Trinty Sunday 2008
Trinity Sunday
Genesis 1:1-4
May 18, 2008
“Please Simply Explain”
Introduction: I need your help. Can somebody please simply explain some things to me? Please simply explain… Why is it that people say they “slept like a baby” when babies wake up every two hours? Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are flat? Why do banks charge a fee on “insufficient funds” when they know there is not enough? Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet? Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets? Did you ever stop and wonder…… Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, “I think I’ll squeeze these pink dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?” If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, then what is baby oil made from ? If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons? I simply can not answer these questions.
Well so much for fun. How about some serious questions? These are questions that real scientists are asking right now. What is the nature of gravity? It seems that Newton's apple contained a whole can of worms. There are problems with his theory. What is the structure of water? Researchers continue to tussle over how many bonds each H2O molecule makes with its nearest neighbors. What is the nature of the glassy state? Molecules in glass are arranged much like those in liquids but are more tightly packed. Where and why does liquid end and glass begin? What synchronizes an organism's circadian clocks? You know, what wakes those bugs up every few years in time to sound like a summertime lawnmower? How do migrating organisms find their way? Yeah, how do those geese and the pretty birds at my bird feeder map their way from north to south and back again? Why do humans sleep? This seems obvious…we have to. Why do we dream? So those are some real questions. Can someone simply explain? *
When we consider these questions, the ridiculous and serious…things about our known world, I ask you, how can I explain the concept of a Trinitarian God? I almost have to ask myself if I should dare to do such a thing. Of course I might try to say God is like a clover with three leaves. God is like water in its various forms…ice, water, and steam. Or I might describe God as being like an apple with three parts…core, stem and peal. But seriously, do you want me to say that your God is like a fruit or green vegetation? Hardly! Yet we are here to celebrate Trinity Sunday. This is right and good to do.
Today we give consideration to the person of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God has blessed us by revealing to us His true nature…Three persons, one God. This is a profound mystery. It is something that we would never imagine…that something could be three and yet one. It should be obvious to every person that the Christian religion is not something that was developed by man, for no one would come up with something like this that makes no sense to human minds. Yet this is the way that God has revealed Himself to be. He does it in very subtle ways. God is triune. The Trinity is is one yet made up of what we call three persons, Father, Son and Holt Spirit. Each person has unique characteristics that we observe. Yet together they are not three gods but one God, united in purpose to bless what the one and the they have created with love and goodness. Those other questions are not so simple…why then should God be?
We can know something’s about this Triune God. We can learn much about the threefold nature of God by listening to what He says about how He made and redeemed us. In the first place, we look to the story of the creation of the world. In it we learn that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God made all things out of nothing in six days. All the land, the seas, the sky, stars and planets He created from nothing. We see the wonder of God in His creation, from the Grand Canyon to Mount Everest, from the green plants, the animals, fish and birds He made. When God was done, on each day of creation, He looked at all He made and He declared it to be good.
On the sixth day to top it all off God created the human race. When He did, he gave us a hint at His Trinitarian nature. For He said let us, make man in our own image. Did you hear that…let us make man in our own image, in the image of God. He fashioned a man and a woman and set them down in an earthly paradise. On that day the Lord looked at all that He had made and He saw that it was "very good." The creation of the human race made God very happy. That is why even today every life is sacred. When a baby is born, when a life is saved, God is pleased. Human life was created to please the Lord. On the seventh day God rested because He was pleased with his creation.
Then man fell into sin, bad entered into the good world of God. Often times we are tempted to blame God for the bad things that happen in the world. We need to remember that we need to blame ourselves. We see the result. Floods, fires, famines, earthquakes, these only serve to remind us that we live in a fallen world. Because of sin, death and the power of evil we grasp on to the remnants of the good world that God gave us. God is still good.
The second way we see God and His goodness is in the story of our rescue. This is our favorite story, the story of our salvation. In it we see the person of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In this story we also see the Trinitarian nature of God. The Father loves the people that He has created. Jesus loves His Heavenly Father, and therefore also loves God's people. Conceived by the Holy Spirit He comes into the world as one of us, enduring all the hardships we must face, and more. In the story of our salvation we see the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Jesus is anointed by the Holy Spirit to deliver us from sin, death and the power of the devil. Jesus obeys the Father, even to His own death on the cross. At the cross we see God die. For the scriptures say, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily…REPEAT (Colossians 2:9). How can I explain that? In His death on the cross He restores God’s good creation. All who call on the name of the Lord Jesus shall be saved.
There is a connection between what the Father wants, the good of us all, and what the Son wants, to please the Father, and with the Holy Spirit that calls us to faith, sustains us and leads us by God’s Word. They are united in their love and their purpose, to save us.
We can see the Triune God at work. The Father creating and preserving us, the Son loving the Father by pouring out Himself for us and the Spirit loving the Father and the Son by taking the goodness of Christ and applying it to us. Earlier in the service we prayed in the Collect of the Day, "Give us grace to worship the true Unity in the power of your divine majesty." The power of God is how the Trinity works together to bless us in this present tribulation and in the peace of heaven that is yet to come.
As Christians, the goodness of God's creation is restored to us each day.
So, I can not simply explain the Trinity to you. Some things can not be explained. Some things just are. Some things should just need to be appreciated for what they are, not analyzed or answered. Some questions simply can’t be explained…and that’s ok. Some things should leave us with awe and a since of wonder…should not God do the same for us? So today I will take time to wonder. Today, I will wonder again what makes the sky blue. I will ponder how a Bumble bee can fly, while I watch the migrating birds find their ways back home. Today, I will marvel again that God, the one that is three and the three that are one, loves me and is with me now and always. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.