Trinity?
Rev Dr Mark Porizky
6/3/07
John
16:12-15
After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.
The
idea of the trinity –one God, three persons -- may seem confusing, even to
the preacher. The trinity is a tradition of the church. The church has
celebrated Trinity Sunday since the 1300's, when Pope John XXII ordered that
the festival be celebrated each year. The idea of trinity, God in three
persons, has become one of the great doctrines, or teachings, of the church.
Yet,
the word “trinity” is not in the Bible. It is nowhere spelled out or
defined in the Bible with the specificity that would satisfy us.
The Bible leaves it as a mystery, a holy mystery, one we cannot
completely comprehend.
Thus
we are left wondering what the trinity means. What does it mean to sing the
doxology? Or to sing, as we did earlier, "Holy,
Holy, Holy, God in Three persons"? Or
to baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
Let's
consider trinity in terms of how we know God, how we understand God.
Think
about what it would mean if we only knew God as Father or Creator, the high
and holy one, almighty, king of the universe, powerful, sitting on a throne,
away out there somewhere. This is the way that much of the Old Testament
understands God.
To
know God only in that one aspect of God's personhood is an awesome thing,
maybe even downright frightening. This is a God who can do anything. Like the
God known by a child who when asked who God is, said, "God is the one who
opens the door in the supermarket."
To
know God in this way is to know God who can do magical and mysterious things.
Moses,
Jesus and an old man went golfing. Moses teed off, and his ball went down a
waterway, the water parted, and the ball rolled across within four inches of
the cup.
Jesus
then teed off, and the ball hit near the water, skipped across on top of it
and came within two inches of the cup.
The
old man teed off next, and the ball went crooked, hit a tree and bounced. A
squirrel picked it up and ran with it across the green. An eagle swooped down,
caught the squirrel, flew high up into a thunderstorm and got struck by
lightning, which made him drop the squirrel. The squirrel dropped the ball,
which hit a terrapin and rolled into the cup.
Jesus
said, "Nice shot, Dad." God
the Creator can do ANYTHING!
God
who is known only as Father, Almighty, Creator, High King of Heaven -- is a
God who can be understood as a God who is all powerful.
But such a God is also distant and difficult to approach.
The
doctrine of the trinity means that God did not stay in the heavens. The
doctrine of the trinity means that the God the Old Testament people found
unapproachable, and the God we know as all-powerful and sovereign, is not the
only way we can know God.
Instead,
God came in person, God as Son, the second person of the trinity. God came to
walk the earth, in human form, so that we could know God not only as holy and
awesome, but also as God personal, a God who is love. A God who is not only
God-like, but one of us, living in real human skin.
It's
more difficult to believe in this kind of God, the kind of God whom we know in
the second person of the trinity. It's hard to understand the mystery of how
Jesus the Son is both divine and human. Since the beginning of the church,
there have been people who get mixed up, and make Christ so holy that they
take away his humanity. Others make him so human that they think he is only
like the rest of us.
But
God came as a person to show us something about God that we could not know
from the distance of earth to heaven. God
became approachable, a God who put on a suit of human skin, who become a real
human person. A man who got tired, wept. A man who knew discouragement. A man
who knew frustration and became angry. A man who nearly lost his courage when
facing the cross. A man who felt God-forsaken on the cross.
The
trinity means that God who is father, eternal God, high and holy and lifted
up, is also God who came to be with us, a personal God who cares deeply for
every hair on our heads, and understands every emotion, every joy and every
frustration and pain we3 experience.
But
the doctrine of the trinity means something more.
The
doctrine of the trinity means that God did not at one time 2000 years ago come
to our world and then leave us with only some sort of memory, a historical
blip during the Roman Empire. The trinity means that God with us is not just
history. It means that God is also Holy Spirit, God present with us now, God
who is with us always.
