The Feast of the Holy Trinity

Isaiah 6:1–7

Romans 11:33–36

St. John 3:1–17

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

We all want mercy on ourselves and justice on everyone else. When I do something wrong, I want mercy, leniency. When someone else does something wrong—especially when someone does something wrong to me—I want justice, punishment. It’s one or the other really. Either mercy for me and mercy for all, or justice for everyone including me, and we all end up dead.

Which one you choose says a lot about the kind of god you have. A god who is only one, only by himself, apart from all others, that’s a justice only kind of god. There’s the god or there’s nothing—no love, no mercy, no community.

The Holy Trinity is quite different. The Trinity is one God to be sure, but not only one, also three. So the Holy Trinity is never alone, never apart from all others, because there’s always the three. From all eternity there has always been Father and Son and Spirit. The Father was never alone, He’s always had His Son and Spirit. And the Son was never alone, He’s always had His Father and Spirit. And the Spirit was never alone, He’s always had the Father and Son. The Holy Trinity is perfect, holy community. So, this is not a justice only kind of god. This is a God of love. This God is love—the Father, the Son, the Spirit always loving the others. And where there is love, there is also mercy. And when everything is perfectly bound together in love and covered by mercy, then there’s justice too—and it all turns out right in the end.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the original community—a perfect, holy, genuine, loving society. They’ve always been talking among themselves, sharing everything with each other. The Holy Trinity is good friends talking late into the night sharing a nice bottle of wine. It’s the greatest party you could ever hope to be invited to.

And you are. This is how it’s meant to be for us. We were created to be invited. It’s what man is for—to be in on the fun. But everything about the past four months shows just how disordered, twisted-up, and off–center our world is. We are created to be in community—with the Trinity and with each other. But we’ve had nothing but people trapped in their homes, isolated, everyone afraid of everyone else, and some people trying to control everyone else. And whether or not it has actually brought health or safety, it certainly has brought loneliness, depression, suicide. 

Or it brought anger. It’s the perfect time for all the deep-seated hatred and resentment to come lashing out. All we’ve seeing these past two weeks is that our society has been fractured for a long time. And despite all the demands for justice, all the promises of those in power, there’s still a lot wrong. This is not a world of mercy. This is a world where we all end up dead.

But that’s not how it’s meant to be. The Holy Trinity is a community of love, and you are meant to be included—where no one is alone, where people aren’t just looking out for themselves, and demanding their rights. But instead, it’s a place where people are together, looking out for each other, and showing compassion to one another. And even though the fullness of this perfect world doesn’t exist yet, its beginning is in the Church.

Now the last couple Sundays, you’ve heard me talk a lot about Memory. And maybe some of that sounded too high-minded or intellectual? But remembering is one of the most enjoyable things we can do with our minds. Who doesn’t love having and revisiting their memories of family and friends? And even sad memories can turn out to be a blessing. That’s all we want for our family, the church. It’s not about being intellectual or having some special insight into the mysteries of God. No, it’s just about remembering who God is and what He does for us: remembering you have a Father who loves you, the Son who died for you, the Spirit who forgives and binds up and heals all your wrongs. It’s about remembering who you are: remembering that you’re a beloved child, you’re dead to sin and alive with the Son, and you’re full of the Spirit.

The memory of the Church, or remembering Jesus’ words, well, that’s all about saying the Creed—even today, with a big one like the Athanasian Creed. It’s not hard. It’s just there for you to say it. Say the words. Share these words with the whole Church. Speak these words from the Father, Son, and Spirit who gave them to you, and you’ll be all set, part of their community, loved, in on the fun. And don’t worry if you can’t immediately understand every single part. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t impress you all that much today. Just keep saying it. 

The thing is it’s not your creed. It’s the Church’s creed. It belongs to the community that you belong to. And so it’s not your understanding that counts. That will come with time. But you begin by just saying the words. Begin by resting in the words, waiting on God, listening for what He says. Begin by recognizing that none of it is about what you do—certainly, not your works; and not your understanding either; it’s not even about your faith. It’s all about the Trinity and the holy community that our God creates for us with Him.

