Trinity this way… “Surely if the Father kisses and the Son receives the kiss, it is appropriate to think of the Holy Spirit as the kiss.” We do know from John 14:10-11 and 17:21 that their communion is such that they are somehow inside each other. They are so closely knit that when you know the Son, you know the Father. And when you see the Son, you have seen the Father (John 14:7). Father and Son have enjoyed an intimate oneness, with the Spirit being their bond of love, since before the foundation of the world. And the triune God wants us to participate in the unity of their Family circle, the Son in us and the Father in the Son (John 17:23). Both the Son and the Father have always desired to share their home life with us (John 14:23). We are called to literally live within the Trinity, inside their relationship, being more intimate with God than with any other person (John 14:20). The Christian mystic Elizabeth of the Trinity once wrote that one of her spiritual disciplines was “burying myself, so to speak, in the depths of my soul to lose myself in the Trinity who dwells in it.”
“God is faithful to do what He says, and He has invited you into partnership with His Son, a life of communion and participation in His life. God has called you to co-share the very life of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:9).
The Trinity’s profound love for each other has resulted in their sharing that love, their including humanity in their interaction. We have been called to participate in their life-giving intimacy, in their divine fellowship. We have been offered, through Jesus, the amazing privilege of sharing in their relationship. In Christ, we can now open our eyes to see the truth of our life inside the Trinity. Christ has succeeded in uniting the holy Trinity with fallen humanity, and the result is mankind’s inclusion in the life of the triune God. Inside the circle, we can now experience the very same love that the Father shows the Son (John 17:26). We can now confirm that the Father will love us just as much as He loves the Son (John 17:23). As Baxter Kruger says, “We don’t make Jesus a part of our world. He has made us a part of His.” We now can know our true identity, living in the circle of the Trinity, our true selves hidden within the joy and love of their intimacy.
“We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. For truly the fellowship, the shared companionship that we have is with the Father and the Son.” (1 John 1:3).
James Houston once wrote that “God is infinitely relational and intimately personal.” The wonderful mystery is that it is God’s nature to be relational and personal with the human race. When we are baptized into the Name of the Trinity, we are restored into God’s own bosom, received into the triune life of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Their relationship is now our relationship. Their reality is now our shared reality. We thus have a joyful place within their circle. When we are baptized into the Name of the Trinity, our eyes have been opened to our permanent destiny within their life. We thus celebrate our adoption into God’s trinitarian family. “Because of Jesus Christ, we can participate in the living out of trinitarian life inside human existence.” (Baxter Kruger, The Great Dance).
“So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will live in close fellowship with the Son and the Father; you will live deeply in them both, sharing God’s life forever, as He has promised.” (1 John 2:24).
“The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us.” (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).
“It is no wonder then, that we in the community of those who follow Jesus, and thus follow God and follow the Holy Spirit, are called into this divine dance, and are equipped to gather others to take part in this dance with each other.” (Cynthia Rich).