The Holy Trinity - Father, Son, And Holy Spirit

Rev Bob Dorans

I speak to you in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen
 
We use this phrase almost casually, often perhaps with little real understanding and yet it is central to the truth of our faith. I will return to the issue of truth later.
 
Trinity Sunday. The Trinity. As simple as 123 or ABC…??
Trinity Sunday is the only Sunday in the entire Christian Calendar which celebrates a doctrine; a mystery incomplete and not fully understood. A doctrine which by its nature is an abstraction.
St. Augustine, was walking along the seashore one day while pondering the doctrine of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He seemed to hear a voice saying, "Pick up one of the large sea shells there by the shore." So he picked it up. Then the voice said, "Now pour the ocean into the shell." And he said, "Lord, I can't do that." And the voice answered, "Of course not. In the same way, how can your small, finite mind ever hold and understand the mystery of the eternal, infinite, Triune God?"
 
There are two concrete facts about the Trinity:
1. There is no reference in the Bible to “Trinity”…..!!!
2. There is no reference in the Bible to the Triune God……!!!
 
However; John begins his Gospel with this beautiful and profound verse...
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life….’
 
Trinity Sunday tells us that the God in whom we believe is one God. Yet a God in three persons. There are other religions which believe in one God. Judaism and Islam as example are fully monotheistic religions.

The faith of the Jew is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God. For the Muslims, there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet. We Christians also believe in one God, but in the Trinitarian God -- one God in three persons. You might argue a bit like having your cake and eating it. Muslims and Jews sometimes ridicule the Christians as polytheists- believing in three gods. But are we polytheists?

For the early Christians, the centre of their faith was faith in a triune God. They lived in a world where pagans believed in many gods. The Jews believed in one God and did not accept Jesus Christ as divine. But the experience of the early Christians was that Jesus Christ was God. They also experienced the Holy Spirit as God. In Jesus Christ, the early Christians met God. ‘Those who have seen me have seen the Father’, said Jesus. This was the experience of the early church. Similarly, in experiencing the Holy Spirit, they experienced the presence and power of God. They believed that God was one but at the same time Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit were understood to be divine. For them, if Jesus Christ was not God, we are not saved; and if the Holy Spirit is not divine, we are not sanctified. The early Christians were neither Jews who simply believed in one God, nor pagans who believed in many gods.

The issue
We are all children. We all have parents. Each of us has a mother and a father. We understand that the father and the son, the mother and the daughter can be alike. After all we share the same genes as our parents. Some children are very like their parents others less so. In the case of Christ - Mary conceived through the Holy Spirit – not man- and God was made man. Christ, the son of God. Like God, the same as God or different?  Was Christ simply another great prophet and teacher -- even a high ranking angel from God -- or was he the divine Son of God, co-equal and co-eternal with God? The word made is the central issue here.

In the early Church, Arianism which was popular in both the Eastern and Western halves of the Roman Empire. It was an attempt to rationalize the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son. For Bishop Arius, the fact that Jesus was not self-existent (that is, that he had to be created) means that he must be subordinated to God the Father. To a mainstream Christian at that time, this was a denial of the divinity of Christ. Logically if Jesus is the son of God, that means God came first, right? The implication of this, however, is profound. Think about this. God is supposed to predate the concept of time — a circumstance in which Jesus didn't exist,- he was begotten much later - meaning therefor he is not truly eternal. This is counter to the Gospel of John, which identifies Jesus as the Word, who was with God in the beginning and was God. Arius said that if Jesus was begotten, only God the Father exists without origin. To most bishops, this was heresy and absolutely would not stand.

