Holy Trinity Sunday
One of the nifty little neo-logisms we hear these days is
“man-splaining”. When someone,
especially a man, explains something in a condescending way, especially to a
woman. A related term is
“over-explaining”. In our impatient
world of fast-moving information, we don’t have time to sit through a long
explanation of something we already know, so we skip to the end, or speed up
the video, or ask for the “too long, didn’t read” version.
And while we probably all could be well-served by more
patience, especially when it comes to the important teachings of the
faith…. It is also true that Christian
preachers may run into the danger of “over-explaining” certain doctrines,
especially the one on center stage today – the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
Through many years of experience and great controversies,
the church has learned a hard lesson about the doctrine of the Trinity. It is a truth of scripture to be confessed,
but not over-explained. It is a teaching to be fully accepted, but never
completely understood. It is a blessing
that God graciously reveals to us, not something that we, of ourselves,
concluded or deciphered about him.
And so a right approach to such a doctrine comports very
well with the Gospel itself. Just as we
are saved by grace and not by works, so we receive God’s revelation of himself
as three and one – by grace – it comes to us, it’s not something we, even the
whole church has “worked out”. It is,
rather, a gift.
This is why tools like the Athanasian Creed are so valuable
for the church. It sets a safe framework
in which we may rightly confess the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It guards us from going astray, and repeating
the errors of the past, which the church has already resolved. It keeps us from new and divergent and false
teachings which always detract from the Gospel, tend toward works
righteousness, and diminish the work of God in Christ for our salvation.
We sinners want to master the material, we want to claim
expertise and knowledge. We want to be,
in a word, like God. It was our first
temptation. But just as Adam and Eve
would have done far better if they simply trusted God’s word, “in the day you
eat of it you will die”. So we also do
better to simply trust what God says about himself in Holy Scripture,
concerning the Holy Trinity.
Today we have three of the great passages on which the
doctrine of the Trinity rests… Isaiah 6, John 3, and Acts 2.
In Isaiah’s vision, like much of the Old Testament, the
three-ness and one-ness of God is not as clearly revealed as it is in the New
Testament. Nonetheless, there are shades
of it. The angels sing that God is,
“Holy, Holy, Holy”. In the Hebrew, a
three-fold repetition indicates a superlative.
As if to say, holy, holier, holiest.
But therein is also a hint of the three persons of this Holy Trinity and
Undivided Unity. The early church
fathers understood this to be such a reference to the Trinity.
In John 3, Jesus explains to Nicodemus the importance of
Holy Baptism, that is, being born again.
Later Jesus would command his disciples to baptize in the name of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But already
with Nicodemus, Jesus is teaching that the Father so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, that we may be born of water and the Spirit.
Holy Baptism is thus another doctrine that is intricately
linked to the doctrine of the Trinity.
For we are baptized into that threefold name of the one true God. His triune name is upon us. We are people of the triune God. Children of the Father, Saved by the Son,
Sanctified by the Spirit. And whenever
we hear that triune Name we can remember our baptism and make the sign of the
cross. In a way, your baptism is where
the rubber of the this doctrine hits the road of your life. You are baptized into the name, the three-fold
name of God. Thus he shares his divine
unity with you.
Lest anyone say that the Christian Church invented this
teaching at some council hundreds of years later, we have also the testimony of
St. Peter in his Pentecost Day sermon.
From Acts 2, today, we hear Peter preach:
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan
and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless
men. God raised him up, loosing the
pangs of death,
Peter unfolds the working of the Father and the Son: Jesus
is crucified according to the Father’s plan, and the Father raises him from the
dead, also according to plan. Peter goes
on:
Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and
having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured
out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
The ascended and exalted Christ, at the right hand of God
the Father, pours out his Holy Spirit. Here
we see the oneness of purpose, the united activity, the deep and mysterious way
in which the Triune God accomplishes his purposes.
The Father sends the Son, to take on our flesh, to suffer,
to die, to rise… to ascend and reign over all things. The Son obeys the Father’s will, makes the
Father known to his people, is obedient unto death, even death on a cross, and
rises victorious, ascends in glory. The
Son then sends the Spirit, the Helper, the Comforter, to guide his people into
all truth. The Spirit, who testifies to
Christ. The Spirit, who calls, gathers,
enlightens and sanctifies. The Spirit who
gives life, and that life is in Christ.
The Christian faith is no preschool lesson. Yes, there are simple truths – God created
you. You are a sinner. Jesus died for you. We get to go to heaven. But here there is not only spiritual milk,
but meat.
Here there are truths that exceed the greatest minds of the
most learned scholars. The deep and
profound and sublime – the mysteries of the faith which are worthy of our attention,
our study, and our pondering. And the
deeper we peer into these, like the doctrine of the Trinity, the more we are
both humbled and amazed. The more we see
the riches of God’s grace. The more we are
comforted and encouraged. The more we
appreciate our salvation in Jesus Christ.
And then we come back to this, that we can ultimately not
understand it, but only confess it. That
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, by the power of his Holy
Spirit. One God, Three Persons, a Holy
Trinity and Undivided Unity – all for you, always.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment