Holy Trinity Sunday , "God IS"

June 7, 2009
Isaiah 6:1–8
Psalm 29
Romans 8:12–17
John 3:1–17

Grace and peace is yours from God our Father, our loving creator. From Jesus Christ our brother and savior, in him we are engrafted such that we are children of God. From the Holy Spirit who dwells in and with us—sustaining; offering divine assistance; keeping us until God’s kingdom fully comes ushering in a new reality. In this new reality there will be no need of sun or moonlight for God’s glory will illumine all of creation. In the name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity, I greet each of you, praying God’s noblest and highest intentions for your lives. Shalom.

I love Facebook. It helps me to keep up with friends around the world. With it, I have super-human powers. I can invite hundreds of folks to an event with a few keystrokes. I can take a quiz and find out which Biblical character I’m most like! I can opine on “hot button” issues through its many opinion polls. I can join fan pages. I can chat with others who happen to be logged into Facebook while I on FB. I even have Facebook on my cell phone. But my favorite part of Facebook is going to the home page and checking out my friends’ status summaries. The status summary is a few lines written to tell the world where they are in their heads, hearts and locations.

I’ll share a few with you:

Jaqui’s status reads: “Nothing says Saturday like an overcrowded IKEA!”

Sondra’s reads: “had an exhausting but wonderful day for Rachel's birthday party! She is wiped out and mommy may take a nap soon too.”

Candace’s reads: “enjoyed a night of games and a movie. We just watched "Kramer vs. Kramer" for the first time. I know - I'm late, but it was a great movie.”

Every once in a while folks draw a blank. Sometimes our minds run out of witty turns of phrases or pithy maxims. The fall-back status seems to be “So-in-so, is.” Just yesterday a friend of mine Pastor Andrea Walker wrote “Andrea is…” I have a hard time believing my colleague was at a lost for words. Pastor Andrea, like most clergy-types tend to be very deliberate in their use of words. Reach back into the inner-recesses of your mind to grade school grammar and you’ll remember that “is” is the third person singular present indicative of the verb “to be.” As we know, the verb “to be” has a quality of existence and life, as in Shakespeare’s “to be or not be.” “To be” then is to inhabit life and reality.

The title of this sermon is “God is.” Today is Trinity Sunday in the calendar of the church. Christ the King Sunday onward to Pentecost Sunday speaks of the life of Christ. The Sundays in Pentecost reflect the growth of the church in Christ. For me, Trinity Sunday has always been a curious insertion because it specifically focuses on a teaching of the church.

I have reflected on the myriad ways in which pastors and teachers have struggled to communicate the Trinity to us. “The great three in one” is a popular reference. You read that I refer to “the Blessed and Holy Trinity” every week. I have heard the Trinity compared to a Rubik’s cube, the various states of water—liquid (water), solid (ice) and gas (steam), among many others. If we say that the Trinity is like a Rubik cube, what we are really saying is that God has different faces—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Or if we say the God is like water--liquid, solid and gas, again we come up short. These illustrations seem to say that God is a shape shifter. The Christian church flatly rejects that teaching. These inaccuracies or some would say heresies are almost as old as the church itself dating back to the third century. Perhaps the most accurate depiction symbolizing the Trinity is the triangle. Even still, it cannot fully explain the breath of the Divine Mystery.

Lutherans believe and teach that we encounter God in three distinct persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is oft repeated by the great creeds of the church, the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed. The Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds are commonly used in the context of liturgy during Sunday worship. The Athanasian Creed tends to be on the lengthy side and it puts to rest any doubt about teaching of the church regarding the Trinity. But the Trinity, as with most things of God, remains a Holy Mystery. Even the greatest of theological minds have yet comprehended or fully explain it. Just because we speak of the Trinity terms of mystery does in no way lessen its truth or reality. Theology (theos—God, logy—study of) is such a human enterprise. Theology is what we humans say about God. In the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament, the Spirit of the Lord rested on prophets and God would speak through them. This is what God says about his majesty and mystery in Isaiah (55:8-11).

8For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
9For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

God is above any thought or theological system we can devise in our human imaginings. This does not mean that we become anti-intellectuals or to become dismissive of theological education because God is the source of all knowledge and wisdom. The zenith of humanity’s brilliance pales in comparison to not only God intelligence, but also more importantly, God’s boundless love for us. Fortunately our ability or lack thereof to fully understand the Trinity does not short circuit God’s loving intentions for our lives. This is the part where you want to stop reading and just shout “Hallelujah and Thank you, Jesus!” Done? Good. Resume reading!

The Divine Mystery of the Trinity also points up that there are other ways of knowing. Nicodemus was a teacher of Israel, a rabbi himself but it was difficult for him to grasp heavenly teachings of Jesus. One of my favorite quotes comes from Justice Felix Frankfurter, “Wisdom to often never comes so one ought not reject it merely because it comes late.” I would hazard to suggest that wisdom indeed did come for Nicodemus also known as “Nick at Night” because he was the one who asked for Jesus’ body for a proper burial. In this act, he honored Jesus. Praise God when we are visited by Wisdom however early or late she comes (Proverbs 8).

While on this side of eternity, it is doubtful that we will ever explain the mystery of the Trinity but there are some things that we know by faith. We know the reality of a God, who creates, delivers, saves and keeps promises. We know that promise kept through Jesus’ incarnation. He came enrobed in flesh came to Jewish community and through this community blessed and saved all nations. Jesus also kept his promise and as such the Holy Spirit dwells among us and continues to instruct us in daily living and all things divine.

So, we are thrown back on John 3:16-17 and the reality that God ever-present and eternal status “God Is .”