Last week we
celebrated the beginning of Pentecost, that is, God’s gift of His Holy Spirit
and, with it, the birth of the church.
Today is both the second Sunday of Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, that
is, when we celebrate and seek to understand more fully the triune/threefold
nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
And, with this in mind, my sermon this morning is going to be doctrinal
in nature. Now doctrine is important to
the Christian faith and life, because it helps us understand more fully and
concretely just what we believe and why we believe it. And, of course, the better we know the
doctrine of our faith, the better we can share the Good News of the gospel with
others.
Our Christian
doctrine can also be described as a road map, showing the points of
connectedness of our faith. Now just how
and exactly when the word “Trinity” came to be used in the church is
unclear. The word itself does not appear in scripture but its meaning is
expressed repeatedly in the New Testament – 23 times to be exact. And, of course, the Trinity of the doctrine
itself is central; “part and parcel” of the creeds of the church.
So what is the
doctrine of the Trinity, that is, our focus this Sunday? Well, of course, when we speak of the Trinity
we mean that God is three in one: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit. Although seemingly separate,
these three expressions of God’s being; these three facets of God’s nature are
“all of a piece” as we would say. That
is, they are all equal and of one substance.
And so it is that we can say that God is fully God when He created and
continues to create the universe. And
what is more, we can say that God is fully God when God lived and still lives
in the presence of Jesus. And finally,
we can say that God is God in the presence of the Holy Spirit who abounds in
our lives and rules in our hearts this day and always. And, of course, the Trinity; the triune
nature of God, is revealed to us in and through God’s holy Word.
And it is here, at the
point of doctrine, where a so-called spiritual person and a more traditionally
devout person may part company. You see,
someone who wants to say they are spiritual or have just a spiritual
relationship with Jesus, may not desire doctrine. But how do you truly express
your faith, or grow in trust, communion and understanding of God when your
interest is only and simply “spiritual”?
How do you truly identify and claim your points of connection with God
and one another; how do you come to know the boundaries and richness of
Christian faith when “spiritual” is simply ethereal, that is, resembling a floating cloud – no
foundation, no method or direction – just whim and feeling) There has to be something more in the expression and exercise of our
faith than this – and this “something more” is provided, at least in part, by
sound doctrine.
Now, in an attempt to
illustrate what a doctrine does, let us
imagine the chassis of a car – and, with this in mind, let us ask ourselves,
what would a car be like without a chassis?
The answer is: not a car at all. For it is the chassis that holds the engine
and wheels in their proper places, it is where the fenders are attached. In short, the chassis is the frame that
organizes and holds the car together. Similarly, what/where would we be without
our own frame, that is, our skeleton; that which sorts and binds our body
together so that we can function? Without our skeleton we wouldn’t be able to
sit or stand or wave our arms, and so on. Our skeleton, like the chassis of a
car, is the framework that organizes and binds us up; that holds us
together. Similarly then, our Christian
doctrine serves as the framework of our Christian faith; that organizes and
holds the different parts of our beliefs together.
With all this in mind,
let us “plug into” our doctrinal understanding of the Trinity; the Triune God
as it is expressed in the traditional greeting & blessing/benediction that
is offered in our service most every Sunday.
It begins by saying: The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
Grace.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is God’s freely given gift of
Himself; His Son for the forgiveness of our sins. Grace is Jesus dying on
the cross for us so our sins can be forgiven. Forgiveness is free for us, but
it was not for Christ. He paid the huge
price of our sins; suffering pain upon the cross for our redemption and
salvation. Again, grace is God’s love
freely given in Jesus Christ – and God, then and now, continues to shower our
lives with gifts of grace – the sunshine, dew and rain to name but a few. And make no mistake. We can do nothing to earn, merit or deserve God’s gift of grace in Jesus Christ, that
is, we cannot somehow, on our own, achieve
our own salvation. We are saved from our
sins, not because we earn it,
but because we receive the gift of God into our hearts so that His Spirit may
shine forth in us and bear witness to Him in our daily lives.
Let’s look at that
phrase one more time: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. In
the OT Jesus is often called Lord. There
are two words for God. There is the word, “God.” And the word, “Lord.” For ex. in the OT, you could say that the
“Lord” made the heavens and the earth or you could say that “God” made the
heavens and the earth. But in the OT you could say “Lord’ and mean “God”. When we turn our attention to the NT, Jesus
is repeatedly referred to as “Lord” When the New Testament writers put the
name, “Lord” with Jesus, it meant that Jesus was God. The Lord Jesus Christ
also
meant
God Jesus Christ.
Now let us consider for a moment the phrase,
“The love of God” to which we could add, “God, the Father.” The Bible in its entirety makes constant
reference to the love of God the Father. And just as parents can harbor deep
love for their children, so too does God our heavenly Father love you and me.
We are God’s children – and just as God
created the endless reaches of the universe so too does His love for us
extend to every place and time.
“The fellowship of the
Holy Spirit.” The same God who created
the universe and died in the person of Jesus so that we might be saved from our
sins and so live in love and communion with Him, that is the same God that is
here right and now, whose desire is to rest remain and abide in our
hearts. Again, the Spirit is but another
manifestation of the One God who is active in and around us; the living God who
dwells in our hearts and our own Christian communities of fellowship. By the work of God’s Spirit we are grafted
into, and become one with, the body of Christ.
And again, the same God who lives in of our hearts and moves in and
around us is the same God who created the universe and is in Jesus Christ.
Hear it again in the words of Ephesians 4:4-6 (NIV)4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
And so it is to know God
in all of God’s wonderful complexity and persona, you need to know God the
Creator - the loving Father. You need to
know God the Son who died on the cross and you need to know God the Holy Spirit
who is in present with us in this moment. When you know the full persona of God
then you know God.
And finally, understand
that, what we have come to know and understand about the Trinity; what has come
to comprise the doctrine of the Trinity, has originated, has come to light, not
from our own reasoning or intellect but what God Himself has revealed of
Himself to us in Scripture. And so it is, that we find the truth about God and
the truth about the Trinity not through reason, but through revelation; God’s
Holy Word – yet another of His seemingly boundless gifts of grace to us. So may we open our hearts and minds ever more
to God’s holy Word and so that we may be in ever deeper communion with the
community of the faithful, i.e., the church – and to the community of the
Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
AMEN.
Edward Markquart - sermons from Seattle
Barclay – promised his presence, assured them of His
power, & gave them a commission
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