Father Peter F. Hansen

Sermon for Trinity Sunday

June 15, 2003

Trinity in the Bible

“And the four living creatures had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. ”

Does it matter what be believe about God, so long as we believe in Him? Is one belief just as good as another? If we respect and tolerate other people's beliefs about God, aren't we saying that their faith is just as valid as our faith? Aren't all religions pretty much the same?

      My wife met a girl recently who handled her purchase at a Christian bookstore. The girl was outspoken about the beliefs of her church, and that they didn't believe in the Trinity. All was Jesus, and when they speak of the Father or the Holy Ghost, they mean Jesus as well . And she used the very common argument against creedal Christianity: “Trinity isn't even found in the Bible.” Is that so? Can we state our case in favor of the Trinity, and if we can, does it really matter?

      God reveals Himself to mankind . Without this revelation, man may invent gods, imagine what a god might be like, and spin tales of how gods came to be and how they created or affected this world. The crashing sea gives rise to myths of sea gods, as do the howling wind or the seed time and harvest, high mountains, powerful beasts give rise to gods of wind, fertility, and stone. But we would be mistaken to take these as God. He reveals Himself in another way. Although God does make the wind blow and living things to live, He doesn't show us about Himself so much through what He does, but through a relationship with us. God called Abram to follow Him. God called Moses to go down to Egypt. God called David to be His king . God initiates a relationship, and in that relationship God reveals Himself, His purpose, and His ways to us.

      The clearest example of such a revelation of God is found in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to us as God in human flesh, and was able, through simple teachings, powerful words, and startling miracles, to demonstrate more about God than any other man ever did . When He was baptized, Jesus rose from the waters of Jordan and an amazing thing happened: the Holy Spirit descended from heaven to Him in a visible form like a dove, and the voice of the Father spoke from the sky, saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:16-17 If you missed the clear Trinitarian teaching of that moment, hear Him at the end of His earthly ministry commissioning the Apostles: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost…” Matthew 28:19 Many other times He taught about the three Persons of the Godhead. Many times He demonstrated the truth of His teachings with acts of power. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you must believe in the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

      Jesus told us about the relationships within the Trinity. He said that “I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.” John 14:28 “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do… For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth… For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.” John 5:19-23 Clearly the Father is not the Son, and is of higher authority in the Godhead than the Son. These terms “Father” and “Son” are given to us as descriptions of a relationship we might never understand otherwise.

      But Jesus is not a mere creature either. Nor are there multiple gods. He is God with the Father, for He said, “I and my Father are one.” John 10:30 There is only One God, as He showed the Hebrews: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” Deut. 6:4 But in Him are three Persons. This is a confounding mystery, and an almost inconceivable doctrine, but that is why Jesus came to teach us so clearly, that we might know God as He is.

      And yet the mystery was shown us from the earliest Scriptures. In the first three verses of Genesis we can see God's triune nature, as it is written: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.” Genesis 1:1-4 God the Father created all things, with the Holy Spirit going out over the vastness of deep space and the Word being spoke by the Father, causing all things to come into being. That Word is, as St. John declares, the One who became flesh and dwelt among us. John 1:14 When God determined to create humans, a conversation follows: “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'” Genesis 1:26 “Let us make… in our image, after our likeness.” We overhear the Persons of the Trinity speaking to one another.

      Isaiah had a vision of heaven, and the worship there gave rise to our first hymn of today. The angels called out, “Holy, holy, holy.” Three holies: One God. The evidence mounts as the Epistles of St. Paul, Peter, Jude and John clearly enunciate that God is a Trinity, though they don't use that word: “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,” wrote Peter. 1 Peter 1:2 “And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one,” writes John. 1 John 5:6-7

      In a moment we'll recite together the Athanasian Creed , the creed that best defines what a Christian means by the Holy Trinity. This creed boldly states that if you do not hold this faith you are not a catholic Christian and you cannot be saved. There is no other salvation than that of God, and God has shown us that He is Father, Son and Holy Ghost . That's what the Athanasian Creed states. Let me define the word “ Catholic ” for you. St. Vincent of Lerins wrote that the Catholic faith is that which has been held always, everywhere and by all . It is the universal Christian faith. There is no deviating from this conservative standard. We may believe something additionally, but we must understand that the core beliefs of the Church are unifying us to God through revealed truth and that this truth is called “ Catholic .” The opposite of Catholic is not Protestant . We are Protestants, in that we are not governed by the Roman Church, nor do we espouse all of its teachings. The opposite of Catholic is not Protestant , it is heretic . Jesus warned us about those who would come bearing a false report and false Christs.

      But is this important? Are we simply married to a doctrine that we can neither understand nor adequately defend? Even when we have the Bible to clearly give the doctrine, why is it so important for us to hold the right faith in the Trinity?

      Remember the great commandment. Love . Love God. Love each other . Love is relationship . God is love. Jesus taught that the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. This love is eternal and far precedes His creation of us.

      The Spirit brings us to a right knowledge of truth. The Father and the Son have sent the Spirit to live in us, that we might know God from the inside. Without an understanding of the Trinity, that God is three Persons , we would believe that there is no love from eternity. Without the Trinity, the Spirit cannot dwell inside of us, teaching us of the Father and Son. If there is no Trinity, God is only a potentate, call Him Allah or Jehovah . He looks down. He brings some of us up. That's about it. Love merely becomes something God does between Himself and His creatures— something that passes between different orders of being . God cannot know the love of an equal. Relationship is all condescending.

      But now we know Him to be love within Himself , to have personally loved God, three Persons loving one another for eternity. They don't need us in order to know about love. The Trinity is inherently love. So when God commands us to love, He asks us to take His nature within our own as He freely gives us what He is.

      Love is greater than doctrinal purity, for we are first commanded to love. But as we begin to love and begin to experience the power of the Holy Spirit in our minds and hearts, we come to know the truth about God and we come to understand His Scriptures, where He reveals Himself to us. Now the God whom we love comes clearer to us, and we love Him more. For the Father to sacrifice His Son, as He did, was an incredible act of love for us. If the Father loves the Son, that hurt. But if the Father is the Son, to whom was Jesus speaking from the Cross when He said, “Father, forgiven them for they know not what they do”?

      We are not mere doctrinal purists. We hold the faith in the Trinity because we love the truth. And He is the Truth , who told us that no one comes to the Father but by Him . No one can live eternally unless they partake of Him, His Body and Blood. God is not afraid of relationship: He invented it. He always was relationship. For us to smugly deny the Trinity, as some have done, is to deny the relationship we owe God and which we are shown by the Lord Himself. As you grow in understanding of God, let your love for Him grow also. He is no longer the unknown god of Mars hill. He has made Himself known to us, alleluia.

      So let us stand and recite together the Athanasian Creed...

             PFH+