Homily, June 3, 2007 Trinity
Sunday
Isaiah 6:1-8, Canticl=
e 13;
Revelation 4:1-11; John 16 (5-11)12-15
May our words and hea=
rts and
minds only reflect glory to you, Father, Son and Holy S=
pirit.
Amen+
T=
rinity
Sunday. The Trinity: Father,=
Son
and Holy Spirit. We repeat our belief in this doctrine each Sunday as we ga=
ther
and say the Nicene Creed, written in 325, together. In my years in our
Education for Ministry classes, and later as an EFM Mentor, I slid right pa=
st
the struggles of Trinity discussions on my “It’s a mystery̶=
1; personal
explanation, able to accept it wholly on what I would call “faithR=
21;.
But here I am, asked to preach on this yearly Sunday celebrating this myste=
ry,
and bound to work my way through the theological layers, seeking to be clos=
er
to the heart of it all, and share my journey with you.
So, I “googled&=
#8221;
the Trinity! My first surprise was that I was met with lists that divided
themselves mostly among papers on the Christian Trinity and the site of the
first atom bomb test in
First of all the word
“Trinity” does not appear in the Bible, but most Christians from
earliest time have agreed that it is implied in many ways by what is appare=
nt
about God in the scriptures. One source described the word as a combination=
of
“Tri”, meaning three, and “Unity”, meaning one. Tha=
t of
course is the problem that many have encountered – How can Three be One and One be Three? It =
does not
compute, it is illogical.
When the church got t=
o the
point of laying down common beliefs or creeds the concept of the Trinity was
intensely examined. Some searched for their answers harder than I did, and =
were
found to be heretics. One early heresy sounded really good to me. “God
manifests himself as Father in acts of creation, as Son in acts of redeemin=
g,
and as Holy Spirit in acts of distributing grace.” The heresy here is=
in
emphasizing divinity over distinctiveness. Three
submits to the One, not equal. So I moved on…
I was brought up shor=
t by
Augustine who said “In no other subject is error more dangerous, inqu=
iry
more difficult, or the discovery of truth more rewarding”. So I waded=
in
deeper…
In more than one study
analogies were described that have been used to try and make
“sense” of the concept of Trinity. Water is one of them –=
it
can exist in three forms – liquid, ice and steam – yet it is st=
ill all
H2O. Then C.S. Lewis spoke of 3 in God as analogous to 6 squares existing i=
n a
cube. A newer analogy is named “Social: Abraham, Sara and Isaac are o=
ne
family – family is one, but made up of distinct persons. Another more
complex one spoke of a statue and the bronze, the matter it is made of. As a
lump of bronze it is one kind of thing, as a statue it is distinct as anoth=
er. We
can see it as two in one. Rodin’s “The Thinker” is both
statue and lump of bronze. If melted down the bronze still exists but the d=
istinct
statue no longer exists, proving it’s distinctness.
What is the practical=
value
of wading into these efforts to understand and explain? I was beginning to =
be drawn
back to my original “Mystery” theme until these theological
writers, Michale Rea and Jeffrey Brown, reminded me that we are to love God=
not
with just our heart but with our mind as well. And one way to do this is to
meditate on Divine nature, to seek understanding, even if we recognize that=
we
will never really succeed. God took the step of revealing himself in this t=
riune
manner, and Christians should “seek to shed enough light on it to see=
the
Trinity doctrine as not manifestly incoherent.”
The scriptures say we=
are to
worship only one God – this is monotheism, at the core of the Abraham=
ic
religions. The concept of the Trinity is difficult for both Islam and Judai=
sm
to comprehend, as it is a New Testament concept. I looked at some of the ea=
rly
creeds to see how they incorporated this truly Christian revelation of God:=
The Westminister conf=
ession
of Faith says:
“In the unity o=
f the
Godhead there be three persons, of one substance,
power and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The
Father is of none, neither begotten nor preceeding ;
The Son is eternally begotten of the Father; and the Holy Ghost is eternally
proceeding from the Father and the Son.” To me this speaks of an
expanding power through time – God expanding directly and differently=
into
our lives through shared yet the same divinity, like an expanding universe =
of
stars.
I found the Athanasia=
n Creed
– developed around 500 – traditionally attributed to the Archbi=
shop
of Alexandria, and now rarely used in the
“We worship one=
God in Trinity
and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons, nor dividing the
substance. For there is one person for the Father, anot=
her
for the Son, and yet another for the Holy Spirit. But the Divinity of
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one…Thus the Father is God, the So=
n is
God, and the Holy Spirit is God; and yet there are not three Gods, but ther=
e is
one God.”
Substance, or essence=
, is
what a thing is. There is but one substance that is God. Yet God is reveale=
d in
three manners of substistence – three modes of existence. I came upon=
one
sentence that summed up this quest that I was on, urged by Augustine, and
rewarding indeed!
The Trinity doctrine
describes:
“God’s re=
velation
of One who is infinite to those who are finite&#=
8221;
And the scholars I re=
ad, in
many instances, said that in any seeking of God we should always expect to =
find
mystery involved, for this very reason.
So, I am back to the =
mystery,
but somehow more in awe of God’s ongoing attempt to reveal the Divine
essence to us, more keen to hear and understand =
the
words of Jesus, and more open to following the moving of the Holy Spirit in=
my
life as best I can see it.
P=
raise
Father, Son and Holy Ghost. =
Amen.