Blessed Trinity

Sermon by Stephen Ricketts

Providence-Fort Washington United Methodist Church

Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

Trinity Sunday – May 26, 2013

I am not sure if I am a typical preacher or not; but, I must confess that some sermons are more enjoyable than others. For example, I really like the Christmas Eve service because I have the opportunity to talk about the greatest gift the world has ever received, Jesus Christ. Another Sunday I have come to enjoy is Easter Sunday. When I was an associate the senior pastor always preached on Easter so it has been wonderful for me to reserve that date for myself. However, there are also some Sundays that I find more challenging than others; and, perhaps one that is near the top of that list is today, Trinity Sunday. Now, it is not that I am trying to avoid preaching today, it is just that the topic, the Trinity, is one I have struggled with over the years and I still and not sure I can present the mystery that is the Trinity in a clear and correct manner. So, today my goal is rather modest. I want to convey some of the wonder I feel when I experience God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit without leading you astray.

So, maybe the best place to start is with a brief history lesson. Why did the early church insist on saying that God is revealed as One and also that God is revealed in Three Persons, in Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Well, the very first Christians were Jews and they have always maintained that God is One. This is clearly stated in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” The Jews have always maintained that there are no gods but the Lord alone. The Hebrew prophets scoffed at other gods and laughed at the impotence of idols. They rejected the pantheon of the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans and refused to bow down before any god but the Lord. Now, Jews do understand that God is active in a variety of ways. Jews called God creator: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. They experienced God as deliverer: God sent plagues on the Egyptians, parted the Red Sea and brought them to the Promised Land. And they experienced God as spirit: “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.” But, even though they experienced God in a number of ways, the Jews always maintain that God is One. And, the early church inherited this fierce monotheism from the Jews.

But, Jesus’ first disciples had new experiences that challenged them to think of God in new ways. First, they lived and walked with Jesus of Nazareth. They saw him heal the sick and raise the dead. They listened when he spoke with authority and fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. And, most importantly, they saw him die on the cross on Good Friday and rise again on Easter Sunday. The power of Jesus’ Resurrection was beyond anything anyone had ever experienced and it called them to expand their understanding of God. Then on the Day of Pentecost, the disciples felt the awesome power of the Holy Spirit move in their lives as it propelled them into mission and ministry. They felt the fire burn within them and knew that God was working in them to do a new thing; they knew that God was alive in their hearts in a new way. So, the early church sought to express the reality of God as revealed in the Jewish faith, as revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and as revealed in their experiences of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Now, several ideas were put forth to explain these experiences. Some believed that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit were simply the greatest of God the Father’s creations. According to this view, they shared much with the Father but they were not God; they were slightly lower because they had been created by the Father. In this view, only the Father is God; both the Son and the Holy Spirit are god-like beings. Others tried to explain God by assuming that God had changed over time. They said that God the creator existed for a time until he became God the redeemer in the person of Jesus and finally he became God the sustainer on the Day of Pentecost. In this view God is One but assumes new roles over time. A related view was that God remains One and that we simply perceive him differently over time; we knew him first as creator, then as redeemer and finally as sustainer. Still another idea put forth is that God exists (and has always existed) in three distinct Persons that are joined together in the Trinity – God in Three Persons blessed Trinity. Now it would be wrong to say that the church voted and the Trinity concept won. It would also be wrong to say that the Trinitarian party marshaled their forces and ejected everyone who disagreed with them. Rather, what happened is that through this period God worked within the church to reveal his true nature as Trinity, as One God in Three Persons. The Doctrine of the Trinity became the orthodox view not because it had the most bishops pushing for it; the Doctrine of the Trinity became the orthodox view because it was revealed to the church as people listened to God’s voice in their lives.

For most of the church, the Doctrine of the Trinity became the established view when the Nicene Creed was adopted at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. We recited that Creed today as our Affirmation of Faith because it succinctly expresses the Trinity. Notice that it begins with the words “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” We believe that the God who created all that exists is truly God. And then in the second section we affirm, “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made.” This is a rather long phrase, but essentially what we are saying is that Jesus Christ is also God and not a created being. In the final section we affirm “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life … Who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.” The Holy Spirit is no less God than the Father and the Son. Today, Methodists join with Christians of many denominations including Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, Eastern Orthodox and Pentecostals in singing “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.”

Yesterday afternoon, I asked Alice if there was some question she wanted me to address in the sermon today. I suspect many of you share her question: “How does this work?” After all, the math just does not seem to work. How can “three” be equal to “one?” I too have long struggled with that question and went down a number of dead ends before I realized that the word “one” can represent “unity” as well as the numerical value one. Another place where the word “one” is used in this sense is in the pledge to our flag: “one nation under God;” we are a union of fifty states that form one nation. In a similar way, when we speak of God as one we are speaking of the perfect unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So, how is this perfect unity revealed in the three persons of the Trinity? Well, the Trinity wills one perfect will. When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, he asked for the Father to provide another way; a way that did not go through the Cross. But, then he said, “not my will, but yours be done.” In that moment, we see the unity of will in the Trinity. Another way the perfect unity of the Trinity is revealed is when the Three Persons love one perfect love. The Father’s love for the Son is the same as the Son’s love for us; and, the Spirit’s love for the world is the same as the Son’s love for the Spirit. The three persons of the Trinity are bound together in perfect unity by their one love for each other. Finally, the perfect unity of the Trinity is revealed when Father, Son and Holy Spirit are unified in one perfect purpose. God’s one purpose is the redemption of humanity. From the moment of our first sin God has been working to woo us back into his arms. The Father provided the Law to show us the way back to God; the Son opened the door to salvation by his death on the Cross; and, the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to turn us toward God. But, these many actions have one perfect purpose – to guide us back into God’s loving embrace. So, God is revealed as three Persons who will one will, who love one love, and who have one purpose. There is no division or dissent because Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are One; they are perfectly joined together in one Blessed Trinity.

Before closing, I would like to consider one final question. So what? What does it matter to us whether God is one, three or more? Some would say that the Doctrine of the Trinity is just speculation. But, I would argue that understanding (as well as a human can) the reality that is God is important. First, because we know that God is One we can trust that God will not suddenly start behaving in an erratic fashion. Other cultures, including the Greeks and the Norse, portrayed their gods as little more than powerful, petty children who could not be trusted from day to day. We know that God is unified and we know that God is consistent – the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. But, most importantly, we know that Jesus Christ who walked among us, who lived our lives, who died our death, and who rose for our salvation is truly God. We know that through Jesus our human experiences are part of the reality that is God. We know that we will always be precious to God because the Son of God became truly human in Jesus of Nazareth.

It may seem strange that we dedicate one Sunday each year to celebrating the Trinity. But, I believe that as we understand more of the mystery that is God the more we will be able to trust and love the Lord whose chief desire is for all people to be reconciled to God. As we come to understand and worship that divine dance that is our Triune God the more we will be drawn to the Lord and join with God in his unending dance of love.  Amen.