Sunday, June 4, 2023

The Holy Trinity
Genesis 1:1-2:4a
Psalm 8
Acts 2:14a, 22-26
Matthew 28:16-20

Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

The scriptures for this week help us focus on one of the most confusing and mystifying aspects of the Christian faith: the Trinity. How do you explain the unexplainable? Some theologians in the sixth century set out to explain the Trinity in language which the common man could understand and it took approximately seven hundred words. The Athanasian Creed, which is often used in churches on Trinity Sunday, seems to go around and around in circles dividing the persons of the Trinity while holding them together. It is a long creed to recite and generally brings a sigh of annoyance from the congregation whenever it is said.

We begin this week with the Creation story, another aspect of Christianity that can bring confusion and debate. We can easily get involved with the question of evolution and the six day creation. However, sometimes we need to look at something beyond the words on the page and try to see the One behind the words. The creation story tells us about God the Creator and His love for His people. The details are interesting to discuss and important to study, but today we’ll look at the story and how we can respond to this Creator.

In the beginning, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered it. The Creator was able to speak and transform that formless and dark void into something new. He said, “Let there be light” and there was light. He ordered the days and the substance. He brought order to the chaos. He filled the emptiness with good things. He did all this in a way that makes sense, each day building upon the work of the next day. He did not create the animals before there was food for them to eat. He did not create plants until the land and the sea were separated in a way that would provide all that the plants would need to survive. He did not create fish before there were bodies of water in which they could live. In this story we see that God is. We see that God is powerful, compassionate, wise, capable, and magnificent.

How do we respond to the story of the creation? We respond first with fear and trembling. The Creator, who can bring order out of chaos and life out of nothingness, is certainly powerful and worthy of our awe. Based on this story we can trust in God, because God provides for our every need. It is humbling for us to see the wisdom of God, not only in this story but in the creation that exists outside our windows. How is it that the bluebonnets know to spring forth in March of every year? And how do the animals learn to migrate? Everything is according to God’s plan, the earth turns and is recreated daily according to His design and purpose. There is comfort in knowing that in our times of difficulty, God is able and willing to transform our lives with just a word, to bring order out of our chaos and hope out of our emptiness. The One who has created this world in which we live must, of necessity, be magnificent, greater than all of creation. This is the God worthy of praise and worship. God spoke and it was good.

We visited some weird places on our vacation, created by with an unusual sense of humor or purpose. No one could possibly create anything like God did when He created the world, but mankind has used God’s creation in weird and unusual ways. Places like Cadillac Ranch and the Leaning Tower of Texas never made us ask “How,” but they made us ask why. There are many places around the world, however, that make us ask “How.” Take, for instance, Stonehenge, the ancient stone circle found on the Salisbury Plain in England. We were able to visit the ring during our time living in England and it was one of the most memorable sites we saw. There is something very fascinating about the mystery behind it all, and places like this make us ask so many questions. Why did the ancient people go to so much trouble? How did they manage to get those big rocks onto the plain from so far away and placed so precisely in the circle? What did the people do with the site when it was first built?

Archeologists and scholars disagree about the purpose of Stonehenge, but even if it was not a place for atoning sacrifices, it is likely that it was a religious site of some sort. All religion, in one way or another, seeks reconciliation between the divine entity and the human soul. The Old Covenant of Israel did so through the Law and a complicated sacrificial system. Lambs, bulls, and other animals stood in the stead of the sinner. Their blood brought temporary relief from sin. However, the memory of sin remained, the affects memorialized sin. This is why we will never be like God.

We ask the big questions about other places like Machu Picchu and the Pyramids. How? Even modern architecture is incredible. We can build towers that reach toward the heavens. In Dubai, the Burj Al Arab is a luxury hotel that grabs our imaginations. It looks like the sail an Arabian vessel. It is built on a man-made island off the shore of Dubai and looks like it is floating in the Persian Gulf. Another building in Dubai, the Burj Khalifa, is currently the tallest skyscraper in the world, but that record will soon be lost as taller buildings are already under construction. I have been awed by the classic architecture of European cathedrals and by the modern steel and glass skyscrapers of American cities. The product of human ingenuity can be breathtaking.