One
of the more humorous quirks of scientific history is the debate over who
should get the credit for discovering oxygen. Joseph Priestley, an English
scientist and clergyman, is often given that honor because he was the first to
publish his findings, doing so in 1774. Interestingly, Priestley originally
called the gas, "dephlogisticated air."
However,
in 1772, two years prior to Priestly's find, a Swedish chemist named Carl
Scheele independently discovered the gas that is vital to human existence.
Strangely enough, the term oxygen didn't actually come into use until 1775,
when yet another chemist, Frenchman Antoine Lavoisier, discovered and named
the gas we breathe. Lavoisier was the first to recognize oxygen as one of our
natural elements.
Regardless
of who gets the credit, it's odd to think of a human being
"discovering" oxygen. Does a fish discover water? The truth is that
oxygen literally surrounds us every day, and even if we choose to call it
"dephlogisticated air," we can't live without it. The same is true
of the Holy Spirit.
The
trinity proclaims that God has never left this planet, that God’s essence is
everywhere, and can be within us too, helping us make the most Godly choices.
Here
is only one such example I read in PRAY! Magazine.
It came back to me when I met a couple worshiping with us last week who
are both chiropractors.
Chiropractor Perry Hefty and his wife, Arlys, wanted to be in what they
considered "ministry" for many years. One day when Perry was crying
out to God about this deep desire, he heard God speak: "Begin with what
you have."
So
instead of getting the $2.5 million he would have needed to start a healthcare
ministry and retreat center for missionaries, pastors, and other full-time
Christian workers, Perry started doing what he could: giving free chiropractic
services to Christian workers who were in financial and physical need. That
was in 1994. Since that time, Perry's office has given away hundreds of
thousands of dollars worth of services—about a third of his business—to
help restore physical, and often spiritual, health.
Says
Perry, "Many of the missionaries and Christian workers who came to the
office were deeply discouraged, but they felt they needed to put on a bright
and happy face so they could raise ministry support. So we dedicated ourselves
and our facility to being used by the Lord to heal and restore his
people." Perry and Arlys prayed for people in the office, encouraged
them, and counseled them, often building relationships that continued long
after treatment ended.
When
Perry constructed a new office building in 1999, he and a prayer team prayed
over the land, the building project, and the business and ministry that would
take place there. Even after they moved into the building, Perry says he often
stayed late to anoint the doorways with oil and pray for the people who would
come in the next day.
"Patients
noticed the difference. They would often comment, 'Wow, it just feels so
peaceful here,'" Perry says.
The Heftys still dream of building that Christian retreat center. But in the meantime, they've learned that God is happy to use them to minister, whatever business they're in, guided by the Holy Spirit’s council to “begin with what you have.
That's
what the doctrine of the trinity means, my friends. That's what it means to
sing "God in three persons, blessed trinity". That's what it means
to sing the doxology, that's what it means to baptize in the name of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We
worship a God who cannot be understood and summed up with one image or one
understanding. Trinity means that our God, though one, is to be thought of and
experienced in more than one way.
The table before us makes the holy trinity a visible reality in our Christian
lives. The table is hosted by a God who did not stay in the heavens, high and
holy and lifted up. God comes to eat with us and to fellowship with us. What is
more human than eating together? We know a personal God who prepares a table for
us that we might be nourished in our lives together. We also know a God who did
not come once to our world and then leave us bereft and orphaned. Instead God
came to be God-present with us always, even when it hurts. Especially when it
hurts. God in three persons reveals God-self in a spiritual presence at this
table as in no other place.
The
doctrine of the trinity is a holy mystery. God is three in one. Father, Son,
Holy Spirit. But let us not be confused, my friends. Let us simply believe it.
Let us proclaim it. God is no longer at a distance. God is with us always.
Will you pray with me now?
St.
Andrew Presbyterian Church, Groton
,
Web Site: WWW.SAPC-CT.ORG
Office Email: OFFICE@SAPC-CT.ORG
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