This Sunday is the day we stand back from the sequence of events that we have been celebrating for the last few months (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost), and take time to think about who God is. The concept of the Trinity is notoriously difficult to grapple with: this concept of 1 in 3, 3 in 1, 1+1+1=1…? So we try and come up with new ways to help us understand what the Trinity is like. Here is one such way.

In ballroom dancing, there are two partners; one leads, and one follows. As they say, it takes two to tango: one to lead, and one to follow. When the two partners are properly positioned (or “in frame” to use ballroom dancing lingo), they really then move as one. This is the beauty and magic of ballroom dance: the two bodies become one body, moving as one. There is a lead who initiates the movement, and a follow who responds to that movement, but at their best, they move as one unit – two in one. When we apply theology to this, we could say that God is the lead in this dance of the Trinity, and Jesus the follow.

Now, if it takes two to tango, how can ballroom dancing represent the Trinity? In ballroom dancing, there is the lead, and the follow, but there is one crucial ingredient without which ballroom dancing cannot happen: the music. If God is the lead, and Jesus the follow, then naturally, the Holy Spirit is the music, which makes sense. The Holy Spirit is like the beat or pulse by which the Trinity moves. And the key element of this analogy for the Trinity – the reason that a ballroom dance is a good picture of what the Triune God looks like – is that it depicts God as a movement. God is not anything if not always on the move. Think about how God moved over the waters in Creation, or how the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness, or how the Spirit appeared as tongues of fire, moving the reluctant disciples to witness.

The thing about ballroom dancing is that it’s fine enough as a spectator sport, but it’s a lot more enjoyable as a participant. So how do we participate in the dance of the Trinity? By participating. We follow God’s lead as members of the body of Christ. God indicates to us to follow God’s moves that God has done since the beginning of time: moves of justice, mercy, peace and love. And we move to the music of the Holy Spirit, who provides the inspiration, the pace, the occasion, and the heart of the dance.