Sunday
02/18/18 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “The Trinity in real time!”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 25:1-10
New Testament
Scripture: 1 Peter 3:18-22
Gospel Lesson:
Mark 1:9-15
Welcome again my friends, my sisters and brothers in
Christ, on this our First Sunday of the season of Holy Lent. In this season of
40-days, minus Sundays, we are called to prepare our hearts, our minds, our
souls, and our bodies, for the coming trial, crucifixion, death, and then
resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.
This season of Lent began this past Wednesday on Ash
Wednesday, and for many of us it is a practice or a tradition to give up
something for Lent. Giving up something, or giving away something, isn’t
supposed to be a punishment though, but rather it should be something that
draws us closer to God, to Jesus Christ. Maybe we will give up chocolate, or
ice cream, or anger, or jealously, and maybe we will give away things we don’t
need. Maybe we will give and love more generously. All in all, this season of
Lent is about drawing closer to Jesus Christ. For me, I have decided to give up
soda for Lent. I thought about giving up coffee, but then I came to my senses.
So no soda for this kid until Easter.
With this said, since the birth of Jesus Christ is
celebrated on Christmas, and since his death and his resurrection are remembered
and celebrated before and on Easter Sunday, these two are really the biggest
annual holidays of the Christian Church. Due to this, and due to many other
factors, one can easily conclude that Jesus Christ is central and significant
to the Christian faith. I mean we have pictures of him everywhere. In fact, one
of the main historical teachings about Jesus Christ, is that on earth he was
the full embodiment of God. Meaning that he was born of a virgin, lived a
sinless life, died for our sins on the cross, rose from the dead, and on earth
was the fullness of God and a human.
Yet, from very early in the Christian Church until today,
there are people that profess to be a Christian, yet either do not believe in
the historic view of Jesus Christ, or believe it differently. This also goes
for the belief in the Holy Trinity, of God being one God in three persons, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
In fact, I have heard and I have read some Christian
scholars say that the “Holy Trinity” was a creation of the Christian Church.
Within this argument, some of these scholars have said that the early
Christians never agreed on the belief in the Trinity, or on who Jesus Christ
was, and rather that this belief in the Triune God was imposed on them.
From my study of the history of the church, the bible,
theology, and so on, the reality to me is this: that from day one, I believe
that the apostles and the early church not only believed in Jesus Christ, but
also believed that he was fully God and fully human. This is to say that I
believe that they believed that God was and is a Trinity, one God in three
persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
As I said though, we have religious entities, even today,
that either reject the historic Holy Trinity altogether, or do not believe in
it in its historic form. Perhaps they believe that Jesus was only human, or that
he was of a lesser form or power and divinity of God the Father.
What is 100% true though, is that word itself “Trinity” is
not in scripture. It is true that the word “Trinity” was developed by the
church. Did the early church and most Christians up until today believe in the
Holy Trinity though? The answer is yes. The word “Trinity” itself though, was just
the word used to package the Triune God.
From the early days of the Christian Church, or the
Christian Movement however, and even today, there were sects or groups of
people, like the Gnostics, the Arians, the Pelagians, and so on that believed
different things about the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, and the scripture. Yet, the
vast majority of Christians, I believe, have always believed that God was in
three persons.
So where I am going will all of this about Jesus Christ and
Trinity? Here is where, some scholars would say that Jesus was crucified and
resurrected about the year 30 AD. This morning we have a gospel reading from
the Gospel of Mark. In the order in which the four gospels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John were written, the vast majority of biblical scholars believe
that the gospel of Mark was the first written gospel. In dating the gospel of
Mark, according to one of my sources, it was written between the years 66-70 AD
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Mark). So the first of the four
gospels that were written, most scholars would argue is the gospel of Mark, and
it was likely written between the years 66-70 AD.
This means that our first written gospel on the life,
teachings, and events of Christ’s life was written about 35-40 years after his
death and resurrection. Given all of this, can we trust the validity of this
text, of this gospel? The Christian Church has long held that oral tradition or
the telling and retelling of the gospel, the stories of Christ, were passed on intact
to the gospel writers. This means, to me, I believe that the gospel of Mark we
are looking at this morning is not only authoritative and true, but also is an
accurate account of the life, teachings, and events of the life of Jesus Christ.
Let’s look at our gospel of Mark reading for this morning
again. Here is what it says again:
“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth
of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up
out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like
a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with
you I am well pleased” (Mk. 1:9-11,
NRSV).
Now the rest of this gospel reading is
Jesus then going into the wilderness for 40-days to be tried and tempted, and
then Jesus beginning his public ministry. This public ministry was his
preaching, teaching, life, events, miracles, death, resurrection, and so on
(Mk. 1:13-15, NRSV).
What I want to focus on briefly this morning though, is the
baptism narrative part of our gospel of Mark reading. Remember that most
scholars have argued that the gospel of Mark was the first of the four written
gospels, and again it was likely written about 35-40 years after Jesus Christ’
death and resurrection. Again the gospel says:
“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth
of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up
out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like
a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with
you I am well pleased” (Mk. 1:9-11,
NRSV).
To me, what is fascinating about this narrative and the
reason is my sermon is called “The Trinity in real time,” is that in this
baptism narrative we have God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all
present at once. So John the Baptist baptizes Jesus, and as he is coming up out
of the water, the Holy Spirit descends on him “like a dove” (Mk. 1:10, NRSV).
In addition this, right then God the Father says once again:
“You are my Son, the Beloved; with
you I am well pleased”
(Mk. 1:11, NRSV). Even today when most Christian Churches have baptism, the
pastor or the priest says, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, of the
Son, and the Holy Spirit”.
There
are only a few conclusions in my mind that one can draw from this baptism
narrative in the gospel of Mark then. One, you could argue that you believe
that this story never happened. Maybe you don’t believe in the credibility of
this gospel. Two, you could argue that there were three separate Gods present.
Three, you could argue that somehow God the Father and the Holy Spirit were
higher in power than Jesus Christ. Four, you could argue that the story
happened differently. Lastly, we could argue the historical belief that
majority of Christians have always believed that in this scene we have “The
Trinity in real time”. In this scene we have the fullness of the Triune God. We
have the God who creates, his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
In
the fourth gospel, the gospel of John, it says in 1:1-2:
“In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God” (Jn. 1:1-2,
NRSV).
In John’s gospel, he says that God the Father is eternal, but
also that Christ was and is eternal with him. He then says in 1:14:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth”
(Jn.
1:14, NRSV).
John says that the fullness of God in Jesus Christ became
flesh and was amongst us here on earth. I could go on and provide various other
examples of where in the New Testament where to me it clearly lays out not only
the divinity of Jesus Christ, but also the reality of the Triune God. So what
do you say? Is God a Trinity of three persons in one being? Is God Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit? Or is God something else? Do we have “The Trinity in real
time” in Mark’s gospel this morning, or do we believe that it is something
else? Just who is this God that we believe in? To me, God is the Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
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