Holy Trinity B

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, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

A family tells a story of some friends who came for a visit: “While our friends from India traveled around California on business, they left their 11 year-old daughter with us. Curious about my going to [our Christian] church one Sunday morning, she decided to come along. When we returned home, my husband asked her what she thought of the service.

"‘I don't understand why the West Coast isn't included too,’ she replied. When we inquired what she meant, she added, ‘You know, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the whole East Coast.’" [http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/t/trinity.htm]

This is the day when we celebrate and honor our Triune God: the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. When I’ve asked more senior pastors about how they teach and preach about the 3-in-1 and 1-in-3, they almost universally say the same thing: “when you try to explain it, you’re likely to get yourself in trouble.” Many of the heresies that were condemned by the early church had to do with the many comparisons that were used to try to explain how God could be One God, but 3 Persons.

You’ve probably heard about the 3-leaf clover. That doesn’t work as a comparison to God because each leaflet comprises 1/3 of the whole leaf. The persons of the Trinity are each Fully God.

There have also been comparisons using the Sun (Sun, light, and heat - which doesn’t work because light and heat are produced by the source, which makes the Son and the Spirit subordinate to the Father) and water (ice, water, steam - this doesn’t work because it’s all the same substance taking on different modes). Each time we try to think of an earthly metaphor to explain the Holy Trinity, it always falls short in some way. We just don’t have anything to compare to God.

And honestly, that shouldn’t surprise us. Is it surprising that God is incomparable? Is it surprising that God is incomprehensible? We spend a great deal of our time and energy trying to understand God. Much of Christian preaching is focused on that. Who God is; what God wants from us and for us; what God has done, is doing, and will do in the future. And if you speak to any critics of our faith, you’ll find that they want to understand completely before they will even consider trusting God or believing in Him. And therein lies the problem.

Faith does not come from understanding. The early Church Father named Anselm taught that faith is a precondition of knowledge. Put another way, “I believe in order to understand”. [https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/theologians/anselm.html] This is how we actually define theology: faith seeking understanding. Anselm said that knowledge cannot lead to faith, and knowledge gained outside of faith is untrustworthy.

So, as baptized Children of God, it is good for us to seek understanding, because we do so IN FAITH. But it’s important to recognize that it’s the faith piece that comes first. We can’t win anyone over by trying to help someone to understand if they don’t first believe. So what are we to do? We speak God’s truth - the Gospel - in Christian love, and the rest is up to the Holy Spirit.

Why the Holy Spirit? Why not the Son? And why not the Father? The Gospel gives us some good insight into that. Jesus is teaching Nicodemus - a Pharisee, about who God is, and how to enter the kingdom of God. Let’s be clear about this: the Pharisees were THE EXPERTS on Scripture. They spent their whole lives studying the Torah and the Prophets. They knew the books that we call the Old Testament better than anyone. And yet this “expert” comes to a carpenter’s son to be taught about the very nature of God and what salvation actually means.

Jesus tells him about being “born of the Spirit”. He is, of course, talking about Baptism, which was not part of the old Covenant. But Jesus explains that this is absolutely necessary to enter the kingdom of Heaven. We know that Baptism is when we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and that is when God first brings to us the gift of faith, which grows from there as we grow in our discipleship.

Last week, when we remembered the Day of Pentecost, we remember that Jesus ascended to be with the Heavenly Father, but he promised that he would not leave his disciples alone…that they would receive another Helper. That “Helper” was (and is) the Holy Spirit - who helps, comforts, and sustains us through our life of faith. And the Spirit will continue to do that until the Day of Jesus’ return.

So it is the Holy Spirit who helps us when we share the Good News with those who do not know it. It is the Spirit who begins to work in their hearts…but they must hear God’s Word first. “Faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ.” as Paul tells us in Romans 10:17.

So as we speak of the 3 Persons of the Trinity, we can think in terms of the history of God’s people: it was the Father Who Created us. It was the Son Who Redeemed us. And it is the Holy Spirit Who sustains us. This is absolutely true…but it is incomplete.

Yes, the Father created us, but He did so through the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Son definitely redeemed us, but He did so by becoming incarnate by the power of the Holy Spirit, and in obedience to the Father’s Will. The Holy Spirit certainly sustains us, but He does so because He was sent by (or, as we say in the Nicene Creed: “He proceeds from”) the Father and the Son. Whatever One of the Three Persons of the Trinity does, the Other Two are intimately involved in it. In my theology class, we were told that whatever we say about One Person of the Trinity, we say it about All Three Persons of the Trinity. With that guideline in place, we can steer clear of most heresies. As we said a few minutes ago: “What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit.”

Of all the questions we could ask about this Divine Mystery, I think the most important question is “so what?” Why does this make a difference to us as Christians? What’s the big deal? First, we must worship only One God. God Himself tells us this in Deuteronomy: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deut 6:4) We do not worship 3 gods. We worship One God in Three Persons. Yes, they are separate persons. The Gospels witness to this mainly in the event of Jesus’ Baptism, where the Son is baptized by John, the voice of the Father speaks from above, and the Spirit descends on the Son like a dove. Three distinct persons…and yet one God.

Each time we come to God’s House in worship and praise, we begin and end in the name of the Triune God. Each time we hear the Triune Name, it’s quite appropriate to make the sign of the cross on ourselves. Doing this is a mark of our belief in the saving actions of Jesus Christ (reminding us of the Cross that He died on for us). It is also an act of faith. It speaks and confesses our belief in the central truths of our faith: that God became truly one of us; that he died on the cross to save us; that because he did, our Savior has freed us from sin and death and will bring us to the Resurrection and eternal life with him. [https://www.catholic.com/tract/sign-of-the-cross]

In fact, making the sign of the cross on yourself is actually a prayer by gesture. If you ever find that you can’t find the words to pray, begin by making the sign of the cross. Just using your hand and your arm, you are calling out to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…and when you do that, God will hear you.

In a few minutes we will do our annual recitation of the Athanasian Creed. In this Creed, we confess that we believe that God created us. And that from the very beginning, His Divine Plan was to send His Son to redeem us. He knew that this must be done. And the work of both Father and Son is done through the power of the Holy Spirit. As Luther says, it is the Holy Spirit who calls us, gathers us, enlightens us, and sanctifies us…and preserves the whole Christian church on earth in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. [Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 345.]

Knowing what God has done and is doing helps us to understand what we are called to do. God made us for His Purpose. God saved us out of His Divine Love for us. God sustains us and inspires us to do His Kingdom Work. It is in this work that we find ourselves growing closer to God and becoming sanctified. This is the life of faith. This is the path we are called and gathered together to travel.

Each time we gather for worship - lift up the name of the Holy Trinity - I would encourage all of you to consider these things. All of this is contained in that little phrase we began with. All of this is presented to us when we come to the Lord’s Supper to be nourished and sustained. All of this is offered to us when we hear His Holy Word. And we are reminded of all of this when we make the sign of the cross - the cross which is the very symbol of our faith, our hope, and our salvation. The cross that cost so much, but meant so much more - for all of us. That small, quick gesture is a prayer to the God Who did all of this for you.

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