The Trinity
Father Jim Fosdick
St. Mary of the Snows
June 3, 2007
In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Before I begin let me point out something quickly that relates to our gospel today. I often begin my homilies with the prayer I just said. Listen to it again. In the name of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit. Notice we say in the name not names of God. Notice too we go on to say that that name is Father Son and Holy Spirit. There in a nutshell is the doctrine of the Trinity. One God in three persons, blessed Trinity.
I read about a preacher this week who proudly boasted that he does not preach doctrinal sermons. They are boring he asserts and people do not understand or relate to them. Further, he claimed, I am a preacher and not a theologian. I get down to the practical issues and simply preach Christ crucified.
I think his thinking is faulty at several points. First, he is wrong when he says that he is not a theologian. The fact is that everyone to a certain extent is a theologian. Theology is nothing more than what you think about God. Well, shouts one person, I don’t believe In God. That, then, is your theology. Atheists say they don’t believe in God but then that seems to suggest there is in the culture at least a God not to believe in. As my spiritual director once said, it’s really hard work to be an atheist. When you don’t believe in God you do believe in literally thousands of random accidents that occurred perfectly so as to arrive at the results we can plainly see in the universe. You’d have to be either gullible or naïve to believe in all those perfectly arranged accidents and not believe someone was doing the arranging.
I would also take issue with him when he claims that he does not preach theology but gets down to practical issues. To my way of thinking there is no difference in good theology and good practice. Good, solid theology gets down to the very core of our existence. There is nothing more practical than our understanding of and relation to God.
Finally, I would disagree with him when he says that we should only preach Christ crucified. I know that is what the Apostle Paul said but this preacher doesn’t mean what Paul meant. He is saying that he only preaches about the cross and saving the sinner. I submit to you that the cross is not central in Paul's theology; rather, it is Christ. Thousands of people died on the cross. It is because Christ the Son of God died on the cross and that he was resurrected that we call ourselves Christians. It has always puzzled me why some ministers narrow their message and limit it to the importance of recognizing we are sinners. This is of course important, but it’s a little like telling people about the threat of polio without telling them there’s a vaccine. People need to hear about all of Christ’s teachings.
A couple weeks ago we went to Candy Colby’s organ recital and her performance and several of the others were outstanding. There are many pipes on an organ. To make beautiful music all of them must be played and not just one. That is why in the Anglican Communion worldwide we follow the lectionary and the seasons of the church year. This insures a witness to the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can one go through the season of Advent and not touch upon the doctrine of the incarnation? How can one go through Lent without touching upon the doctrine of repentance? What would Eastertide be without the resurrection? Likewise, how can we embark upon the season of Pentecost, as we did last week, without mentioning the Holy Spirit and the doctrine of the Trinity?
Today is Trinity Sunday. This is a day that has been celebrated in the Christian church since the 10th century. It is on this occasion that ministers around the world address themselves to the subject of the triune God. It is tempting to dodge the subject. It is easy to get lost in the mystery and for the congregation to get lost listening to the preacher. You probably realize by now that whenever I face a situation like this I end up concluding I just have to address it as best I can. That Holy Spirit is there relentlessly saying this is what they need to hear.
Let me begin by saying that the doctrine of the Trinity does not attempt to explain God. It only explains to us in a very elemental way what God has revealed to us about himself so far. To describe the tip of the iceberg above the water is not to describe the entire iceberg. So we Christians affirm the Trinity, not as an explanation of God, but simply as a way of describing what we know about Him.
The idea of the Trinity is not emphatically stated as a doctrine in the scriptures. Yet, by implication, it is stated many times. We read in Luke, Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. There you have Jesus in the flesh. You have the Holy spirit in bodily form and you have God talking. Sounds like God in three distinct persons at the same time to me. The early Christians soon discovered that they simply could not speak of God without speaking of the three ways in which he had revealed himself to them. This does not mean that there are three Gods. It means that there is one God who has shown himself as three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let’s look at these this morning:
It’s interesting to me that this comes up today. This past week I began preparing for my role as Chaplain to the Diocese of Fond du Lac’s Church Camp. We met at the camp yesterday and we’re going to use the creeds and the baptismal covenant as a way of leading the senior high campers through an understanding of the faith. All three creeds affirm the trinity. Let’s look at what we believe.
