The Trinity
The Venerable Joan Clark
Matthew 28:16-20
Today is Trinity Sunday. This is a day that has been celebrated in the Christian church since the 10th century. It is on this occasion that ministers around the world address themselves to the subject of the triune God.
Let me begin by saying that the doctrine of the Trinity does not attempt to explain God. It only explains to us in a very basic way what God has revealed to us about himself so far. To describe the tip of the iceberg above the water is not to describe the entire iceberg. So we Christians affirm the Trinity, not as an explanation of God, but simply as a way of describing what we know about God.
The idea of the Trinity is not emphatically stated as a doctrine in the scriptures. Yet, by implication, it is stated many times. The early Christians soon discovered that they simply could not speak of God without speaking of the three ways in which he had revealed himself to them. This does not mean that there are three Gods. It means that there is one God who has shown himself in three ways: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let’s look at these this morning:
First, we affirm God the Father. The issue is not whether or not there is a God. Ninety-six percent of all NZ’s, Mr. Gallop tells us, believe in the existence of a God in some form or another. The real question is what kind of a God?
Some would say that God was like a big cosmic watchmaker. He created the universe and wound it up and let it go. The world is now in the process of simply letting itself run down. This thinking would say God has completely detached himself from his creation.
Others, like the philosopher Nitche, say that there indeed, once was a God, but that he is now dead. They say that the God of the universe so completely poured himself into the person of Jesus Christ that when Jesus died on the cross God himself died.
These views are foreign to the Christian way of thinking. We affirm that the same God who moulded the universe also cares about what happens in our life. Indeed, he is actively and mysteriously involved in helping to shape the events of our lives.
The fact that we refer to the first person of the Trinity as Father says something about what God is like. In fact, Jesus went so far as to refer to God not only as Father but as Abba, which is the Hebrew word meaning Daddy. Can you imagine referring to the creator of an endless universe, the creator of countless solar systems as Daddy? If we could only think of God as that loving daddy who waits patiently for us while we foolishly wonder off to the far countries in our life and do our own thing. Then, when we have come to ourselves, he is there to meet us at the door and joyfully take us back in.
It is easy to think of God as the omnipotent, holy other, righteous, all-powerful, judge. These are all traits of the divine and we must indeed learn to think of him in these terms. But if our Christian understanding of the nature of God is to be correct, then we must also learn to think of God as our kind, sympathetic, understanding, compassionate, gentle and loving Father.
To be sure there are stern images of God in the Old and New Testaments, even in the Gospels themselves. But the love of God is the major emphasis, which runs throughout the Bible. There is no message which breaks down the resistance of wayward hearts like the message of persistent love. A love bestowed in spite of what we have done; a love given that was not earned; a love that came despite our resistance; a love that healed when sickness invaded our soul; a love that to this day restores, restores, and restores. The prophet Jeremiah caught the true message of our religion when he heard God say to him, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
One final word on this subject. It is a misconception among some Christians and scholars who say that when Christ came to earth God somehow changed. Where he had been stern and judgmental, they would say, he now became loving and compassionate. In James Mitchern’s book HAWAII, we read the story of a Christian missionary living in the early 1700’s going to the islands to convert the natives. When he arrives he is shocked to see half naked native people, men who have several wives, and the King who is married to his own sister according to native custom. He brings a message of damnation to these people. The only thing he succeeded in doing is bringing unhappiness to a people who were once happy and content. By the end of the book we see how this missionary has totally changed.
Having lived with the people he now loves them and has compassion for them. It is easy for us to say that God changed when Christ came and lived among us. The fact is, however, that God is unchanging. His divine purpose has always been one of redemption and love. There was nothing wrong with the law that God gave to Moses and the Jews. What was wrong is our turning it into an end in itself. The very reason of creation itself is that God is a God of overflowing love. The result of that love was life itself.
Secondly, we affirm a belief in the Son, Jesus Christ. We say that God took on human form, came and lived among us, suffered the same trials that we suffered, experienced the same feelings that we experienced. Jesus was purely human and purely divine. Jesus was not God. Jesus was God, incarnate. There is a difference. Jesus never drew attention to himself but always pointed to God.
Soren Kiekegard, the great Danish theologian of another century tells a story of a prince who wanted to find a maiden suitable to be his queen. One day while running an errand in the local village for his father he passed through a poor section. As he glanced out the windows of the carriage his eyes fell upon a beautiful peasant maiden. During the ensuing days he often passed by the young lady and soon fell in love. But he had a problem. How would he seek her hand?
He could order her to marry him. But even a prince wants his bride to marry him freely and voluntarily and not through coercion. He could put on his most splendid uniform and drive up to her front door in a carriage drawn by six horses. But if he did this he would never be certain that the maiden loved him or was simply overwhelmed with all of the splendour.
The prince came up with another solution. He would give up his robes, move into the village, entering not with a crown but in the garb of a peasant. He lived among the people, shared their interests and concerns, and talked their language. In time the maiden grew to love him for who he was and loved him because he had first loved her.
This very simple, almost child-like story, written by one of the most brilliant minds of our time explains what we Christians mean by the incarnation. God came and lived, among us. I am glad that this happened for two reasons: One, it shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is with us, that he is on our side, and that he loves us. Secondly, it gives us a first-hand view of what the mind of God is really all about. When people ask what God is like, we as Christians point to the person of Jesus Christ.
God himself is incomprehensible. But in Jesus Christ this incomprehensible God makes himself knowable. We get a glimpse of his glory. In the person of Jesus we are told that mysterious Other who created the stars and the universe is willing to go all of the way, even to a cross, so that a single person may be redeemed. That’s what God is like. That’s the God we say we believe in when we say we believe in Jesus Christ.
Finally, we affirm a belief in the Holy Spirit. So what is the Holy Spirit? In the Nicene Creed we say, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son who in unity with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified”. The Holy Spirit is the realization of the presence of the Living God.
Intimacy with God is what the Holy Spirit brings to our lives. And herein lies a danger. We must be careful lest we identify the work of the Holy Spirit with our own deep feelings and impulses. Virtually every conceivable error of judgment or breakdown in intelligence within the church can, and has been, attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit. Whether it’s the capital punishment of heretics as was done in the middle ages or the moving of a paedophile priest from church to church today, the church has sanctioned some horrible behaviour under the guise of “It seems good to us and to the Holy Spirit.”
We will be speaking more of the Holy Spirit as the season of Pentecost progresses. I would simply like to close with this thought on the Trinity. It perhaps might help us to understand this doctrine better if we word it this way: God the Father who is for us, God the Son who is with us, and God the Holy Spirit who is within us.
Someone once asked Mrs. Albert Einstein if she understood her husband’s theory of relativity. No, she said, but I know my husband. We cannot begin to fathom the incomprehensible mysteries of God, but that does not mean that we cannot know God. If God, choosing to make himself known to us, comes in the person of Jesus Christ and says I am your brother, and let me show you the Father, then by the Holy Spirit you can know God. Intimately. Personally.
Amen