Our Many-Splendored God (John 14: 15-21, 25-27) 6/3/12 Trinity Sunday

          It is Trinity Sunday. Trinity. It is an interesting word with a long religious history. Although both the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed state our belief in Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and although these creeds reflect the belief of Christians from very early in Christian history, there is no mention in them of the word Trinity. The word is not used in the Bible. Yet the concept behind this word is foundational to much of what we believe as Christians.

          Christians have always believed in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The problem was never whether they existed. The problem was more about whether they existed separately, whether there was a pecking order; a hierarchy. The problem was whether one came before the others, was superior to the others. Christians argued about this for several hundred years. Without getting into a big history lesson, suffice it to say that in the fourth century, a fellow name Arius came along. He maintained that Jesus came after God; that because of this, Jesus had to be in a secondary position to God. The early church fathers debated this and similar propositions for a long time. There were several major councils of church fathers that met, seven in all. They are often generically referred to as the Councils of Nicaea. It was from one of these councils that the Nicene Creed emerged.  They debated and debated. They ex-communicated each other. In the end, a series of statements arose that helped define what the Bible meant by the concept of Trinity. Today, it seems so simple, but it was not always that way.

          Forms of Arianism exist today. Perhaps the most familiar to us are Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe the Holy Spirit to be the breath of God rather than a person, and who see Jesus as God’s Son who came after God and is separate from him. This is not the concept of Trinity that is accepted in mainline Christianity.

So what is the Trinity? It is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. They are separate in their attributes. They move and exist separate from each other. Oh yes, and they are one. You can’t get there from here. It’s a God thing.

Is water ice? Yes. Is ice water? Yes. If you heat either one of them enough, they will turn to steam and evaporate. That’s three things from one entity. They have common characteristics and common chemistry. But are they three things in one? No. To change one into another, you must change its composition through temperature change. To change one into another, you must give up the one to have the other. Not so with the Trinity. It always exists and it always has.

In the fourteenth chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus is talking to his disciples. He is in the middle of his last discourse to them. He recites the new commandment to love one another. He deals first with Peter, then Thomas. Then he handles Phillip’s request to see the Father. First the impatient, then the skeptic, finally the realist. Then Jesus returns to the main question; preparation for his departure. He knows that his impending absence is of great concern to the disciples and his promises are meant to reassure them that they will not be alone. In giving them the reassurance they need, Jesus sheds light upon the concept of Trinity.  He promises them that he will appeal to his Father to send the Spirit of truth, the Helper, to be with them forever. Here in one sentence, we see the Trinity. God the Son is going to talk to God the Father about sending God the Holy Spirit to the disciples. The English translation here is Helper or Counselor. Other English translations include intercessor, advocate, and mediator. The Greek word is parakletos, which means literally “a person summoned to one’s aid.”

How far back does the concept of Holy Spirit go? Look at Genesis 1:2, where it says the “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” How far back does the God the Son go? In the first chapter of John, he pens the famous words: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God,” and in verse 14 of that opening chapter: “and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.” How far back does God go? He is the author of creation. “In the beginning God,” read the first four words of the Bible. In the third chapter of Exodus, God tells Moses “I am that I am.” He is without beginning or end. God is outside time.  In the very first chapter in the Bible, God says “let us make man in our image.” It is no accident that the pronouns here are plural. Even from the beginning as we understand it, God was not alone. Even then, he was self-contained in the Trinity.

Other references to the three persons of the Trinity are around. One of my favorites in contained in the Great Commission in Matthew 28: “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Another is found in the synoptic gospels in the account of the baptism of Jesus by his cousin John. As God the Father speaks from heaven, God the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove toward God the Son.

It is important to understand the concept of Trinity in the light of what was studied and fought for over many generations of the early church. It is important because to misunderstand it could be heretical. Heresy is one of those old fashioned. somewhat out of vogue, seldom used words. Even in religious circles it has more than one meaning. The definition of heresy that is intended here  is that heresy is a belief that results in one being unable to achieve salvation. That’s where the word Trinity becomes important. I have heard it said that if Jesus were not who he says he is, fully human, fully God, in the Father and the Father in him, then he could not do what he was sent to do. It took a man to feel the pain of men. It took God to deliver them from the sting of death. Jesus was both.

Jesus promised the coming of the Spirit. Come it did in tongues of fire at Pentecost. With it came the realization that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are united in purpose. God is Triune. He has one purpose, but carries it out through the manifestation of the Trinity. The coming of the Holy Spirit to the fellowship of the believers gives us an open door to the most intimate of all relationships, that which can now exist between us and our triune God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In The Shack, the best-selling book by William Paul Young, God is portrayed as a large, beaming African-American woman called Papa. Jesus appears as a Middle-Eastern laborer with a kind, but forgettable face, wearing a tool belt. He likes to use his hands. A small, Asian woman named Sarayu shimmers from place to place as the Holy Spirit, being felt as much as seen as she passes from here to there. Some have criticized Young’s theology. Some say he pokes too much fun at long accepted images of God. Like any work of fiction, he takes some license with his characters. But Young’s descriptions remind us that the Trinity is revealed in ways and means and images that take the form most likely to awaken our belief and faith, to break down our assumptions and help us see and understand. God is not confined to earthly forms or even one form.

And yet, when Mack, the dad who lost his child to a kidnapper, asks of them: “Who is God?”, their answer comes in tripartite unison: “I am,” say they all. Indeed, when Mack asks Papa, or God, about the cross, the answer he receives is the answer we must hear and believe if we are to grasp this great mystery. God says simply: “We were there together.” In the book, Mack can see them, and the scars on the wrists of all three persons of the Trinity bear witness to their presence at the cross. Can there really be any doubt of that truth? Not for a Christian.

Yes, our God is a many-splendored God. He is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. He is three in one. He is one. He is three. He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. We do not need the word Trinity in the Scripture to see its existence. He is our Father. He is our Brother. He is our fellow traveler and our Redeemer. He is in our hearts, each and every one. He is all that is good and perfect in us. How can all this be? That is the splendor of our Creator. That, friends, is the miracle of the Trinity.