The Holy Trinity: A Model of
Relationship
Trinity Sunday, Year B: May 31, 2015
St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal
Church
Charles Everson
In the name of the Most Holy and
Undivided Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
It has been said that it’s impossible
to preach on Trinity Sunday without accidently falling into heresy. Rectors
know better than to put themselves into this awkward position, and so they
often assign the sermon on this feast day to the curate, deacon, or even the
seminarian. And so, here I am. I think of it as a sort of ecclesiastical
hazing ritual. So, I’ve decided to avoid
heresy and take the safe route. Take a look at the front of your bulletin. There you go.
Amen.
The feast of the Holy Trinity is the
only feast in the church dedicated to a doctrine, rather than to a saint or an
event in Jesus’s life. And yet it is one
of the most difficult doctrines to wrap your head around. I’m not sure how many of you are into Star
Trek, but I have the feeling that the Vulcans wouldn’t find the doctrine of the
Trinity very logical. Don’t get me
wrong; the minute theological details of the doctrine of the Trinity are very
important. The early church was full of
fights and excommunications due to heretical views on the Trinity and so, the
church developed a creed to articulate a formal position on this doctrine. This creed is referred to as the Athanasian
Creed and it can be found in the back of the Prayer Book. While it is named after St. Athanasius, the
great fourth century defender of orthodoxy from the Christian East, this creed
is now believed to be an early sixth century composition originating in the
West. Fast forward to the
Reformation. The English Prayer Books from
the beginning in 1549 called for its recitation in the liturgy on 19 occasions
throughout the church year. However, it
is no surprise that the church today doesn’t call for its use liturgically, no
matter how helpful it may be in explaining the Trinity, due to its harsh,
laborious language.
For example: “We worship one God in
Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the
Substance. The Father is God, the Son is
God, and the Holy Ghost is God. For like
as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by
himself to be both God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the Catholic religion
to say, there be three Gods or three Lords.” Very laborious language. The creed ends this way: “And they that have
done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into
everlasting fire. This is the Catholic
faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.” The end. Pretty harsh.
So, we won’t be reciting this creed today. However, if you want to
understand the doctrine of the Trinity, I would encourage you to take a peek at
the Athanasian Creed – preferably, sometime after this sermon is over.
For today, let’s assume that the
Church’s understanding and full explanation in the Creed is what it is. What does the doctrine of the Trinity mean
for us today? The Trinity is all about relationship. God the Father is with the Son who is with
the Spirit who is with the Father, self-communicating, self-giving,
self-receiving. When we profess belief
in the Trinity, we affirm that it is of the essence of God to be in
relationship.[1] Not only a relationship, but many
relationships, beginning with the communion of the three Persons within the
Godhead, and expanding to the relationship between God and all of creation.[2] God became man in order that man might become
God, he in us and we in him.
The encounter between Jesus and
Nicodemus in our gospel lesson helps us gain some insight into the nature of
the relationship between God and humanity. Nicodemus is a leader of the Jews
and in this encounter, he begins by acknowledging to Jesus that he believes
that he has come from God, for no one else can perform the miracles he performs
apart from the presence of God. Jesus
responds by telling him that no one can see the kingdom of God without being
“born from above,” or as other translations put it, being “born again.”
Nicodemus appears to be channeling Vulcan
logic when he responds by asking Jesus, “How can anyone be born after having
grown old? Can one enter a second time
into the mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus tries again and instead of
using the phrase “born from above,” he says that no one can enter the kingdom
of God without being “born of water and the Spirit.” We can all understand what it means to be
“born of water,” or born from our mother’s womb. You know, flesh and blood. “What is born of the flesh is flesh,” Jesus
says, “and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” What does it mean to be born of the
Spirit?
Jesus continues, “The wind blows
where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it
comes from or where it goes. So it is
with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
We all know about the wind,
right? We’ve experienced it. So, this
explanation should clear things up for us.
Not so for Nicodemus! This still doesn’t jive with his logical thinking.
So Jesus tries a third time to teach
Nicodemus more fully about the birth from above. He uses an analogy that Nicodemus
would have immediately recognized from Israel’s history. During the Exodus, Moses lifted up a
serpent-staff so that all who were suffering from the venomous bites of the
serpents would be spared. In the same
way, all who turn in faith to the lifting up of the Son of Man on the cross may
have eternal life, or “birth from above.”[3]
Jesus continues, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” The word “love” in this context – “God so
loved the world” – is not a feeling, but an action that seeks the good of the
people being loved.[4] God’s love for the world is self-communicating,
self-giving, and self-receiving – like the relationship between the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit.
Eternal life, or birth from above,
comes from turning in faith to Jesus Christ in relationship. This is no easy task and it’s certainly not
logical. It requires the sort of
self-communicating, self-giving, and self-receiving love that we see in the
Trinity. It requires that we give up our
own desires and instead seek to do the will of God. It requires an irrational “love” – not an
emotion, but action that seeks the good of the one being loved. It requires putting the Other before yourself. It requires that we lay down our lives at the
foot of the cross so that we may become our true selves – who we were actually
created to be: in full communion with our Creator.
It is through relationship that we
are born from above, that we enter into eternal life. And we see that fullness
of relationship in the communal life of the Most Holy Trinity. God the Father is with the Son who is with
the Spirit who is with the Father, self-communicating, self-giving,
self-receiving. God became man in order
that man might become God, he in us and we in him.
In a moment, we will go unto the
altar of God. The altar where God the
Father communicates his love to us by giving us the precious gift of his Son by
the power of the Holy Spirit. Holy
Communion is as much an inexplicable mystery as the Trinity is, and it is
perhaps at the rail as we receive the body and blood of our Lord where the
mystery makes the most sense.
In the name of the Most Holy and
Undivided Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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