Trinity Sunday - 05/26/13
RWJ/Pottersville UMC
Sermon: “God,
One and Three”
Scripture
Lesson: Romans 5:1-5
Gospel
Lesson: John 16:12-15
Good morning brothers and
sisters! What a joy and a pleasure it is to be here with you all on this our
“Trinity Sunday.” This is the Sunday in our Christian calendar where we
celebrate “God, One and Three,” or as we call it the “Blessed” or “Holy
Trinity.”
The actual word “Trinity”
comes from the Latin word “Trinitas,”
which means simply three and is the term used to describe the three persons of our
one God. Specifically, this word describes our church doctrine of believing
that God the father, the creator, that Jesus Christ the son and the savior, and
that the Holy Spirit or the advocate and intercessor, are all separate, yet
unified persons of the one true God. Of all of the doctrines that we have in
our church, I would say that is one of the most complex, and one that I personally
have had the hardest time grasping. In fact, I don’t think any of us will truly
ever understand this doctrine fully, until we are in glory with the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Yet if you were to ask the
majority of Christians the question, “Do you believe in the God the father?”
They would likely say, “Well yes of course I do!” If were to then ask them, “Do
you believe in Jesus Christ, the son of God and our redeemer?” They would then
assuredly say, “Well of course I do, Jesus is my savior.” If you we were to then
go ever further and say, “Well do you believe in the Holy Spirit?” Most
Christians would then say, “Well of course, the spirit of God is what sustains
us.”
Among all of you here
today then, who here believes in God the Father? Who here believes in God’s son
and our savior Jesus Christ? Who here believes in the Holy Spirit? I have
rarely met a Christian that will tell me that they do not believe in all three
of these persons. The real struggle for many Christians though, is how do we
package these three persons? That is to say, how do we connect God the Father,
his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit?
To explain
some of the history behind all of this Trinity talk though, let me start by
saying that the actual word itself “Trinity” does not exist anywhere in the Bible.
Yet, the term "Trinity" can be found in the writings of early church leaders like Origen, who lived from 185AD-254AD, and Tertullian who lived from160AD-220AD. Further, the general mention of
a "divine three," in some sense, was expressed in the second century
writings of Polycarp, Ignatius, and Justin
Martyr.
To present just a small handful of scriptural
references of how the early church leaders developed the doctrine of the
Trinity over time then, let’s first look at the gospel according to Mathew. In
Mathew 28:19, Jesus Christ tells his apostles, "Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." For the early Church leaders, or
the Founding Fathers and the Founding Mothers, they were trying to unlock the
secrets and the truths of God, as many of us still are today. When these early
church leaders read scriptures like this then, they probably contemplated
things like, “What did Christ mean when he said, “baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit?” They might have said, “Did
Christ mean three different gods?” “Did Christ mean one God, in three persons,
or “God, one and three?” “Or did Christ mean something else altogether?”
Let us next look at 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 13:14 it says, “The
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with you all.” Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In John 1:1
it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is the Word, so Jesus is God.
In Ephesians
4:4-6 it says “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to
the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one
God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” A final
example is the gospel of John. In John 8:58 Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, before Abraham was, I am.” God existed before Abraham, and therefore, Jesus
was God on earth. With these few
scripture references considered, and with the several other scriptures references
that I did not use, the doctrine of the Trinity it is still debated in
Christendom today.
Of the
many examples of the Trinity that we have in our faith today, one of the
biggest examples is that of the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed is a creed that we
sometimes recite in church, and it is the product of the Council of Nicaea that
occurred all the way back in 325AD. Among the many things being debated in this
council was, “who was and is Jesus Christ?”
Present at this
ecumenical church council, was a young, smart, and bright pastor named Arius.
Arius claimed at this council that Jesus was only a human and was not God.
Arius said therefore, that Jesus was less than God. Specifically, Arius argued that
Christ was the ultimate human, but that he was not divine. Other Church leaders
at the council though, like Athanasius believed in the Trinity. This almost
two-month conference ended with the creed that we have on page 880 in your pew
hymnal. The final decision of this council was that Jesus was not only divine,
but that Jesus was God on earth, fully God and fully human. Specifically, as
the creed says, that Jesus was not created by God, but was “begotten by God,”
meaning “God from God,” “Light from Light,” “true God from true God.”
There was only one little
problem with the Nicene Creed though, as you can see it on page 880. Here is
the problem, if you notice the last chunk of text from this creed it says, “We
believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord the giver of life.” Well after the Council
of Nicaea ended in 325AD this creed ended with just the words “We believe in
the Holy Spirit,” or as they said the “Holy Ghost.” Due to the then on-going
debate over who or what the Holy Spirit was and is, the church then reconvened 76-
years later at another council in 381AD. This council was called the First
Council of Constantinople. It was at this council that we got the last bit on
our Nicene Creed at the bottom of 880 where it says after, “We believe in the
Holy Spirit,” “the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and
the Son, who with the father and the Son, is worshipped and glorified,” and
etc.
This updated ecumenical
creed is officially called the The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381AD, but that’s a long name
isn’t it? So most Christian denominations like the United Methodist Church,
just said, “Well just call it the Nicene Creed, that’s easier to remember,” and
I agree.
