SERMON- Rev. Whitney Bruno- Trinity Sunday – May 30,2021 – Isaiah 6: 1-8, Rom. 3: 1-17
“How can these things be?” Watch or listen to this service and sermon here.
We sing it “God in Three Persons” and some have us have confessed it in the Apostles or Nicene Creed – a trinity.
When our denomination was formed – we confessed – “We worship We worship [God] in the unity of the Godhead and the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons of the same substance, equal in power and glory.” (20 Articles)
And we sing in A Song of Faith, “With the Church through the ages, we speak of God as one and triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
But the Song continues,
“We also speak of God as
Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer
God, Christ, and Spirit
Mother, Friend, and Comforter
Source of Life, Living Word, and Bond of Love,
and in other ways that speak faithfully of
the One on whom our hearts rely,
the fully shared life at the heart of the universe.”
One in three. Three in one. We say God is One made of three persons, but as soon as those persons are equated as Jesus redeems, the Spirit sustained, and the Parent creates… then we’ve fallen into the heresy of modalism. Modalism is the area each person of the trinity has a unique role.
And if we say, as I often do myself, that God is one who appears sometimes as Jesus, sometimes as the Spirit, and sometimes as God the Parent… then, again, I am in a heretical position. This is again modalism and denying the individual personhood of the three members of trinity… For they are individual even as they are of the same substance, essence and nature.
What they are is the same. God.
Who they are is different. God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Feeling lost? Confused? I’ve barely scratched the surface on this. There is literally 2000 years of spilled ink on this subject. There are literally bishops, church mothers and fathers, whole groups of people murdered over this. Whole sections of the Quran address this.
On one hand we proclaim the Lord God is One and there is no other God but God.
And on the other… we pray to Jesus, and the Spirit, and to God. We draw pictures of three ruling in Heaven. We explain our faith with three leaf clovers and we baptise in 3 names.
So… to take from our own scripture… “How can these things be?”
The EASY answer is “it’s a mystery!” and you’ll hear this often. The Trinity is a Mystery. You can’t understand it. But for something so mysterious, we sure have waged a lot of wars, broken into a lot of denominations, and wrote a whole lot of libraries about it.
The crux of the entire issue is… who is Jesus?
Was Jesus divine?
Was Jesus a man who God adopted at Jesus’ baptism, and in that adoption, Jesus became more than just a man?
Was Jesus a spirit living in a human body?
Was Jesus a spirit who only appeared to be in a human body?
Was Jesus equal with God?
Was Jesus God?
Was Jesus a step below God?
Was Jesus some strange mix of God and human – making a brand new hybrid?
Was Jesus all divine and all human without those natures mixing?
Was Jesus a good human but not any more divine than you or I?
Once you answer that… then…
This Advocate, or Paraclete, or Holy Spirit – is this a person, a god, a nature, or should it be holy spirit… lower case… like… My daughter often has my spirit. My personality. But My Spirit isn’t an actual person separate from me.
Who Jesus was, is, and will be. Who and what is meant by a H/holy S/spirit… these are what are being fought over to this very day.
I would be inclined to say none of it matters. Who cares if Jesus was a hybrid human, a full human, or fully divine? Who cares if we think of God as one with different ways of appearing or we think of God as one nature with three persons?
I am inclined… but I don’t go that far. It does matter. It matters because what our base beliefs are affect our experience of life and our actions.
If we believe Jesus was a hybrid human then… how can we say he truly knows what it feels like to suffer, to be abandoned, or to die? It means there are parts of our lives where we are alone. God doesn’t understand it from a human point of view because God never experienced it as we do. Weak. Without divinity. We feel more alone. We act like parts of our lives are outside of God’s touch.
If we believe Jesus was wholly human and no more divine than you or I, then why aren’t you and I resurrecting the dead? Why aren’t we leaping up from the grave and doing miracles? What made him able to do this but not us? Are we supposed to do so? If we don’t, then does that mean our faith is not sufficient and something is lacking in us? Can we ever be good enough? Faithful enough? We may give up on Christianity. We may hate ourselves. If we’re damned no matter how hard we try, why keep trying? Just throw in the towel and praise Satan.
Lastly, if we believe Jesus was wholly divine… we’re back to the first issue. To quote our church father Athanasius, “What has not been assumed has not been redeemed.” If humanity is redeemed and made good and it has to have had its nature changed from sinful. This is only possible if the divine has come to us and assumed — taken on — humanity and changed us. It also leads to the issue… why did Jesus take steps to trick and lie to us with appearing to die, appearing to eat, appearing to sleep, appearing to be human? Can we trust this lying god? Maybe truthfulness is not a quality of God and not a quality we ought to uphold.
All of this being said… … there are plenty of people who believe Jesus was hybrid, or only human, or only divine. And they’re leading very good lives and haven’t fallen into any of these troubles I just said. And there are plenty of people who believe in the Trinity and are in dire straits. I’m trying to summarize 2000 years of arguments by showing extremes to help you understand why many churches uphold the Trinity.
The Trinity is the idea that there is only one God – this essence, nature, substance is called the Godhead.
The Godhead is made of three persons who are revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the West, the Father begot the Son, and the Spirit comes from both. But all are equal, eternal, outside of time, and of the same nature: God.
As in our learning time… you can see this three-in-one idea in Celtic knots. Or in a single flame with three wicks. Or a triangle made of 3 equal angles. Or a 3 legged stool.
For me, the important part of the Trinity is that it means God is made, fundamentally, out of relationships. Out of interdependence. Out of love. Augustine called them the lover, the beloved, and the love. Love linked to love linked to love linked to love again.
I tend to be a modalist, as I said, and speak of God in the ways we encounter God – Mother, Father, Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, Inspirer, Son, Daughter, Child, Beloved, Friend, Verb, Word, and more. But I also find myself really comforted by the idea of God’s internal life being made out of relationships. Out of love and being loved. Out of community.
The beautiful, wonderful thing in the United Church is that there is room for all of these theologies and more. There is not a creed or doctrine you *must* subscribe to. Instead, we affirm we are in essential agreement.
Essentially we agree we are children of God through our faith in Jesus Christ. We are persuaded that our Holy Scriptures sufficiently contain all doctrines required for eternal salvation in Jesus Christ.
If you essentially agree with these things… You’re a child of God. You’re following Jesus. The Bible helps you do this… you’re in the right church.
All the rest, including belief in the Trinity, is up for debate. Up for revision. Up for God to keep speaking to us and we keep learning new ways to understand our relationships with God and with one another.
This is where to be if you are Nicodemus. And I know I am! Nicodemus is curious. He wants to know more. He wants to question and ask and think and ponder. He wants to be a good person. He’s not ashamed to humble himself and admit when he, who has learned so much, doesn’t know and doesn’t understand. I want to be Nicodemus.
So I stand here today and tell you… I don’t *get* the Trinity. It *is* a mystery. But I can walk along side you and examine how we came to this belief. And I can walk along side you if you toss the belief out. And I can speak of what I have read and have studied.
But at the end of the day, I’m lost too. And that’s okay. Jesus doesn’t turn Nicodemus away and helps educate him. Gifts him some of our most cherished words and insights in scripture with that phrase of being born anew. I believe God does the same for us and welcomes us with our questions and fumblings, our musings and curiosities, our bewilderment and disbelief. God welcomes us. God invites us to experience this mystery of faith. God loves us – and the inquisitive spirits God gave us.
Amen.
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 