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May 30, 2010
“The Trinity”
Genesis 1: 1 - 5 & 26 - 27/John 14: 8 - 17
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Today we are in a bit of a conflict. Our nation is on a long weekend that honors those who died in the process of obtaining and securing the freedoms that we have in this nation, or in attempts to offer the freedoms we enjoy to others.
But our church has declared that this is a day for recognizing the fact that our God is a trinity of persons. Now by our church, I mean most organized churches and denominations. The PCUSA planning calendar has this date listed as Trinity Sunday. Trinity Sunday does not always fall on Memorial Day weekend. It is always on the Sunday after Pentecost, which is itself the 7th Sunday after Easter.
Last Sunday, which was Pentecost, we celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit onto and into the church. Today we look at all of the persons of God which are in and proceed from our God.
The doctrine of the trinity is uniquely Christian. No other religion presents a God who is more than one person. And that is why the people of other religions do not understand all that we believe about God. Muslims and Jews are scandalized by this doctrine. Both of those religions are fiercely monotheistic, which means that they only worship one God. We Christians also claim to be monotheistic but in our doctrine of the Trinity Muslims and Jews find reasons to accuse us of being more polytheistic than monotheistic. A polytheist is one who worships more than one God. So, are we Christians truly monotheistic or are we poly-theistic? Do we worship one God or Three?
As we begin to explore this issue we need to acknowledge that the word Trinity is not found in the Scriptures. It is a word that church people invented to describe what they found taught in Scripture. And I ought at this point to add, that passages that are consistent with the doctrine of the trinity are found in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament.
One of the best examples of this is in the first chapter of Genesis in the verses Grieke read as our first lesson. There are two interesting verses in this chapter. Verse 2 of Genesis 1 reads “the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the water”. What is interesting is that the Hebrew word here translated “Wind” is also translated “Breath” or “Spirit”. And if you look in your pew bibles or some of your bibles at home you will find that in this verse, there is a footnote that says “OR while the Spirit of God or while a mighty wind”. This could well be the first reference to the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures.
And the 26th verse reads “Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness”. God speaks of himself in the plural. Some have passed it off as the royal we that monarchs and others have used, but this is way before queen Elizabeth.
Then there is the Hebrew word that occurs throughout the Old Testament that is translated “God” in all English translations. The Word is Elohim and in all other instances the IM ending is plural.
So while the Old Testament Scriptures are insistent that there is only one God, the word used for that God is plural and would ordinarily be translated “Gods”. This idea that there is only one Gods is grammatically impossible but coincides with the doctrine of the trinity.
Now let me be clear here, it cannot be said that the Scriptures of the Old Testament teach the doctrine of the Trinity, but it can be said that some passages are not inconsistent with the doctrine of the Trinity.
The doctrine of the Trinity is supported much more by the New Testament, especially the teachings of Jesus. Today our second lesson is one of these passages. You may have noticed that this passage is just prior to the lesson we read last Sunday as we were looking at the Holy Spirit. In this passage, before Jesus talked much about the Holy Spirit he talked about the other two persons of God, the Father and the Son. In the first 7 verses of John 14, Jesus had been talking about his Father, His Fathers House, and himself.
In the 8th verse, as our lesson begins, Phillip asked Jesus to show them the Father. Jesus responded by saying “Have I been with you all this time, Phillip, and you do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say “Show us the Father?” Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”
In these verses we learn some interesting things about the Father and the Son. In other Scripture verses, while Jesus was on earth, He described the Father as being in heaven. In other words, in those passages we think that the Father and the Son were spatially separated. But here Jesus describes himself and the father as being indistinguishable and joined, so that the words and deeds of Jesus are really the words and deeds of the Father. Everything that Jesus did was really done through him by the Father. During the life of Jesus, the Father and the Son were clearly distinct because only Jesus the Son was visible and audible, but Jesus during that time clearly stressed their unity.
In the later verses of this passage, Jesus clearly stressed the unity of himself with the soon-coming Holy Spirit. In verses 16-17 we read that Jesus said “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”
Last week I dealt with the Greek word that is here translated Advocate. You will remember that the general meaning is “one who is called to the side of.” In this passage Jesus tells them that they will recognize the Spirit of Truth or the one who will be called to their side because was abiding with them. Now Jesus was the one who was presently abiding with them. He was the one who had been called to their side and taught them for the last 3 years. The Holy Spirit was to come onto them at Pentecost.
Jesus was saying that they would recognize the Holy Spirit because the Spirit would be Jesus. They would be familiar with and recognize the Spirit because they had known the Son. We on the other hand, know Jesus because we know the Spirit.
It has been the tendency of Protestant Pastors and Theologians to stress the individual persons and works of each of the persons of the trinity. This has sometimes caused us to almost forget the unity of God and think of Jesus and the Father and the Spirit as three independent entities.
This past week Our Administrative Assistant Stephanie Cardwell and I spent a few minutes selecting the graphic that adorns your bulletin cover. Some of the graphics we looked at seemed to almost teach that God was comprised of three independent beings that were somehow joined together. I chose this one because it clearly illustrates that God has a three-ness about him, but that he is one in being and nature. The lines flow from one part into another part and in a way that it is all clearly one entity.
We Christians believe that God’s three persons have co-existed forever and will continue to do so. We believe that they can all perform their functions at the same time. But we also believe that they are one God, one Being.
The Doctrine of the trinity was formulated to help us understand what the Scriptures reveal to us about the nature and works of God. And although some brilliant minds have added to the formulations, they describe something that is a mystery and will not be totally revealed until the end of earthly time, if then.
We Christians affirm with Jews and Muslims that there is only one God, but was also affirm that he is revealed to us through his three persons. This Three-ness does not distract from or in any way negate his One-ness.
Now, Please join me in affirming the One-ness and Three-ness of God by saying with me the Apostle’s Creed. You will find it printed in the bulletin.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at May 30, 2010 02:00 PM