Holy Trinity Sunday
Matthew 28:16-20
"The Trinity - Huh"
"Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."" Matthew 28:16-20, RSV.
Grace and Peace to your from our Lord and Savior, Jesus who is part of the Trinity. Amen
Today is another festival of the church year which is even more forgotten than last Sunday’s festival, the Day of Pentecost.
Today is Holy Trinity Sunday.
You might say what is that, the Trinity. Well it is not a event like Christmas or Easter, it is not something you might find in the Bible. There is no mention of the Trinity as such in the Bible.
But it is a doctrine of the church that we believe in whole hardly.
Maybe the following will help, maybe it won’t.
Parent (Dad)
Child (Son)
C: Dad, I got a question.
P: What is it, Son.
C: Well, today in Sunday School, we talked about God.
P: God, huh. Maybe you should talk to your mother.
C: Come on, Dad.
P: Okay, Son, what is your question?
C: Well, our teacher was trying to explain the Trinity, you know, God in three persons?
P: Son, I REALLY think this is a Mom question, don’t you?
C: Dad....
P: All right, what is your question?
C: Well, I guess it is just confusing. I mean, I have never met a Trinity before.
P: What do you mean, Son.
C: Everyone I know is just one person, not three.
P: I see. And this worries you?
C: It’s just confusing, Dad. I mean, who is this Trinity God supposed to be?
P: That is a good question, Son.
C: (PAUSE) Well...
P: Well, what?
C: Don’t you have some wonderful parental insight to help me out, here?
P: Right, well, let me think. God is like H2O, you know, Ice, liquid and steam, all H2O,
but different make-ups...
C: So God is like water?
P: Well, not exactly. Oh, okay. Let’s try this...your Mother, for instance... She is one person,
but she is a mother, a wife and a daughter...
C: So Mom is God?
P: Let’s not go there, Son. Let me think....
C: What about the beauty of a flower, or the smile of a baby?
P: What? How is that like Trinity?
C: I don’t know, but when I see something like that, I know that God must
have had a hand in it.
P: I would agree with you there, Son.
C: But, which one?
P: Which one what?
C: Which God is involved in something like that?
P: I am not following you here, Son.
C: Well, if God is three persons, which person makes the flowers bloom?
Which person breathes new life into a baby?
P: Now wait, remember we have a rule in this house. Mom answers all
questions about babies, okay?
C: Not just babies, Dad, everything. Which person paints the colors of the sunset? Which
person listens to me when no one else will? Which one?
P: Wow. These are good questions, Son.
C: Which one is it? And how do we know? And who decides? And do they ever argue with each other?
Do they live in the same place? Can you see them all, or just some of them?
How can you tell them apart? Are they identical? Is it just three, or could it be four, or five, or more?
P: (LONG PAUSE - staring at Child) Son, the Trinity is like an apple, it has a core, the meat of the apple and the skin...
C: Dad?
P: Or maybe, like a three-leafed clover?
C: You don’t know do you?
P: Or a triangle?
C: I’ll go ask Mom, or whoever she is!
P: Or three interlocking circles....? 1
The concept of the Trinity can be confusing. But I think if we look at in its parts, that might help explain what it is and isn’t.
We say at the beginning of each worship service, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen.
We said last Sunday that is our calling upon the name of Jesus. But it is more than just Jesus whom we call to our worship, it is the Holy Trinity, God in three persons who comes to our worship an abides with us.
God is three and at the same time one.
As the apostles Creed says, . I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth:
We believe in God the creator. We believe in the God who made everything. We believe in a God who loved us enough to send his son to earth and die for us. We believe in a God who is not the puppet master of the universe, but a loving, compassionate God who wants what is only good for His children.
But we want a god that we can understand and control so we try to make god in our own image. We try and manipulate God to do what we want Him to do.
We want a God of our own making, on our conditional terms, who shall pander to our needs at our every beck and call--a cosmic bell-hop God, as Harry Emerson Fosdick once described him.
I think the politicians of this day and age are very close to creating their kind of god. A kind of god who believes in what they believe in and in so doing are making god in their own image.
But my God is bigger than that. My God cannot be controlled, manipulated for personal glory and reward. My God is more than just one god.
And that brings us to the second part of the Trinity, God who is Jesus Christ.
We say
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord:
He was conceived by the power Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary:
Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, died and buried: He descended into hell:
On the third day he rose again:
He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand the Father
He will come again to judge the living and the dead:
My God is not only the god who created the universe, but my god became human, my god became Jesus Christ who died on a cross and rose again.
We say that we are Christians, and the first 5 letters of that word is Christ, not God, but Christ. For our belief is in a God who became Christ and died for us.
We believe in a God who came to earth and then died for our sins and then rose on the third day. My God is more than a creator, He is the giver of life now and in the future.
We hear a lot of talk about God on television these days from politicians and others, but we hardly ever hear the word Jesus or Christ.
I think that is because we have morphed Jesus into God and God into Jesus and that is not right.
We have a God in Jesus who came to earth and taught us to love our neighbor as our selves. He taught us to not judge others but to treat them with kindness and humility.
It says in Matthew 25
31 ¶ "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,
33 and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.
34 Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ’Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
37 Then the righteous will answer him, ’Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?
38 And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee?
39 And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’
40 And the King will answer them, ’Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’
’Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’
As you did it to the least of these my brethren you did it to me. When we reach out to those less fortunate with the hand of compassion, with a hand of mercy, with a hand of acceptance, we are reaching out for and to Christ.
We say then
I believe in the Holy spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
The third part of the Trinity. We believe in a God who has become a Spirit which dwells in each believer. For at our Baptism we were given the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is not a thing, or a wind, or something that fills us like water, but the Holy Spirit is a person, the third part of the Trinity.
The Holy Spirit is not just an influence. So many seem to talk about being filled with the Spirit as if the Holy Spirit were some kind of liquid. They talk about having an ’empty vessel’, an empty jug, and having the Spirit poured in. That is entirely wrong because it forgets that the Holy Spirit is a Person. He is not a substance, not a liquid, and not a power like electricity. We all tend to fall into this error. We even tend to refer to the Holy Spirit as ’it’, forgetting that the Holy Spirit is the third Person in the blessed Holy Trinity." 2
Paul says this
When we cry, "Abba! Father!"
16 it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 ¶ and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:15-17
When we cry to God for anything it is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity that bears witness with our own Spirit that allows us to cry to God, to "Daddy God". "Mother God".
When we say that the Spirit himself bearing witness, what does that actually mean. It means To give grounds for believing in the existence or presence of
So the third part of the Trinity gives our Spirit the grounds it needs to believe in the God who is three in One.
As we pray to God through the Spirit we are in the words of - Andrew Murray
True prayer is the living experience of the Holy Trinity. The Spirit’s breathing, the Son’s intercession, the Father’s will, these three become one in us.
As the child in the opening conversation says:
C: Which one is it? And how do we know? And who decides? And do they ever argue with each other?
Which one is it. It is all one and three at the same time. The Trinity is not a vague doctrinal experience, but it is personal. The Trinity is God relating to each of us on a personal level. The Trinity is not some puzzle to be solved, but a relationship to be lived.
Which one is it? It is all three.
How do we know? We have a relationship with the God who will, the son who intercedes and the breathing .
What name is the name of my God?
I told you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit
But that is three.
Yes, but it’s only one.
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale May 16, 2004
1 This was written by Charlie Woodward
Pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church Westerville, Ohio
2"Life In The Spirit - in Marriage Home and Work" - Lloyd-Jones, pg 47 1973 Baker Books
from www.sermoncentral.com Contributed by: Clark Tanner