First, we affirm God the Father. The issue is not whether or not there is a God. Ninety-six percent of all Americans, the Gallop poll tells us, believe in the existence of a God in some form or another. In fact the number of people who don’t believe in God has been steadily declining. The real question is what kind of a God? According to Thomas Jefferson, for example, God was like a big cosmic watchmaker. He created the universe and wound it up and let it go. The world is now in the process of simply letting itself run down. God has completely detached himself from his creation. This is a form of deism and it’s wrong. As patriotic Americans it’s hard to hear this about Jefferson, but it’s true. Jefferson also created his own Bible, cutting out the parts he didn’t agree with. This is basically Marcionism, but we won’t get into that.
The philosopher Nietsche said that there indeed, once was a God, but that he is now dead. He and those who agree with him say that the God of the universe so completely poured himself into the person of Jesus Christ that when Jesus died on the cross God himself died. Nietcshe had a nervous breakdown and ended his life in an institution for the insane.
These views are foreign to the Christian way of thinking. We affirm that the same God who molded the universe also cares about what happens in our life. Indeed, he is actively and mysteriously involved in helping to shape the events of your life.
The fact that we refer to the first person of the Trinity as Father says something about what God is like. In fact, Jesus went so far as to refer to God not only as Father but as Abba, which is the Hebrew word meaning Daddy. Can you imagine referring to the creator of an endless universe, the creator of countless solar systems as Daddy? When I was a child I used the word. Now I just use the word Dad. What a difference it would make if we could only think of God as that loving daddy who waits patiently for us while we foolishly wonder off to the far countries in our life and do our own thing. Then, when we have come to ourselves, he is there to meet us at the door and joyfully take us back in like the father in the Prodigal Son.
It is easy to think of God as the omnipotent, wholly other, righteous, all-powerful, judge. These are all traits of the divine and we must indeed learn to think of him in these terms. But if our Christian understanding of the nature of God is to be correct, then we must also learn to think of God as our kind, sympathetic, understanding, compassionate, gentle and loving Father.
To be sure there are stern images of God in the Old and New Testaments, even in the Gospels themselves. God is a God of judgment and Jesus will be our judge. But the love of God is the major emphasis, which runs throughout the Bible. There is no message which breaks down the resistance of recalcitrant hearts like the message of persistent love. A love bestowed in spite of what we have done; a love given that was not earned; a love that came despite our resistance; a love that healed when sickness pervaded our soul; a love that to this day restores, restores, and restores. This is the God who saved me when I was lost in my sins. I understand that I love God and follow Jesus because God first loved me. The prophet Jeremiah caught the true message of our faith when he heard God say to him, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
One final word on this subject. It is a misconception among some Christians and scholars who say that when Christ came to earth God somehow changed. Where he had been stern and judgmental, they would say, he now became loving and compassionate. In James Mitchener’s book HAWAII, we read the story of a Christian missionary living in the early 1700’s going to the islands to convert the natives. When he arrives he is shocked to see half naked native people, men who have several wives, and the King who is married to his own sister according to native custom. He brings a message of damnation to these people. The only thing he succeeded in doing is bringing unhappiness to a people who were once happy and content. By the end of the movie we see how this missionary has totally changed. Having lived with the people he now loves them and has compassion for them. It is easy for us to say that God changed when Christ came and lived among us. The fact is, however, that God is unchanging. The theological term is immutable. His divine purpose has always been one of redemption and love. There was nothing wrong with the law that God gave to Moses and the Jews. What was wrong is our turning it into an end in itself. The very reason of creation itself is that God is a God of overflowing love. The result of that love was life itself.
Secondly, we affirm a belief in the Son, Jesus Christ. We say that God took on human form, came and lived among us, suffered the same trials that we suffered, experienced the same feelings that we experienced. Jesus was fully human and fully divine. Jesus was not God. Jesus was God, incarnate. That means God made flesh. There is a difference. Jesus never drew attention to himself but always pointed to God.
