June 7th, 2009, Trinity Sunday, All
Souls' Episcopal Church
“To acknowledge the glory
of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine
Majesty to worship the Unity: ... keep us steadfast in this
faith and worship”
Collect for the Feast of
the Blessed Trinity
According to our church
calendar, today is known as Trinity Sunday. On this Sunday,
in churches around the world, congregations are listening to
preachers who are trying their level best to use some
familiar image or object as a way of illustrating the
doctrine of the Holy Trinity, three divine Persons and one
God. We are told that St. Patrick in Ireland used a
shamrock as an illustration – the appearance of three leaves
which are actually one leaf. The illustrations used by many
today who are trying to explain the Holy Trinity will all be
numerous and varied, but they all share in common the fact
that they are each in their own way woefully inadequate.
Here is part of what the Athanasian Creed says on the
subject: (p. 864 of the 1979 BCP)
We worship one God
in Trinity and the Trinity in unity; neither confounding the
Persons: nor dividing the substance.
In other words, we worship one
God. We don’t say that the Father and the Holy Ghost are
just other names for Jesus – we don’t confound or confuse
the persons. And, we don’t say that God is one substance
divided in three. God is indivisible.
The Creed continues: For there is one Person of the
Father: another of the Son: and another of the Holy
Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost, is all one: the glory equal, the majesty
coeternal. Such as the Father is: such is the Son:
and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated: the
Son uncreated: the Holy Ghost uncreated. The
Father incomprehensible: the Son incomprehensible: the Holy
Ghost incomprehensible. The Father eternal: the
Son eternal: the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet, there
are not three eternals: but one eternal. … So likewise
the Father is almighty: the Son almighty; and the
Holy Ghost almighty. And yet there are not three
almighties: but one almighty. So the Father is God: the Son
is God: and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet there are not
three Gods: but one God.
Now, if at this point you may be about to begin complaining
of how you don’t understand how all this works and what all
this means, I just want you to consider that I don’t
understand aerodynamics and the science of flight, but I
still travel on airplanes; and even though I have little
comprehension of chemistry and biology, I still usually take
medicine when it’s prescribed. And I’ll bet that even if
you aren’t well versed in political science or know much
about the history of jurisprudence, you still think the
Constitution is a pretty good thing. I mention all this
because there is a tendency in our day and age to dismiss
anything we don’t immediately understand as if it is
unimportant to us. I don’t immediately understand how
nuclear fusion works, but I know it’s important. I’ve heard
people say, “Well, I’m sure the doctrine of the Trinity is
important, but it’s beyond our comprehension as human
beings.” No it isn’t. God is beyond our
comprehension, but we human beings can comprehend the
doctrine of the Trinity because we human beings are the ones
who wrote it.
Perhaps Trinity Sunday should serve as a rallying point to
encourage greater study of the deep things of God and to not
be lazy in our thinking. In this day and age we can little
afford to grow slack in our efforts to grasp big ideas and
complicated teachings, especially as they pertain to our
faith. In an age of mindless entertainment, emotional
religion, instant gratification, and sound bites, we can
hardly be accused of thinking too much. The fact of the
matter is that we think too little, especially when it comes
to the content of the historical Christian religion. All
that being said, it must now be pointed out that today is
not called “Doctrine of the Trinity Sunday,” but simply
“Trinity Sunday.” In other words, our focus today is on God
Himself.
The
first half of our church year begins in Advent and continues
until the Feast of Pentecost. On the Sundays from Advent to
Pentecost we read about and celebrate the graceful, saving
acts of God. We focus upon our Lord’s birth, ministry,
sacrificial death and passion, resurrection and ascension.
We conclude this first half of the church year by
celebrating the descent of the Holy Ghost who brings the
church to life and indwells each Christian so that they may
dwell in Christ and Christ in them. The second half of the
church year begins next Sunday and has us focus our
attention on how, by the graceful indwelling and enabling of
God the Holy Spirit, we may grow and wax stronger in the new
life our Lord Jesus has won for us. In other words, the
second half of the church year, when the liturgical color is
green for growth, we learn about how we grow in light of all
that God has done for us – our response to all those things
we celebrated in the first half of the church year. Today,
in the middle of the church year, on this Trinity Sunday we
are to focus our attention on God Himself, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, three Persons and one God.
We
celebrate, in the words of St. John, that “God is love.”
Since God is our creator, we believe that creation itself is
an act of love. This belief certainly should color the way
we see the world and all that is around us. We celebrate as
well our belief that our creator further reveals Himself to
us as our Father. This means that not only has He created
us in His own image but also called us to be in deliberate
relation to Him as children to a father – children who have
the very image of the Trinity in our own being. The vision
of God teaches us about who we are as His creatures
especially made in His image and likeness. Christians have
speculated through the centuries where this image of God is
found in us. St. Augustine and other great Christian
teachers tell us that the Divine image of the Trinity is to
be found in our souls. Whether we think in terms of being,
thinking and loving or memory,
knowledge and love, as we come to know God, we
also come to know better who we are meant to be as created
and redeemed in His image. And if we think in the language
of the Bible about the Father who named Himself , ‘I am’,
the Son whom John calls the Word, i.e., how God makes
himself known, and the Spirit, who is the love of God, we
may begin to see that our highest goal, our destiny is also
found in being, knowledge and love.
Now to some that may seem like pious double talk. Too often
though these days we hear that community is good, doctrine
is bad ;or love is good, and the notion of real truth is
bad, as though somehow they were mutually exclusive. But
that really can’t be. We need to know whom we love because,
as the song goes, “To know, know, know, him is to love,
love, love him.” God may be incomprehensible, too big to
hold in our minds let alone or our hands but He is big
enough to hold us in His. To be kept in the knowledge and
love of God is our true peace and our final end, as the
blessing reminds us at every Eucharist. The Trinity is all
about that knowledge and that love and so finally now may we
thank God that He has called us to this special knowledge of
Him, and pray that by His Spirit He would increase the light
of our minds, that we may grow in faith, and warm our hearts
by His burning love so that finally we may love as he first
loved us.
This is the good news and essence of our faith - we believe
that we may know God. We believe that we may know God and
love Him. And we believe that God has called us to a divine
and human friendship.
On this Trinity Sunday we are reminded that our chief end is
to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. On this day, may the
words of an ancient and familiar hymn serve as our prayer:
I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same,
The three in One, and One in Three.
Of whom all nature hath creation;
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the
Lord.
(verse 7, St. Patrick’s Breastplate.)