Yet, no matter how wonderful the things we do in this world, no matter how wonderful the things we build, nothing can even stand close to that which God has done. We can visit the universe, using technology to see planets and stars that are beyond our grasp. We can delve into the depths of the sea and study the life that has adapted to those extreme conditions. Composers create music and painters make masterpieces that can take us away in a sense of wonder, peace, and joy. But nothing compares to that which God has created.

We can create new flowers by cross-pollinating two others. We can plant a forest. We can artificially inseminate human embryos into a woman’s womb. We can even clone animals. We can do so many things with the creation that God has brought forth with a word. We do these things with the intelligence God has given us. But no matter how unbelievable the things we can accomplish in this world, nothing human hands have created will ever come close to that which God has created.

Here’s a joke for you, “God was once approached by a scientist who said, ‘Listen God, we’ve decided we don’t need you anymore. These days we can clone people, transplant organs, and do all sorts of things that used to be considered miraculous.’ God replied, ‘Don’t need me? Let’s put your theory to the test. Let’s have a competition to see who can make a human being, say’ The scientist agrees, and God declares they should do it like he did in the good old days when he created Adam. ‘Fine’ says the scientist as he bends down to scoop up a handful of dirt. ‘Whoa!’ says God, shaking his head in disapproval. ‘Not so fast. Get your own dirt.’

God is greater than His creation. He is wiser than the wisest man. He is more loving than the most loving mother. He is worthy of our praise and worship. Though we are able to create the most beautiful gardens and build awesome structures that have surpassed the Tower of Babel, we will never be much more than a speck on the planet, a brief blip in the expanse of time and space in which we live. Still, God has made us the crown of His creation. He has made us sons and daughters. He has given us dominion over all that He has done. It is a tremendous responsibility. We would not be able to do anything without God.

We lost a theological giant recently when Timothy Keller died. He wrote dozens of books, and while not everyone was a fan, his work impacted the lives of millions. His book “Jesus the King” looks at Jesus’ life from the perspective of the Gospel of Mark. In it, Keller talks about the “Dance of God.” This is a concept he talks about repeatedly. The following quote is from another of Keller’s books, “The Reason For God: Belief In An Age Of Skepticism.”

“What does it mean, then, that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit glorify one another? If we think of it graphically, we could say that self-centeredness is to be stationary, static. In self-centeredness we demand that others orbit around us. We will do things and give affection to others, as long as it helps us meet our personal goals and fulfils us.

“The inner life of the triune God, however, is utterly different. The life of the Trinity is characterized not by self-centeredness but by mutually self-giving love. When we delight and serve someone else, we enter into a dynamic orbit around him or her, we center on the interests and desires of the other. That creates a dance, particularly if there are three persons, each of whom moves around the other two. So it is, the Bible tells us. Each of the divine persons centers upon the others. None demands that the others revolve around him. Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight and adoration into them. Each person of the Trinity loves, adores, defers to and rejoices in the others. That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love. The early leaders of the Greek church had a word for this – perichoresis. Notice the root of our word ‘choreography’ within it. It means literally to ‘dance or flow around.’

“The Father…Son…and Holy Spirit glorify each other…At the center of the universe, self-giving love is the dynamic currency of the Trinitarian life of God. The persons within God exalt, commune with, and defer to one another… When early Greek Christians spoke of perichoresis in God they meant that each divine person harbors the others at the center of his being. In constant movement of overture and acceptance each person envelops and encircles the others.”

