(Adapted from a sermon preached at St. John's, Davis on June 19, 2011)
Preaching text: None
Trinity Sunday. (sigh). Easily one of the most difficult Sundays in the church year to preach. The only festival day of the church that is dedicated to a teaching of the church rather than to an event in the life of Jesus or one of his apostles. And what a teaching it is, the divine mystery of the Trinity. Mystery is a good word here, because we are discussing something that neither easy to understand or believe. It’s is probably the quintessential example of a theology question where the correct answer is “I don’t know.”
Because we don’t. No one fully grasps the Trinity. No one fully understands it. I’ve told this joke before, but there is a saying that if you can explain the Trinity, you’re probably a heretic.
And yet, we believe in it, despite our inability to fully comprehend or explain it. But asking how it works is really the wrong question. Because the Trinity is not about how. The Trinity is about who. Who is God?
Who is God? God is the Father. God is the Son. God is the Holy Spirit. The fog of the mystery begins to clear somewhat. This makes some sense to us. We know what a father is. We know what a son is. We know what a spirit is…mostly.
Now the traditionalist in me likes this old formula, but even I have to admit there is an extra layer of interpretation that has to go on for us to fully understand it. That is one advantage of the more modern ways of talking about the Trinity. For instance, the popular “Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier” formula. Who is God? God is my creator. God is my redeemer. God is my sanctifier. The advantage to this formula is that the relational nature of the Trinity changes from being about their relationship with one another to being about their relationship with you.
Of course, that’s in the traditional formula too. God is my father. Jesus is his son, therefore he is my brother. The spirit is, well, the spirit, the spirit of God both within and beside me. But now we begin to see what is at the heart of what the Trinity is really about. It’s all about relationship.
Who is God? If we were to ask him directly, his answer would likely be to throw the question back at us. Who am I to you? What do you need me to be? Your Father? Your brother? Your savior? Then that is who I am.
One of the most curious and most wonderful passages in the Scriptures is the passage from Exodus where Moses pins God down to ask his name. Moses, although a Hebrew, had grown up with the Egyptian mythos. Those gods had names, much as people do: Osirus, Horus, Bast, Set, Anubis, etc. But now he is being introduced to the god of his fathers, of his people, and Moses is expecting that the same rules apply. They don’t. God’s answer is to say a variation on the Hebrew 1st person singular of verb “to be”, Yahweh. I am.
Ok. It seems inadequate, and yet there is a world of possibility there. I am what? I am God. I am your father. I am the way, and the truth, and the life. I am the Good Shepherd. I am your brother. I am your creator. I am the one who brings light out of darkness. I am the one who loves you.
I am the one who has saved you. I am the one who is with you always even to the end of the age. I am all these things and so much more. What do you need me to be, and that I am.
Do you hear the wondrous grace within that? The deity, the god, the creator of all that is makes it about us and our relationship with him. That’s what matters to him.
What do we need him to be? Do we need a nurturing parent, on whose shoulder we can weep out all the woes of our lives? Do we need to be awed by his power, seeing his might in the vastness of a galaxy or the complexity of a single atom? Do we need someone to rescue us from the threat of death? Do we need someone to forgive us those wrongs we can’t even forgive ourselves? Do we one to remind us of our relationship with our fellow human beings, to see ourselves as part of one vast family? Do we need someone to challenge us to better ourselves in service to others? God is all these things.
Who is God? God is the Father. God is the Son. God is the Holy Spirit. The fog of the mystery begins to clear somewhat. This makes some sense to us. We know what a father is. We know what a son is. We know what a spirit is…mostly.
Now the traditionalist in me likes this old formula, but even I have to admit there is an extra layer of interpretation that has to go on for us to fully understand it. That is one advantage of the more modern ways of talking about the Trinity. For instance, the popular “Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier” formula. Who is God? God is my creator. God is my redeemer. God is my sanctifier. The advantage to this formula is that the relational nature of the Trinity changes from being about their relationship with one another to being about their relationship with you.
Of course, that’s in the traditional formula too. God is my father. Jesus is his son, therefore he is my brother. The spirit is, well, the spirit, the spirit of God both within and beside me. But now we begin to see what is at the heart of what the Trinity is really about. It’s all about relationship.
Who is God? If we were to ask him directly, his answer would likely be to throw the question back at us. Who am I to you? What do you need me to be? Your Father? Your brother? Your savior? Then that is who I am.
One of the most curious and most wonderful passages in the Scriptures is the passage from Exodus where Moses pins God down to ask his name. Moses, although a Hebrew, had grown up with the Egyptian mythos. Those gods had names, much as people do: Osirus, Horus, Bast, Set, Anubis, etc. But now he is being introduced to the god of his fathers, of his people, and Moses is expecting that the same rules apply. They don’t. God’s answer is to say a variation on the Hebrew 1st person singular of verb “to be”, Yahweh. I am.
Ok. It seems inadequate, and yet there is a world of possibility there. I am what? I am God. I am your father. I am the way, and the truth, and the life. I am the Good Shepherd. I am your brother. I am your creator. I am the one who brings light out of darkness. I am the one who loves you.
I am the one who has saved you. I am the one who is with you always even to the end of the age. I am all these things and so much more. What do you need me to be, and that I am.
Do you hear the wondrous grace within that? The deity, the god, the creator of all that is makes it about us and our relationship with him. That’s what matters to him.
What do we need him to be? Do we need a nurturing parent, on whose shoulder we can weep out all the woes of our lives? Do we need to be awed by his power, seeing his might in the vastness of a galaxy or the complexity of a single atom? Do we need someone to rescue us from the threat of death? Do we need someone to forgive us those wrongs we can’t even forgive ourselves? Do we one to remind us of our relationship with our fellow human beings, to see ourselves as part of one vast family? Do we need someone to challenge us to better ourselves in service to others? God is all these things.
The Trinity is a gift. God even gives us his very identity. He is who we need him to be. We need a Father, a parent, a creator, for without that we would never be. We need a Son, a brother, a savior, one who delivers us from the power of death, for without that we would be lost. We need a spirit, a guide, a follower, one always eager to remind us of how much God loves us. God is what we need in every hour of every day of our lives. Without him, we are nothing.
Who is God? We can all answer that question, and yet our answer is incomplete. Our answer may change as the circumstances of our lives change. But no matter what God is there, in some way, in some form, granting us his love and grace unbounded. Who is God? The Trinity reminds us that there is no single answer to that question. He is Father. He is Son. He is Holy Spirit. And he is all these things so that we may know him and know what he’s done and is continues to do for us. Amen.
Who is God? We can all answer that question, and yet our answer is incomplete. Our answer may change as the circumstances of our lives change. But no matter what God is there, in some way, in some form, granting us his love and grace unbounded. Who is God? The Trinity reminds us that there is no single answer to that question. He is Father. He is Son. He is Holy Spirit. And he is all these things so that we may know him and know what he’s done and is continues to do for us. Amen.
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