In the calendar that the church has developed over the centuries, this Sunday has been marked as Trinity Sunday. We love to learn and teach about the Trinity because in doing so we are learning about God himself, what the creator is like, and he turns out often to be utterly different than what we expected.

One of the things we learn about God the Trinity is what free and willing love looks like. There is no raw duty in the Godhead; all is overflowing and willing service. We believe in the mutual indwelling of the persons such that, as John says, “the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father.” The Father, Son and Spirit are unified in one being, in close community, and they love one another freely because they want to, their love never flagging or wavering. If you have ever fallen in love, or had a new child, or drawn close to a dear friend then you know what it is like to be consumed with the well-being of another so much so that you would gladly give anything or even suffer yourself in order to ensure their happiness. This is a small taste of the zeal the divine persons have for one another. But we often fail to see this and even more often fail to imitate it. We turn privileges and pleasures of service into begrudging obligations and chores, and sometimes have the nerve to blame other people, institutions, or circumstances for our lack of affection and service. A husband does not have to love his wife, he gets to love his wife. A wife doesn’t have to respect her husband, she gets to. And children get to honor their parents. Christians get to read their Bibles. These blessings are ours because Jesus has brought us into the divine community as he said to the Father: “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:22-24).