We set aside one day a year to focus on the Trinity. Although the word is not specifically written or defined in the scriptures, Christians from every age have experienced God in three persons since the beginning. Despite two thousand years of explaining and defining it, the Trinity is still a mystery. Three in one, one in three, what does it all mean? We struggle with mysteries because if we can’t grasp something intellectually, we doubt if it is real. We are not always sure that we have gotten it right, especially when we can’t describe it in words others can understand. We can’t answer the question, “What is the Trinity?” so we doubt. Doubt is a part of our human condition.

We can’t possibly understand God completely, for He is greater than anything we can even imagine. However, He is good. He is trustworthy. He is faithful. We can believe in Him, not out of reason but out of faith. There is a place for reason, a place to study the words and try to understand what they mean, but there is also a place to allow God to be the mystery He is.

Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, “But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) This is not from our readings for this week, but so much of our faith revolves around the idea of trinity. Here Paul talks about the trinity of faith, hope, and love. This trinity is our life. We join the divine dance as we glorify God and love our neighbors with faith in hope.

Faith looks upward, hope looks forward, and love looks outward. These forces of life are not solitary or individual but bring us into relationship and community. Faith connects us to the holy, makes us part of the kingdom of God. Faith might be personal, but it does not separate us. As a matter of fact, faith connects us to our Creator and makes our attachment to the entire world He has created stronger. We see the world through the eyes of faith, through the eyes of God, and we take more seriously the responsibilities of our dominion over it. Faith is dead if it is hidden or held within oneself.

Hope is our response to the holy. We are made part of the kingdom of God through faith, and then we rest in the hope of the promises we receive as children of God. Hope does not disappoint because hope is the expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promises. God is faithful, so we can stand firm in that which we know to be true. Our hope is not only in some future heaven, but in God’s continuing action in this world. Hope makes us part of the community, willing to share the grace that brought us the hope in which we live. Hope is pointless if it is hidden or held within oneself.

God is love. We love because God first loved us. Love can in no way be personal or private. Love requires relationship. Though we can ‘love ourselves’ it is a worthless love. In the King James Version of the Bible, the word in the passage is translated “charity.” Love is shared. Love is part of a community. They say God is love, but God can’t be love if He is a singular entity separate from everything else. The Trinity is God in relationship: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person of the Godhead is bound together as One, held by love and radiating love into the created world. We live in that love, but it is not simply about our relationship with God, but it is about how we live out that relationship with God in the creation.

It is easy to talk about life in Christ as faith, hope, and love, but too often doubt stands in our way. Doubt disrupts faith because it causes us to question the relationship we have with God and the relationship we have with others. Doubt halts hope because it makes us wonder if God is really faithful and if He will ever fulfill His promises. Doubt breaks love because it makes us look at others with distrust and uncertainty. We can’t love if we doubt the love of others. And yet, doubt is a very real part of our experience.

So, we live in this tension between doubt and the trinity of our life in Christ. In those final moments with the disciples, Jesus knew they would have difficulty being all that He had called them to be. They would face persecution and even death. They would be ignored, rejected, and despised. But He wasn’t leaving them to do it all alone. He would be with them even to the end of the world. This is true even when we fail. It is true even when we doubt. It is true even though we do not fully understand this Trinitarian God. No matter what we are or what we do, God is. Peace is found in that reality even when our flesh finds it impossible to believe.

We can be confident and doubtful about many aspects of life. The disciples had lived and worked with Jesus for three years. They’d seen Him crucified and raised. They had undergone an intense forty days when the risen Christ trained them in their mission and ministry. They touched Jesus, heard His voice, and loved Him like a brother. They had seen the miracles happen, eaten the bread that Jesus blessed and tasted the wine of the covenant from His own hand. They confessed faith. They believed. And they doubted.

We wonder how this could be, but it is a very natural response to God. How could they doubt anything after all they had seen and experienced with Jesus? The Greek word ‘distazo’ is not as concise as our modern definition. It isn’t that they didn’t believe; they did not want to choose one way over the other. IN other words, the word means that they wavered.

