So What’s the Big Deal About the Holy Trinity?

Holy Trinity C  5/30/10 (Memorial Day)

From the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—grace and peace be to you.

So what’s the big deal about the Holy Trinity?

What makes it so special that it has it’s own feast day—today? What makes it so special that we baptize in the name of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? For that matter, why was it at the crux of controversies that rocked the very foundations of the early church? And why did it take the church centuries to work out the language needed to adequately address and define the godhead, without slipping into heresy? And what is there about this doctrine, this verbal, conceptual, and enigmatic model of God, that any straying away from it causes renowned German theologians to spew beer from their noses and long since dead Cappadocian monks to twirl in their graves? What’s the big deal about the doctrine of the holy trinity?

Well, to my way of thinking, it’s all a matter of three “-tions”—revelation, interpretation, and appellation. But before I get to doctrinal descriptions, with the requisite round of heady explanations and obscure references, let me share some very simple theology with you. This is Pastor Tom’s Doctrine Doctrine. Here it is. God loves you. God loves us all, no matter how we describe or name or characterize God. Nothing we can do or say will ever change that. It is God’s doing,, and is not contingent upon anything.

So there’s no test on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity that must be passed before entering the kingdom of heaven. No handy, but deficient analogies like a cake, apple or the three states of water, that you must use to illustrate the trinity. No catechism text to be memorized, even. God loves you. It seems too simple and it is—but that’s the point. And if you carry nothing away from this sermon except for the fact that God loves you—that will be enough. It’s always enough!

But the three –tions are pretty darn clever. So, I’m going to tell you about them. Once again they were: revelation, interpretation, and appellation.

First, you might be wondering “How does he know God loves me?’ What makes him so sure? The answer to this is also the first –tion, revelation. Not the biblical book—the action, the process. I know that God loves me and you all because God has chosen to reveal that to me. Now, that does NOT mean that God appeared to me and spoke those words literally to me, or sent me a Valentine. God has done that in generations long past. (Not the valentine part!) Those experiences of God were treasured and passed down as stories, and were finally written down and collected into what we now call the Bible. The bible is really the ongoing story of how and what God has revealed to humans. With the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s ultimate revelation is tendered—we are loved beyond all reservation. Jesus reveals what God is like in relationship with us.

For me and you, the source of that revelation is the scriptures. And so we turn to the bible to find the Trinity. But it’s not there. At least not the word “trinity.” You won’t find it in there. But the God who is revealed in the bible is the Triune God. The pieces are all there. There’s just some assembly required. Jesus, the Son, is of course easy to see. God the Father is revealed mostly through the familial relationship with the Son. And the Spirit wafts its way through the old and new testaments –including in the text on Wisdom we read this morning. Some say Wisdom is the Spirit of God. The three “appear” all together in a few spots in the scriptures. In the story of creation (the Spirit is the wind blowing over the waters, The Son is the creative word “Let there be…” And the Father is the creator. An implicit Trinity.

Another obscure three in one is depicted on the icon on the altar this morning. It is a representation of Abram’s visit from three angels under the oaks of Mamre. Rublev, the painter who wrote the icon was prohibited from making an image of God, but he dodged that restriction by using this symbolic trio—generally considered to represent God. More obvious a triunity can be found in the formula commanded by Jesus as he sent out his disciples to baptize –in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

So, can you see how revelation plays an important role in the big deal? It’s not a big deal because God has revealed himself to us as God. It’s a big deal that God has revealed himself as God the father, son and spirit—a very intimate and full revelation of who God is and how God relates to us. Can you see how a god revealed as father son spirit is much more known to us? It’s like the difference between getting a package and opening that package, and seeing what’s inside.

The next –tion is interpretation. This will be a short one for us today, but one that has enveloped the Church almost since its inception. Interpretation is of course taking those aforementioned scriptures and studying them, making connections of meaning between those who originally read them, and we who are hearing them today. Different interpretations of scripture led early church scholars to differing opinions on things like, say, the divinity of Jesus, the origin of the Spirit, the terminology to be used to talk about the one-ness of the three-ness of the God who was revealed to them in scripture. It may not seem like a big deal, but it was. What the church proposed as orthodox belief came about in the fourth century at the council of Nicea, from which came the Nicene Creed. But even this did not stop people from imagining God differently. It only established a boundary past which one was in new territory belief-wise.

Now. The details of this great debate are about as confusing as the last episode of LOST, and would raise almost as many questions. Suffice it to say that the Trinity is a big deal because our interpretation of scripture leaves us with One God in three persons that are interrelating as well as welcoming of a relationship with us, which is far better than three Gods who act independently—and less effectively. That’s definitely a big deal when you need all the fullness of God and all the richness of your experience with father son spirit.

Finally, appellation. That’s naming.  Knowing someone’s name is a good indicator that you are in relationship with them somehow. Our names, whether we enjoy them or not, are the first thing we usually know about each other. “Hi, I’m Tom, What’s your name?” Names are real important in the bible. God names man Adamah, or literally “Dirt.” And God give Adam the power to name all the created animals and birds and fish.

God is also a big name changer. Abram becomes Abraham, Jacob becomes Israel, Simon becomes Peter. Place names are important and meaningful in the bible—in general places are named for what happened there, which was usually an encounter with God.

Knowing God by name is important to characters in the bible.. Best story is Moses and the burning bush. God calls upon Moses to tell Pharaoh to let his people go. Moses calls upon the bush to identify itself. Because what is he going to say when Pharaoh  asks him, “Who says let my people go?” Bush?  God reveals God’s name—Yahweh, or, I am whom I will be.

That name is so powerful that no one is allowed to even write it. That’s why it says The LORD in small caps whenever Yahweh is mentioned. That lasted until the world learned God’s name through the incarnation of Jesus. God is Jesus, the Son. God is Abba, Father. God is advocate, counselor—Holy Spirit. And most fully God’s name is Father, Son and Holy Spirit..

Knowing that name means that for us that God is not some unknown, nebulous, ethereal being. God is Father, and we are invited to talk with God as we would our Dads. We can relate to Jesus as a fellow human, even as he is also God. And we can rely on the spirit to intercede for us when we no longer have the strength or will to pray, Three together god relates to us fully as the name implies.

Appellation finds its footing thanks to revelation and interpretation. And that’s the three tions. There could have been a fourth (relation) but this is a day for three’s so having a fourth reason for the importance of the Trinity is like having a fifth Beatle.

What’s the big deal about the Trinity? It tells us who God is. And that’s worth knowing in all its fullness.  AMEN