Soren Kiekegard, the great Danish theologian of another century tells a story of a prince who wanted to find a maiden suitable to be his queen. One day while running an errand in the local village for his father he passed through a poor section. As he glanced out the windows of the carriage his eyes fell upon a beautiful peasant maiden. During the ensuing days he often passed by the young lady and soon fell in love. But he had a problem. How would he seek her hand?
He could order her to marry him. But even a prince wants his bride to marry him freely and voluntarily and not through coercion. He could put on his most splendid uniform and drive up to her front door in a carriage drawn by six horses. But if he did this he would never be certain whether the maiden loved him or was simply overwhelmed with all of the splendor. The prince came up with another solution. He would give up his robes, move into the village, entering not with a crown but in the garb of a peasant. He lived among the people, shared their interests and concerns, and talked their language. In time the maiden grew to love him for who he was and loved him because he had first loved her.
This very simple, almost child like story, written by one of the most brilliant minds of our time explains what we Christians mean by the incarnation. God came and lived, among us. I am glad that this happened for two reasons: One, when I am going through a difficult time, I can believe that Jesus understands because he lived as a man, working for a living, experiencing pain, living to some extent as we do. Secondly, Jesus gives us a first hand view of what the mind of God is really all about. When people ask what God is like, we as Christians point to the person of Jesus Christ. God himself is incomprehensible. But in Jesus Christ this incomprehensible God makes himself knowable. When Phillip says Lord, show us the Father Jesus replies, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. We get a glimpse of his glory. In the person of Jesus we are told that the mysterious other who created the stars and the universe is willing to go all of the way, even to a cross, so that a single person may be redeemed. You and me. God died for you and me. That’s what God is like. That’s the God we say we believe in when we say we believe in Jesus Christ.
Finally, we affirm a belief in the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit? In the Nicene Creed we say, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord the giver of life.” One commentator put it this way, “The Holy Spirit is the infinite become intimate. It is the Beyond that is within. It is the realization of the presence of the Living God.”
Intimacy with God. That’s what the Holy Spirit brings to our lives. And herein lies a danger. We must be careful lest we identify the work of the Holy Spirit with our own deep feelings and impulses. Virtually every conceivable error of judgment or breakdown in intelligence within the church can, and has been, attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit. Whether it’s the capital punishment of heretics as was done in the middle ages or the present inclination to legalize sin and call it the Holy Spirit doing a new thing the Holy Spirit has been blamed for some awful behavior of the church. Throughout the history of the church, there has been a check and balance system for testing whether something is of the spirit. The first check is does the action conform to Holy Scripture? The second check is does it conform to what the church has taught through history? Finally the third check is, is the worldwide church in agreement? This is essentially a restatement of something called the Vincentian Canon or rule. St. Vincent of Lerins said the test is what has been believed everywhere, always and by all. We should be very slow to attribute new doctrine to the Holy Spirit. New doctrine limits God…makes God small. It says that God is timebound and couldn’t anticipate the future. It also suggests God changes. But God is the same yesterday today and forever.
We will be speaking more of the Holy Spirit as the season of Pentecost progresses. I would simply like to close with this thought on the Trinity. We’ll never be able to adequately describe the Holy Spirit and his interaction in the Trinity and that’s OK. In fact it’s a good thing. A.W. Tozer writes, “The Church has not hesitated to teach the doctrine of the Trinity. Without pretending to understand, she has given her witness, she has repeated what the Holy Scriptures teach. Some deny that the Scriptures teach the Trinity of the Godhead on the ground that the whole idea of trinity in unity is a contradiction in terms; but since we cannot understand the fall of a leaf by the roadside or the hatching of a robin’s egg in the nest yonder, why should the Trinity be a problem to us. ‘We think more loftily of God,’ says Michael de Molinos,’ by knowing that He is incomprehensible, and above our understanding, than by conceiving Him under any image, and creature beauty, according to our rude understanding.’”
Someone once asked Mrs. Albert Einstein if she understood her husband’s theory of relativity. No, she said, but I know my husband. We cannot begin to fathom the incomprehensible mysteries of God, but that does not mean that we cannot know God. If God, choosing to make himself known to us, comes in the person of Jesus Christ and says I am your brother, and let me show you the Father, then by the Holy Spirit you can know God. Intimately. Personally. Amen |