This doubt was probably not so much about doubting God, for they had seen the power and authority by which Jesus had ministered. Despite the training and encouragement they received, they also made many mistakes. They couldn’t cast out the demons. They argued about who was the greatest. They were as confused as the crowds about what Jesus was meant to do. Peter confessed faith in Jesus and then rebuked Jesus for saying that He had to die. The disciples were often self-centered and selfish. They hid in fear and initially refused to believe the news of Jesus’ resurrection. They failed over and over again. Though Jesus had confidence in the ones He had chosen, they did not have confidence in themselves. They knew all too well how imperfect they could be. How could they do what Jesus had done? How could they go on without Him? They believed. And they doubted. They wavered because it was all too much for them to accept. It was all too much! How do you believe in something as mysterious and unexplainable as the Trinity?

Jesus answered their doubts. “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” They were being sent into the world to do an awesome thing: to change the world. Eventually they separated, each apostle going the way the Spirit led and they took the Gospel to the four corners of the earth. They doubted because they did not know how they could accomplish this great thing, but there was no need to worry. God was not sending them alone. He was there with each one and as they baptized each new believer in the Trinity, He made them part of the body He had created in Christ.

Faith is another mystery of God. It is easy to talk about believing in God, until you are asked to explain your reasons to someone who cannot believe. Even more mysterious, however, is how someone hears the Gospel and believes. Every Christian is a miracle. Every heart that has turned to God is a miracle. The entire story of Christ is ridiculous: God was born in flesh, He lived for thirty-three years teaching about His Father, and then was destroyed in a heartbeat by men who claimed to believe in God. Three days later the God-Man appeared alive again. His ministry was continued by the most unlikely rag-tag group of disciples. They weren’t educated. They weren’t righteous as the religious leaders of their day. They didn’t have power or position or wealth. How could they possibly impact the world?

The apostles might have doubted, but they went forth in faith that Jesus would be with them to the end of the age. They may not have been perfect, but by the power of the Holy Spirit they were being perfected daily as they walked in the hope of the fulfillment of all God’s promises. They passed the Trinitarian faith on to us through their witness that was followed by people in every generation since.

Jesus said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” The only one able to give such authority, the authority in heaven and on earth, is the One who created it all. We see His goodness in our Old Testament lesson where the story of the Creation is laid out so poetically. He took chaos and made order, darkness and filled it with light. He organized the sky and water, the land and sea, the plants and the animals. Then God made man in His image. Man was created last, not because he was to be the least of all, but because he was to have dominion over all of the creation. God blessed them, made them part of the whole creative process, and gave them the authority to care for the earth.

He knew, even then, that we’d disappoint Him. He knew we’d be imperfect. He knew we would fail. But He calls us into a relationship with Himself, the Trinity, to be transformed by His grace to move together as one body to continue transforming the world.

When we were created, we were given the authority to take care of the entire world, to continue the creative work of the Father. In Christ, through our baptism, we are given a new authority: the authority to speak forgiveness and grace into the lives of those who are living in chaos. We are called to continue the redemptive work of Christ, to make disciples and teach them all that He commanded.

In the Great Commission, Jesus tells the disciples to “Baptize into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Our faith in Christ brings us more fully into our identity in the image of God. The world is not as God intended. Sin and death were not what He wanted for His creation. The Creator was separated from the creation He loved and He was the only One who could remove the chasm that had formed between heaven and earth. Just as He created the world out of nothing, He brought order out of the chaos it had become. When the time was right, Jesus came in flesh to bring redemption and reconciliation. And He has called us to be part of His creative and redemptive work by the power of the Holy Spirit, not to change the world but to continue what God started.

We have been invited into the Dance of God, to join with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as they glorify one another. We may doubt, but we believe and worship Him because of the faith He has given to us through His Word. He is so awesome that even His name is majestic. So, let’s go forth with the assurance that this great and good Trinity is with us and that He has given us the authority to do His work, the work we were created and redeemed to do to glorify Him for the sake of our neighbors in this world.