Sermon - June 19, 2011

Trinity Sunday

We Are Triune Christians


They took the Athanasian Creed out of the new ELW. Somehow, that had slipped past me until this week. I don’t want to over-state what this means, but it is quite interesting to me.

The Athanasian Creed is the third of the Creeds officially accepted by our Lutheran Church. We use Apostles and Nicene regularly. The Athanasian Creed has typically been used once a year – on Holy Trinity Sunday. Written later in church history (sometime around the 6th century), it is the only creed in which the equal natures of the three persons of the Trinity is explicitly stated. It is also the only one of the Creeds which states that those who do not hold to the statements of the creed are condemned.

Having (seemingly) expressed my dissatisfaction at the non-inclusion of the Athanasian Creed, let me say that I found it troubling to throw it out there, year after year, with no real explanation. It’s language is harsh. I wondered how the seekers or searchers responded to it its insistence that “those who do not believe these things are condemned already.” On the other hand, I do believe it to be a good teaching tool. And I am all about teaching. Especially on a concept as difficult to explain (and understand) as the Trinity. But understand we must. Otherwise we run the risk of slipping into christomonism, or worshippers of created matter. Our Christian faith is a faith in a Triune God. We worship One God, in three persons. And if it takes the jolt of the Antanasian Creed to remind us how serious all this is, so be it.

You would be hard pressed to find a modern day gathering of Christians who don’t make use Father-Son-Holy Spirit language. But not all of them will be observing Holy Trinity Sunday. We do. Just like Christmas and Easter and Pentecost, Trinity Sunday is set on our calendars as one of the major Church festivals.

One God, three persons; indivisible, yet distinct. This is the way we talk about God; this is the way we understand God. But such an understanding may not have been articulated in the early church’s worship services.

Before they were called “Christians,” the followers of Jesus were referred to as participants in “The Way.” Before there were official Church statements, there was a whole plethora of statements of understanding. Yes, it is completely true (and never denied,) that there are other “gospels” out there, in addition the four collected in our bibles (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) and it is also true (and never denied,) some of these other accounts speak quite differently about Jesus and about his relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Church statements, developing over time, decided which perspectives were to be embraced (some would want to say “allowed”) and which were to be relegated to informative, but not normative.

This perspective, which we now share, was not universally shared by all those who in the first century A.D. were trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus.

In the beginning, members of “The Way,” would not have referred to God as Triune. They had the core teachings which lead to the formation of the Doctrines associated with God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But, they would not have used that formula, nor insisted that each worship service begin and end with it.

So, while the ELCA (and practically every other modern expression of Christianity) insists on a Trinitarian perspective, it is true that this perspective has not always been present, and would not have flowed so freely from the lips of Jesus’ earliest followers.

Over time, the understanding of God as one yet three is the perspective which the followers of Jesus came to share. They/we found this perspective to be helpful and informative. Seeing God as One God, in three persons, allowed us to see in its entirety the message which Jesus taught.

Father – Son – Holy Spirit. These are the “names” associated with the Triune God. Some prefer to refer to the functions of these three, so you will hear formulas like Creator – Redeemer – Sanctifier. The perspective being sought is one in which God is understood as larger than and more complete than anything we could envision or describe. God needs three names to even begin to speak of who he is and what he does.

God the Father/God the Creator, is an acknowledgement that in God all things find their ground of being. Who we are is rooted in God. We are all God’s creation; everyone one of us. The God whom we worship is the maker of all things. The God to whom we offer our prayers, is the One who called all things into being. When we insist on a Triune perspective we are instructing followers that no one in the whole of God’s creation is to been seen as anything less than one of God’s children. Their ethnic heritage or the color of their skin, nor even the creed they confess changes or denies that they are God’s. Everyone, and everything, in the whole of creation, belongs to God.

In talking about the Son, it is helpful if we begin with the opening words of John’s Gospel. John writes, In the beginning was the Word, he tells us that this Word of God called into being everything which is. After painting a marvelous vision of the power and strength of this Word of God, he tells us that this Word has become flesh and dwelt among us.

The Son, the Redeemer, is that part of God’s person which seeks to be known. It is the facet of God’s person which allows us to understand. It is that self-expression of God which liberates us from the fears associated with darkness and death. We have come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the One sent among us to save us.

Within the Trinity, the Son embodies what it is that we believe and teach. It is the invitation from God to think right thoughts.

The name of the third person of the Trinity is the one which varies the most. Like many of you, I grew up referring to the third person as the Holy Ghost. “Ghost” language begins to be changed to “Spirit” language sometime around the early 70’s. “Spirit” is a better word. And “Ghost” has too many non-religious connotations. In scripture, this third person is referred to as the “Paracleat,” or more simply, “Helper.” In another part of John’s Gospel, the Spirit is called “the Advocate.” The Spirit is that part of God which guides us into righteous living.

The Spirit is concerned with how we live. The Spirit addresses the realization that God not only concerns God’s self with who we are and what we think but also with what we do. Salvation may be associated with the second person of the Trinity, but our relationship with God isn’t complete unless we are also actively seeking sanctification.

Father – Son – Holy Spirit; Creator – Redeemer – Sanctifier; who we are – what we believe – how we live or lives; this is what it means to embrace the concept of a Triune God.

Who we are – what we believe – how we lives our lives; all three are important to those who continue to desire to participate in the Way of Jesus.

The Doctrine of the Trinity is one of those Church statements which developed over time, reaching it final formulation centuries after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Those who formulated the Doctrine (and those accept the Doctrine) believe that all of the parts are there in the earliest writings. Most importantly, we see in the Doctrine of the Trinity a way to direct the perspectives of those who would seek to become Christian, encouraging them to see all that there is to be seen when one considers who God is and what it is that God calls upon us to do.

Father – Son – Holy Spirit.
Creator – Redeemer – Sanctifier.
Who we are – what we believe – how we live our lives.

Our identity as Christians includes all three.

Amen.