The Holy Trinity does all the work of salvation. Salvation is the work of a holy society, all three Persons doing their part. The Father sent His Son, the Son became a man, conceived by the Spirit. The Father gave His Son into death, and the Son offered up Himself in perfect sacrifice through the Spirit. Then the Father raised up His Son by the power of the Spirit. The Holy Trinity, perfectly united in love, does it all. And all they want from you is for you to join in, just be a part of it, just enjoy it, just receive it.

The Father covers you with His Son and claims you as His own by giving you the Spirit of adoption. So in Baptism the Holy Trinity touches you with water on your skin, marking you with their own Holy Name. The Father declares you righteous as the Words of Jesus that carry the Spirit are spoken to you, forgiving your sins. So in the Absolution the Holy Trinity touches you with words in your ear, cleansing you with their own holy love. And the Father welcomes you into His presence to feast on the body and blood of His Son, making you alive in the Spirit. So in the Lord’s Supper the Holy Trinity touches you with bread and wine on your lips, feeding you with their own holy life.

Now that’s a real party, a genuine, loving society, a true community: the Holy Trinity, the Church, and you. This the place where mercy covers over all the hurts, and love reigns supreme, and all will be put right in the end.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

The Feast of the Holy Trinity

Athanasian Creed

St. John 3:1–17

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There’s an old story about a group of blind men encountering an elephant for the first time: the first blind man felt the elephant’s trunk and said, “This creature is like a thick snake.” The second blind man touched the elephant’s ear and said, “No, this creature is like a thin fan.” A third wrapped his arms around a leg and said, “This animal is like a pillar or a tree trunk.” Another blind man touched the elephant’s side and said, “It’s like a big rough wall.” Another felt the elephant’s tail and said, “It’s like a small rope.” The last blind man touched the elephant’s tusk and said, “No, this creature is smooth and sharp like a spear.” Of course, they are all wrong, and this story shows the incompleteness and inadequacy of human knowledge.

But, to put a little spin on the story, what if the elephant could speak? What if the elephant said, “I am an elephant,” and then went on to describe himself to the blind men? Our God is the God who speaks. We cannot fully and truly know Him from our own investigation, thoughts, or feelings. He reveals Himself to us. He tells us who He is and what He does. He says, “I am one God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

No human would manufacture something so incomprehensible. No other religion has ever come up with a deity so unfathomable. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, We speak of what We know, and bear witness to what We have seen, but you do not receive Our testimony.” That “We” is none other than the Holy Trinity, and that “We” speaks. Christians receive the testimony of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We stick to what the Triune God has revealed and we worship Him. We worship this God like the seraphim do around His throne in Isaiah 6, with their wings humbly covering their faces. We worship Him like St. Paul did in Romans 11, rapturously bursting in praise: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33). The Athanasian Creed does not say that we must UNDERSTAND the Trinity. It says that we WORSHIP one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.

This Creed that we confessed was named after the great north African bishop and teacher, Athanasius. This Creed was not written by him but it explains what he so clearly taught and defended during one of the greatest controversies of the Church. In the early 300s there was another north African pastor named Arius, who taught that Jesus was the first and most powerful creation of God but not true God. He taught that there is no Trinity. This false teaching was corrected in the year 325 at the Council of Nicaea with the formulation of the Nicene Creed, which confesses Jesus to be begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.

Unfortunately, in the decades after Nicaea, the followers of Arius actually grew in number to the point that they began to outnumber the faithful followers of the Nicene Creed. In fact, it seemed at times, that Athanasius was the only one to stand up for the Trinity. Later, he was called “Athanasius against the world.” Despite the opposition, Athanasius defended the catholic faith, which we still confess today. And to say, “the catholic faith,” means “the faith that the true Church of all times and all places has confessed.” Athanasius stood for the Trinitarian doctrine, whole and undefiled, at a time when it looked as if all the civilized world was slipping away from Christianity into the religion of Arius—into a sensible, understandable, man-made religion, (and we still have lots of those today). It is to Athanasius’s honor that he did not move with the times. It is his reward that his teaching based on God’s Word now remains, even when those times have passed away (C.S. Lewis, Introduction to On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius, p.9).

