Holy Trinity Year B, 2024

Holy Trinity Sunday, Year B

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: grace and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The early 4th Century AD was a turbulent time for the early Christian Church. In 313, when Emperor Constantine (after his own conversion to Christianity) legally changed the empire’s policy toward Christians to be one of benevolence instead of persecution, Christianity really started to become popular. The Church grew rapidly… perhaps too rapidly. Many leaders grew to prominence in their own regions, and not all of them followed the teachings that had been passed down by Jesus and his apostles. This was a time that many heresies arose and caused problems for the Church and her people.

One such heretic was named Arius, another bishop. He believed and taught that Jesus was not God, but was created by God. A creature, but certainly a special creature. And because he was, to them, a creature and NOT God, they did not have to worry about God being “one God”, as is unquestionably clear in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”) The Father is God, the Son is not. Arians did not write much about the Holy Spirit, so we don’t really know their teachings on the 3rd Person of the Trinity.

Arius “...made his case at the Council of Nicaea, arguably the most important of the early church’s councils. He was condemned as a heretic because his belief undermined the Trinity. … Arianism was one of the main topics at the Council of Nicaea in 325. The council sought to clearly define the Trinity in a way that combatted Arianism and earlier heresies about the Trinity. The definition they came up with was that Jesus was ‘Very God of Very God,’ ‘Begotten, not made,’ and ‘of one substance with the Father.’

At the Council of Nicaea, Athanasius stood for a proper doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The Athanasian Creed we used this morning is named after him. Athanasius was born in 296 AD, and was Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt beginning in the year 328. He was one of the early theologians of the church to help us develop our doctrine. But not everyone agreed with his positions.

“He was exiled five times because his belief in the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity was not in vogue with the political leaders of his day. He often felt as though it was him against the world. His tombstone even bore the Latin inscription Athanasius Contra Mundum (‘Athanasius against the world’). He fought for the faith in a time of intense persecution and wrote several influential texts about the doctrine of the Trinity that are still valuable today.

“Orthodox Christian doctrine, as defined in the Athanasian Creed, is that the members of the Trinity have always existed and are equal in glory and majesty. This was one of the main tenets of the Athanasian Creed, the manifesto against all Christological and Trinitarian heresies.

“According to Athanasius, the Arian view of God the Son reintroduces polytheism into Christianity—God the Son is a distinct being who is also worshipped. It also undermines the atonement of Christ because only someone truly divine could have reconciled us to God. Arianism denies Jesus’ eternality and says, ‘There was a time when the Son was not.’ This is not consistent with the doctrine of the Trinity revealed in Scripture.” (https://www.christianity.com/wiki/cults-and-other-religions/arianism-heresy.html)

Arianism is just one of many heresies that the early church had to deal with. But it is why we have our Creeds. The Apostles’ Creed deals with Christ as man. The Nicene Creed is more focused on Christ as God. The Athanasian Creed spells out the details, and addresses other heresies as well.

For instance, one heresy says that Christ can ONLY be man. This cannot be true, because a mere man could not atone for the sins of the whole world.

Another heresy says that Christ can ONLY be God. If he were only God and not man, then he could not have died, and therefore no atonement took place on the cross, and no resurrection actually happened.

Other heresies actually confused the idea of Jesus being both God and man at the same time. The language of the Athanasian Creed explains the proper Christian understanding of who Christ was and is.

There was a time that this Creed was used on an almost weekly basis. It has been reduced to only once per year, and we use it on this Sunday to help us think deeply about the Holy Trinity. It would be much easier for us to say that we worship 3 Gods - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But God Himself told us that is not the case. Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” So the church gave us “One God in Three Persons”. And it’s hard to wrap your head around. But let’s be honest: when you really think about God, doesn’t it blow your mind just in the thinking? I could spend days thinking about this: there was never a time that God was not. Everything I have ever experienced in my life has had a beginning… except for God. I have a hard time comprehending that. Is it surprising then, that the nature of God is also mind-blowing? “Three in One and One in Three”.

But why is this important to us? Why does it matter? Let’s start with this: before God created ANYTHING, God existed in relationship. God was Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Perfect relationship. Perfect communion.

