Crochet and The Trinity

As we continue to get to know one another, something you will discover about me is that I am a Hobby Person. By that I mean that I have a tendency to collect hobbies. One of the hobbies I have collected in the last few years is crochet. I tend to crochet things that are useful to me in one way or another. In fact, if you catch me early enough most mornings, you’ll find me using a koozie I made a couple years ago that fits cold coffee cups perfectly (pictured above)! I like crochet because it allows me to do simple projects that don’t take up a huge amount of time and give me an easy sense of accomplishment when they’re done. Beyond their simplicity, however, I find there is a certain philosophical draw toward crochet projects for me. 

In crochet, you take disparate threads of various colors and bring them together in such a way that they become something greater than they were as individuals. Once woven together, they stop being individual pieces of yarn, and, if done correctly, they become nearly impossible to separate without completely destroying the piece itself. Many threads suddenly become one, inseparable whole as a tapestry is formed. 

Our text for Sunday morning offers us a theological connection to this aspect of crochet. We’ll be reading John 17:20-23. We’re picking up the story of Jesus just after the Last Supper with his disciples. He’s washed their feet, served them bread and wine, and has spoken at length to them, preparing them for the events of his death and resurrection. Then, he prays. He prays for himself, and for his disciples. In that prayer, he offers up these words: 

I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Jesus prays for his disciples to experience the kind of unity that he and God experience. That’s a pretty powerful kind of unity. The Gospel authors didn’t really have the concept of the Trinity the same way that we do, but I think in this prayer we hear echoes of that idea. The doctrine of the Trinity says that God is three persons in one being – God the parent, Jesus the son, and the Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity is unique and different from the others, but also entirely united to them. Some theologians will point to this doctrine as a reminder that God is relational because in God’s own being is the relations of the Trinity. 

Here’s where the theological connection with crochet comes into play. Just as different, unique pieces of yarn are tied together to make a crochet project, each of us, though unique and different from one another, is woven together in God’s tapestry. Jesus prays for unity amongst those who would follow him, and names that unity as critical to the world knowing his love. Yet, that unity is compared to his unity with God which, as we say above, is not a fading of difference, but a unity of two unique and different persons. What would the world look like if we who follow Christ strived for unity like this? Not a unity that fades or dismisses how we are different from one another, but one that celebrates and rejoices in what makes each of us unique. In my estimation, this is exactly what the world needs today. Maybe we as Christians are just the people to get it started. 

See you Sunday!

Grace and Peace,

Rev. Tim