I said that we still have many sensible, understandable, man-made religions today. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are basically the modern-day followers of Arius. They deny the Trinity and claim that Jesus is a creation of God but not true God.

Islam and Judaism are religions that get connected to Christianity, and many even assume all three religions worship the same God. Judaism, of course, shares the Old Testament Scriptures. And Islam shares some of the same Biblical figures like Abraham and even Jesus. But ever since the Jews rejected the Messiah Jesus, Judaism ceased to be a true religion and they no longer worship the one true God. They do not have God the Father, because their god does not have a Son. There’s a similar problem with Islam: they deny the Trinity and believe Jesus is merely a man and a prophet. The god of the Muslims is Allah and he is not the same as the Trinity. Once again, you can’t call Allah God the Father because this god has no Son.

And then in our country you have lots of references to “God” without ever giving Him a proper name. Many Christians assume that saying “God bless America” or “one nation under God” is a reference to the Holy Trinity, but it’s not that specific, especially nowadays, when people want to be inclusive. If you come to the Memorial Day program tomorrow (and you should come), you’ll notice that I will pray a Christian, Trinitarian prayer: it will begin in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and it will be prayed to the Father through the Son and in Spirit. There will be no doubt that this is a Christian prayer to the Christian God.

But the most common of the sensible, man-made religions today is a blending of many religions, called universalism—the idea that all religions lead to the same place. Universalism would say that the blind men feeling the elephant are all explaining the same thing but from different perspectives, so in other words they all get some part of God, and they’re all right in their own way. But the fact remains, they all get the elephant wrong, they still don’t know what an elephant is!

The Athanasian Creed states whoever does not keep the faith whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally. I know that makes us uncomfortable, or at least sad. In some way, I think we all want to be universalists, we want to believe that everyone will go to heaven, or at least no will be punished in hell for eternity. But we can’t think that way—it is sinful, and goes directly against what God has said in Scripture. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he CANNOT enter the kingdom of God.” Or in the verse following our reading today, Jesus continued by saying, “Whoever believes in the Son is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is CONDEMNED ALREADY, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18). There is one true God, and for those who do not believe in Him there is judgment. This is not popular. But we must stand with Athanasius against the world and confess that if you don’t have the Trinity, you don’t have salvation.

Still, we often struggle to explain what the Trinity is. It is a concept that our minds cannot completely grasp. But the good news is that we know something better than concepts or stuff about the true God. We know the true God Himself because we know what He does for us. The way the Trinity works is simple: the Father sends His only-begotten Son to save the world. The Son sends the Holy Spirit. The Spirit grabs us, giving us faith and bringing us to know the Son. And then the Son brings us and presents us to His Father. Notice how at the center of the Trinity’s work is the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know the one true God, and more importantly we know the one true God loves us, because we know Jesus. For God loved the world in this way, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Jesus is the only-begotten Son of the Father and the Giver of the Holy Spirit. Knowing Jesus is how we know the Trinity.

And once again, when I say “know,” remember I don’t strictly mean “understand.” Above all, we worship the Trinity. Or in other words, we go to the Trinity as the Giver of all good gifts and we get the gifts from the three Persons who are one God. Our banners might be helpful here: on the one side of the nave we have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. On the other side we have the gifts. First, Baptism: we are born again of water and the Spirit, baptized into the Son and so adopted as children of the Father. Then the Word: we hear the Word that the Father speaks through His Son and that the Spirit caused to be written down. And then the Lord’s Supper: we eat and drink the body and blood of the Son that was offered up to the Father in payment for our sins and is now given to us to forgive, strengthen faith, and keep us in the unity of the Spirit. By receiving these gifts we worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So that in all things, as has been stated above, the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity is to be worshiped.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.