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Trinity Sunday
St. Stephen's Anglican Church
The Rev. Jeffrey O. Cerar, May 26, 2013


The Delicious Mystery


Text: John 16:13

Today is Trinity Sunday. This is the day we celebrate and emphasize the Biblical revelation of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is one of those things God has revealed to us without a full explanation. And so, it is a mystery that we accept as true. And yet, it is a mystery that we experience as true as well.

The passage we read today from John Chapter 16 is one of the places where we see God in this three-fold revelation. It is clear in what Jesus says to us that He is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He says He is going to the Father. He says that all that belongs to the Father is His. And then He speaks about the Holy Spirit as the Advocate and as the Spirit of Truth. Jesus spoke of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in other places, most memorably when He told us to baptize all nations in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)

For 300 years the Church Fathers wrestled with these sayings, and other things in the Bible that talk of God as Father and Son and Holy Spirit. What they were trying to do is to give doctrinal substance to this revelation of God's nature. And what they finally settled upon is that there is only one God, but He is three persons in one God.

No one understands how that can be; but it is the only way to give credence to the Bible and what it says about God.

The name we have given to this doctrine is "The Holy Trinity." That expression appears nowhere in the Bible, but it names what the early Church set down as the way of stating that there is only one God; He is three persons; and each person is fully God. It is a delicious mystery. Much as we want to explain it in some rational way, it remains a mystery. And that reminds us that God's ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, as the heavens are higher than the earth. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

This understanding of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is unique to the Christian faith. The Jews do not accept it. The Unitarians do not accept it. The Muslims do not accept it. If you say "God," a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian, a Unitarian, a Hindu will all hear you say something different. God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is who we Christians mean when we say God. If I were to say to you this morning, "Bill, you left your lights on," five guys would run out to the parking lot. But I can get on the PA system at FedEx Field and say, "Bill Powers of St. Stephen's Anglican Church in Heathsville, Virginia," and everyone would know exactly who I mean. So it is when we say God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is no confusion about who we mean.

I want to talk today about how we experience God in each of these three persons of the Trinity. And I want to talk about what difference that makes to us as the people of God. What I am going to say is that we need to know and understand and worship all three of these three persons of the Trinity in order to know and understand God.

Let's look first at God the Father. The first thing that comes to mind is that He is the Creator. In Genesis 1, we hear that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God made humankind in His image. God breathed life into us, and called us to subdue the earth, and to till and keep His creation.

The second thing we associate with the Father is the giving of the Law. We hear in Exodus 19 how the people were gathered at the foot of Mt. Sinai, and God came in the thunder and lightning, in an earthquake and with a long trumpet blast. And God gave them the Ten Commandments, which have guided us for thousands of years to show us how to live.

We think of the Father as the source of all stability. In Exodus 34:5-7, we hear God say,

5 Then the Lord ... passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation."

In God's steadfastness and in His judging, we see Him as always the same, yesterday, today and forever. We see that He is sovereign, eternal and unchanging.

We also know the Father as the great provider. Remember the people of Israel, who suffered 400 years in slavery, and how God delivered them through the Red Sea to freedom. And while they wandered forty years in the wilderness, God fed them with manna and quail that He brought them morning by morning. He is the one of whom the Psalmist says, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies." (Psalm 23:5)

God the Father, Creator, Law-Giver, Judge and Provider. Now consider this for a moment: What if that was the only way we see God? It might show us to be a people who:

We might write a hymn that says this:

God the All-righteous One!
Earth has defied thee;
Yet to eternity
standeth thy word.
Falsehood and wrong
Shall not tarry beside thee;
Give to us peace
In our time, O Lord.

(1982 Hymnal, Hymn 569, verse 3 by John Ellerton (Church Hymnal Corporation)

But we also know God as the Son, as Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. What does the Bible tell us about Jesus?

Well, first, He is the Messiah, the Savior. We first heard this from the lips of Peter when Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus fulfilled the many prophecies of the anointed one who was to come. He won the victory over evil. He has rescued us, in His crucifixion and in rising to life again on the third day. He has delivered from sin and death all who will believe that He is the Son of God.