Now, what else do we know about God? One thing we’ve heard in the last few weeks from St. John - God is love. And this morning’s Gospel contains the most famous passage in the Christian Bible: John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” I think most people focus on the last part of that verse…but let’s not forget the first 6 words: “For God so loved the world...” He created us in love.

The first two humans created by God were with God in His garden. God made two because it was not good for man to be alone. We were created to be in relationship - with each other and with God. We were created in love, because of love, and for love. Love for each other and love for God. We are most fulfilled when we love neighbor and love God, because that is when we are living into our purpose: that for which we were created.

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity and how we teach and understand it is important to us as Christians because this is who God is. The teaching on this, as accepted by the Christian church throughout history, is taken from the Bible. Whatever has been called heresy is that which disagrees with the Bible. Heresies were often popular because they, too, were based in the Bible, but something was twisted, which means not all of it agreed with the Bible. It was easy for anyone who didn’t know the Scriptures to be swayed. In ancient times, only churches and priests and the very rich had Bibles, so it’s not surprising that many WERE led astray.

But we don’t have that problem now. I hope that all of you have at least one hard-copy Bible in your home. Certainly we can pull it up on our phone or our laptop, but have an actual hardcopy in your house too. Read and study it. Get to know the Word of God, so that you can tell truth from lies. There are many out there, even today, who claim to be Christian but are not.

Can you stand your ground when a Jehovah’s Witness knocks on your door? This Holy Trinity stuff is our biggest disagreement with them. They don’t believe that Jesus is God. And they have their own translation of the Bible to back up their claims. It’s not a faithful translation… but you’d have to know the Greek to know why it’s different. Don’t misunderstand: I’m not saying the Jehovah’s Witnesses are evil. I’m just saying they’re not Christian. They would absolutely not agree with or the Creed we recited this morning or the faith we confess in that Creed. And we should be worried about them: “one cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully.” They’ve been led astray. They misunderstand who God is, and who their Savior is, and what He’s done for all of us.

We have spent some time looking into the future of our church family, and I’m glad we did. We need to be doing that. There are things that we need to think about and decide upon as we move forward. But one thing is abundantly clear: as we look forward, we must also look outward. To be a Great Commission Church, and to Grow in our Outreach are 2 of the three Vision Points we decided for ourselves. If we are going to share the Gospel with those who don’t know it, and reach out into our community to love our neighbors, we have to be confident in what we believe. We have to know our faith and understand it well enough to teach it to others. And that means we have to study it. Wrestle with it, and research it, and absorb it.

I don’t expect you to be scholars of Trinitarian doctrine. I’m certainly not. But if someone tells you that Jesus wasn’t really God, I’d hope you would recognize that as false, and be able at least to say, “the Creed of my church says that Jesus *is* God.” And that you’d know where to find that Creed. Or maybe even recite a few lines.

Despite the many different denominations of Christianity that are out there, one thing most of us have in common is the teaching on the Holy Trinity. We might not agree on Sacraments or clergy or images or music but we agree on this. And if the day comes when the Christian Church comes under attack, the enemies won’t care if we’re Lutheran or Presbyterian or Seventh Day Adventist. It will be good to know we have this as common ground, and there we can stand together.

On a less scary note, it’s good to understand the fundamentals of our faith. I’m sometimes concerned that there are questions of faith that go unanswered because someone is afraid to ask. I hope that everyone in our church family will feel comfortable enough to ask the questions about faith that you’ve wondered about for years. My hope is for all of us to find those answers so that we can be better teachers of the faith for our children and grandchildren, and for those who might join the faith because we shared Jesus with them.

This Trinity thing is always going to be something of a mystery. Some things about God just are mysterious. But we know that God always keeps His promises, and the most important of those is that “whoever believes in His Son should not perish but have eternal life.” That tells me that we will have eternity with God for Him to explain that to us. My guess is that it’s more likely that He won’t tell us; instead, He’ll show us what “One God, Three Persons” truly is. And from what the Bible tells us, it’s going to be a wonderful time learning it.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.