In 321 the Bishop of Alexandria convoked a council of 100 bishops to denounce Arius and his doctrine, but Arius continued to gain followers until he was driven out of Egypt. Then he just went and recruited more followers in Palestine. It was at this point that Emperor Constantine called the first of two ecumenical councils -- the Council of Nicea in 325 which was followed by the Council of Constantinople in 381. I am not here going to enter into the dynamic at that time between Church and Empire. Many were martyred before Constantine’s rule. Out of the discussions and deliberations of these councils, the church fathers were able to formulate a doctrine of the Trinity -- faith in one God in three persons. God as Trinity which had happened in the experience of the early church before it was formulated into a doctrine. Incidentally there is a legend that during the Nicene conclave whilst Arius was vigorously defending his position Santa Claus yep Santa Claus the real Santa or (Saint Nicholas) was so outraged at the heresy he strode across the floor and hit Arius. In any case the Council formulated the Nicene creed – begotten not made, true God of true God consubstantial to the Father, by whom all things were made. It was established to counter Arianism and confirmed at the Council of Constantinople in 381.

The Greek word used in the original statement of belief from Nicaea was homoousious, literally "of the same substance," which is the word that gets translated as "consubstantial" in the English version of the Nicene Creed. The idea that "there was once when Christ was not" and that Jesus was somehow changed from his coeternal being were deemed heretical and anathema, and all the bishops had to sign their names agreeing to the statement that Christ was consubstantial to the Father or else be not only excommunicated from the church but exiled from the empire.
Some theologians present agreed to the terms of the Nicene Creed but then later tried to fudge their statements of orthodoxy by claiming that Christ was not homoousious to the Father (of the same substance) but homoiousios (one letter difference)(of similar substance) in order to emphasize distinctions between the persons of the Trinity. This new breed of Arianism didn't fly any better with the orthodox bishops, and the "one letter off" version was considered just as heretical as the pure strain. Nevertheless, even the threat of excommunication and exile didn't dissuade some Christians from leaning toward Arius' way of thinking.

There is a profound truth in all this. A truth central to our faith. As Christians we need to truly understand the Trinity. The early Christians felt they were dealing with matters of ultimate truth and error - matters to be taken with the utmost seriousness even when it meant dissension. So, can I give you anything to help with this truth and the Trinity? We live in an era of misinformation which bends so many obvious truths. Let me give you an example. Without saying anything if you know the extremely nasty chemical dihydrogen monoxide could you please indicate by putting up your hand. For the rest who are unaware let me tell you..

1. It can cause excessive sweating and vomiting.
2. It is a major component in acid rain.
3. In its gaseous state it can cause severe burns
4. Accidental inhalation can kill you.
5. It contributes to the erosion of our natural landscape..
6. It seriouisly decreases the effectiveness of car brakes.
7. It is found in tumors of terminal cancer patients.

Knowing this would you as a congregation support a ban.
The chemical is ... (take a sip)   or offer  ….water.
Would you support a ban on the Trinity? We as a Church need to speak the truth of the Trinity more loudly, be proud to be Christian and understand fully what the Trinity means.

Water is often used as an illustration of the Trinity. Water has three forms ice, liquid and steam but they are still all water. John of Damascus was one among many early church fathers who spoke of water that bubbled up from a spring, flowed into a river, and reached its source in the ocean. Water is one, yet spring, river, and ocean are distinctive expressions of it.

The Desert Fathers (the two Gregorys and Basil) compared the members of the Trinity to the source of light (Father), the light itself that illumines (Son), and the warmth when you feel the light (Spirit)
The Trinity has been explained in many ways from very heavy philosophical ideas to picture metaphors like a three leaf clover. With any of these, it is important to remember that none of them describes God in his very being or essence. That cannot be done. The Trinity is a statement of how God relates, not how God is.

One final note
The “Cry of Dereliction,”  “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (Mt 27:46) “My God, My God, why have you forsaken/abandoned me?”
Verse 24 Psalm 22 which Christ was quoting on the cross: “For he [God] has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.” This is a sermon on its own!!
 
We are called to worship the One who created the world. We are called to worship the One who loved the world enough to come into the world and invite us into relationship. We are called to worship the One who comes as Holy Spirit, blowing where it will. This is the Holy Trinity: a mystery we catch glimpses of as we seek to know and love. Amen