We also know Jesus as the compassionate one. We know Him for His love. We know Him for His forgiveness. How many times did we see Jesus on the road, touched by compassion for the blind and the lame and the leper? How many times did we see Jesus diverted from the path He was on that day to heal a woman's hemorrhage, or heal a woman's daughter, or raise a widow's only son from the dead? He is the one who told the miserable adulteress, "No one is left to condemn you. Go and sin no more." (John 8:10-11)

We know Jesus as the incarnate God, Immanuel, "God with us." He came into this world in a manger and grew to be a man, suffering as we suffer, wounded as we are wounded, laughing and crying as we do: God with us. And at the very end of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus promised to be with us always, to the end of the ages. (Matthew 28:20)

And, of course, we know Jesus as love. "Love one another as I have loved you," He said. (John 15:12) And greater love than this has no one, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

We all have experienced Jesus as savior, the compassionate one, the one who loves and forgives. If it was the Son alone whom we worship as God, what might it say about us? It might say that we—

We might write a hymn that says something like this:

Not because I've been so faithful,
Not because I've been so good,
You've always been there for me,
To provide my every need.
You were there when I was lonely,
You were there in all my pain,
Guiding my footsteps,
Shelter from the rain,
And it was you That made my life complete.
You are for me my everything,
And that is why I sing,
Jesus I love you because you care.
I couldn't imagine if you weren't there.

("Jesus I love, You," by Norman Hutchins)

What a wonderful God we have—God with us in Jesus the Son. But of course, there is also the Holy Spirit. What do we know about the Holy Spirit from the Bible?

First, He empowers and strengthens us and makes us bold. We have the wonderful story of Pentecost in Jerusalem, when all the disciples were huddled in a little room, confused and not knowing what to do next. (See Acts 2) Jesus had departed into heaven ten days before. And all of a sudden, there was a wind like a hurricane, and tongues of fire came down upon them, and suddenly, they were different people. They went out into the streets and boldly proclaimed the great works of God. Peter preached to the crowd, and 3000 people were saved that very day. God's Holy Spirit brings the power of God into our lives.

God the Holy Spirit also gives us faith. Did you hear what Jesus said to us about the Holy Spirit a few moments ago in John's Gospel? He said,

7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. [John 16:7-11]

We see Him at work through the disciples throughout the Book of Acts—healing people and casting out demons. Many of us sitting here today have experienced the Holy Spirit's power up close and personal. We have been healed. We have prayed for others and God has healed them. Without His power, being people of faith would be more than we could bear.

If the Holy Spirit is the predominant way we know God, what might it say about us? It might say that—

And we might write a hymn that goes like this:

Holy Spirit,
Move in this place.
Breathe a fresh anointing on your people.
As we gather in your presence
,A living sacrifice of praise,
Holy Spirit,
Move in this place.

("Holy Spirit Move," by Joe Pace)

It is possible for us to think of God one-dimensionally, and to know God as only the Father, or only the Son, or only the Holy Spirit. But for two reasons this would be a serious mistake.

First, God is more complex than that. You can't divide God into three separate sets of characteristics, or three sets of functions, or three modes of being. The Biblical witness won't support that. The Creator, for example, was not only the Father. The Holy Spirit was there, too, moving over the face of the waters. And John's Gospel tells us that In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." And "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," (See John 1:1-14)

We may think of the Father as Judge, but Matthew 25:31 tells us that one day, Jesus will sit on the throne and judge the world.

We tend to associate mercy with Jesus. But it is the Old Testament that says over and over that God is slow to anger, compassionate and abounding in steadfast love. The people of God knew that about God long before they knew Jesus.

We associate the Holy Spirit with power and signs and wonders. But the purpose of signs and wonders is always to bring God's love, and God's compassion and God's salvation so that people may see and believe. (See John 20:30)

The second reason it is a mistake to focus too much on one person of God, the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit is that we run the risk of getting ourselves stuck. If we focus too much on God the Lawgiver, we spend too much time trying to make others comply with the law. We concentrate too much on judging others. God calls us not to declare a jihad, but to tell the world, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." (Psalm 34:8)

We can also focus too much on God the Provider. That makes us love the gifts more than the giver. It makes us vulnerable to those who preach the prosperity Gospel. You'll see them on TV, the evangelists who tell you that if you contribute generously to their ministry, God will send you a Mercedes Benz.

We can also focus too much on the forgiveness we find in Jesus. That sets us up for getting stuck in our sinful patterns of life, which we know Jesus will forgive us for. But we know that God wants us to be holy and to live the kind of lives He intended when He created us in His image.

If we worship exclusively the Holy Spirit, we become too wrapped up in the signs and wonders. We want only to receive God's extraordinary gifts that lift us out of this difficult world. The problem with that is that God has called us to live here and struggle here, and to bring His grace to bear on this world that needs Him so desperately.

God is all these things and more. He is:

And we meet Him in the delicious mystery of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We meet Him in His justice and His mercy, in His power and His glory, in His sovereignty and in His intimacy.

He is all these things and a million times more as we worship Him here this morning. And He will meet us out there in the bump and grind, the triumphs and joys and sorrows of our lives as we go forth from this place to glorify Him.

© The Rev. Jeffrey O. Cerar, 2013

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