So excuse the brief history lesson,
but this is where we get our historical doctrine and belief of the Holy
Trinity. Further, if this doctrine was formalized in 381 AD, this means it has
been the official teaching of the church then for over 1,600 years! Yet the Blessed
or Holy Trinity is still tough stuff to comprehend isn’t it? I remember when I
attended my first seminary, the Northeastern Seminary. At the seminary I had a
good friend named Stergios. Stergios was from Greece, and surprise surprise he was
Greek Orthodox. He was also excited about just about everything Greek. In fact,
I used to joke with Stergios about the film “300” that portrays 300 Greek
Spartan Soldiers fighting the massive Persian Army that was led by its king,
King Xerxes. I don’t know if anyone has ever seen this movie, but it portrays
the Spartans in quite a high light. Whenever I would mention this movie, Stergios
would just say, “This is a good movie.” One day when we were in a seminary
class I was struggling with the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. I said to
Stergios, “how can Jesus be God, and how can God be Jesus.” Stergios just
looked at me and said, “Paul, I will give the answer of the Greek Orthodox
Church.” I then said, “ok and that is,” and he said, “Simple, it is a mystery.”
I then said, “that’s it Stergios?” Then he said, “Yes Paul, that it is it, it
is a mystery.”
When looking at this morning’s
scripture reading from Romans, it said, “Therefore, since we are justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we
have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.” The Apostle Paul is
saying in this scripture, that our faith “with God, through Jesus Christ” saves
us. I know that many churches for centuries have fought over right doctrine and
belief, but this scripture says to believe in God and to believe in Christ. How
do we package all of this though? The Scripture goes on to say, “we also boast
in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance
produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint
us.” The scripture then concludes by saying, “God’s love has been poured into
our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” So according
this scripture from Romans, it says that we as Christians are justified before
almighty God by our faith. Yet this faith is in Jesus Christ the savior,
through God, and by being filled with the Holy Spirit. “God, One and Three.”
When looking at the gospel of John
scripture from this morning, Jesus said, to his disciples “I still have many
things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth
comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own,
but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that
are to come.” Well when reading this scripture from the gospel of John then, it
seems pretty clear that Jesus is saying you cannot have the fullness of God,
and the fullness of faith without the Holy Spirit. Until it “comes,” he said,
you won’t be spiritually complete. So, as Christians, we believe that God
created, Jesus came to save, and that we must have faith in Christ to be saved,
yet Jesus said we cannot be complete without the spirit. So once again, how do
we theologically package all of this? The Church says, we have “God, One and
Three,” One God in three separate persons, three separate representations, yet
all fully and truly God. Jesus ended today’s gospel reading by saying, speaking
of the spirit, “He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and
declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that
he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” So Jesus said, “All that
Father has is mine,” and says speaking of the Holy Spirit, “He will take what
is mine and declare it you.” “God, One and Three.”
So brothers and sisters this doctrine
of the Trinity is how for centuries we have connected God the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. To re-cap then, we believe in the
Trinity because is taught indirectly in various scriptures in the Bible, and we
believe that the Trinity fully explains and justifies the divinity of Jesus Christ
and the Holy Spirit, while affirming the one true God. We also believe that part
of the reality of the Trinity is as my friend Stergious said, “it’s a mystery,”
beyond our human comprehensions. Lastly, we believe in the Trinity, because the
early ecumenical church councils found it to be true.
I had a professor in my
first seminary that was in his 70’s say something one day about the Holy
Trinity that blew me away. He said, “If Saint Augustine believed it, if Saint
Francis of Assisi believed it, if Tertullian believed it, if John Paul II
believed it, if Billy Graham believes it still, if Mother Theresa believed it,
if John Wesley believed it, if Martin Luther believed it, if the majority of the
Christian Churches and the majority of Christians believe it, and have believed
for centuries, then it is probably true.” In fact, the Roman Catholic Church,
The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Church (Church of England), and
virtually all Protestant Churches believe in the doctrine of Trinity.
I would
like to close this morning with a very short story on the Holy Trinity. “This
story is told of St. Augustine of Hippo, a great philosopher and theologian who
wanted so much to understand the doctrine of the Trinity and to be able to
explain it logically.” So here goes, “One day as he was walking along the sea
shore and reflecting on this, he suddenly saw a little child all alone on the
shore. The child made a hole in the sand, and then ran to the sea with a little
cup. She then filled her cup up, and then quickly came back and poured it into
the hole she had made in the sand. Back and forth she went to the sea, filled
her cup up and came and poured it into the hole. St. Augustine went up to her
and said, "Little child, what are doing?" and she replied, "I am
trying to empty the sea into this hole." "How do you think," St.
Augustine asked her, "that you can empty this immense sea into this tiny
hole and with this tiny cup?" To which she replied, "And you, how do
you suppose that with this your small head you can comprehend the immensity of
God?" With that the child disappeared.”
Brothers
and sister, as the opening hymn from this morning said, “God in three persons,
blessed Trinity.” It is hard to comprehend, and it can be challenging to wrap
our minds around. So this week I would encourage you, as the Apostle Paul says
in Philippians 2:12 to “figure out your own faith through fear and trembling,”
to really grow in this doctrine of the Blessed or Holy Trinity. I bring this
message to you in names of “God, One and Three,” The Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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