Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer: a Sermon for Trinity Sunday
Based on 1 Thess. 5:12-24, 2 Cor. 13:11-13, and Matt. 28:16-20
Rev. Deborah Troester, June 4, 2023, STHPC
Today is Trinity Sunday, the only church festival devoted to a doctrine. Other special days, such as Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, celebrate events in the life of Christ or the Church. Why is it so important to believe in the Trinity? Religions such as Judaism and Islam, and even the Unitarians, would say that they believe in one God, not three, but that is not what faith in the Triune God is about. We do believe in one God, manifest in three persons, yet One. That is why we baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; why we bless in the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer; and why we see God referred to by many different names throughout Scripture.
In the Old Testament, God is called Yahweh or Elohim, the Creator. El Shaddai means God Almighty; Adonai means Lord. Abraham called God El Olam, the Everlasting God. Hagar refers to God as El Roi,
“the God who sees.” Moses encounters God in a burning bush, and when he asks for God’s name, God answers, “I am who I am.
There are also many names for Jesus: Christ or Messiah, meaning Anointed One; Emmanuel, God with us; Prince of Peace; Savior; Redeemer. The Holy Spirit is referred to as our Advocate, Comforter, Counselor, Companion or Sustainer and is symbolized by fire, oil, water, wind, or even a dove. All these names tell us something about the nature of God, which cannot be captured in any one word or name. Sometimes we hear God referred to as “Mother,” reflecting God’s tender, nurturing side. Those who have been abused by their father may find it easier to relate to God as mother. Genesis says that both male and female are created in God’s image, so this is not incorrect.
The church has believed in the Trinity from the earliest days. Although the word Trinity is never mentioned in the Bible, the concept is found throughout both the Old and New Testaments. Back in Genesis 1:1-3, God creates the world and all that is; God’s Spirit swept over the face of the waters. God speaks the Word, and there was light. Thus, at creation, the trinity is present: Creator, Spirit, and Word, as John’s Gospel later refers to Christ: “In the beginning was the Word.”
The New Testament is full of Trinitarian references. I chose the passage from 1 Thessalonians this morning because it is probably the oldest book of the New Testament, composed by the Apostle Paul around 48-50 A.D., only 15 to 20 years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. In that letter, Paul encourages the Thessalonians to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus,” thus mentioning both the Father and the Son in the same breath. In the very next verse, he cautions the Thessalonians not to quench the Spirit, that is, they should let the Holy Spirit guide them and not ignore the Spirit’s promptings. Within these few verses, all three persons of the Trinity are mentioned. By the time Paul wrote his letters to the Corinthians, just a few years later, the Trinitarian blessing had been formulated. Paul uses it at the close of 2 Corinthians: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” Almost 2000 years later, we still use this blessing.
Paul was not the only early Christian leader to use Trinitarian language. You might have noticed that the prayer for silent meditation at the beginning of this morning’s bulletin is written by Pope Clement I, who was the Bishop of Rome from 88 A.D. until his death in 99 A.D. Some say he was appointed by Peter himself to follow after him. In a letter to the Christian community, he wrote, “Do we not have one God, and one Christ, and one gracious Spirit that has been poured out upon us…?” Similarly, from early times, the church baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as we still do, today, as Jesus instructed, according to Matthew.
The doctrine of the Trinity was formalized at the Council of Nicaea in 325, but the Triune God was a concept from the beginning of Christianity. It is not a new doctrine, such as the requirement of celibacy for priests, which only dates to 1123, and was recently described by Pope Francis as “a temporary prescription.” (That gives new meaning to the word “temporary”!)
As is often said, the Trinity is a mystery, not possible to explain by logic alone. St. Augustine likened the Trinity to a tree: the trunk is wood, the roots are wood, and the branches are wood; they are all parts of the same tree. Another frequently-used analogy is water, which can exist as ice, liquid, and vapor; yet it is the same substance, H2O. (Ok Horace, do not remind me about plasma!)
Rather than a logical construction, the Trinity expresses how we experience God. We know God from Creation: its order and beauty, the way all life fits together in a delicate balance of ecosystems; the fact that we even live on a planet that supports life. This did not happen by accident. God guided the processes of creation – perhaps by guiding the processes of evolution – to bring about life here on Earth. When we look at the universe and how small we are in comparison, we are awed by God’s power, might, and artistry. As the Psalmist says, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”
We also see God in the person of Jesus Christ. All of us at times feel guilty for what we have done, or left undone. We need forgiveness. Jesus expressed God’s forgiving nature in his teachings on forgiveness and in his death and resurrection. We might ask why Jesus had to die – couldn’t a loving God just forgive us? Again, there is a mystery here, but I think Jesus died to show us the extent to which God would go to bring us into relationship with him. As God and man, Jesus suffered betrayal, unjust condemnation, torture, and death. No matter what we may go through in this life, God knows our sufferings.
Sometimes we experience God in more subtle ways – a song, a scripture, a kind act lifts our spirits at just the time we needed it. Sometimes we feel a prompting to help a stranger, or encourage a friend, and when we heed that prompting, we find it was exactly what was needed at that moment. Sometimes a prayer is answered in an almost inexplicable way. This is the Holy Spirit, guiding and directing us. Sometimes the Spirit blows like a fierce wind, as on the day of Pentecost, but usually the Holy Spirit is gentle, moving like a soft breeze through our lives. We do well to pay attention to what the Spirit is saying.
Belief in the Trinity communicates the idea that we experience God as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer – the One who made us, forgives us, and comforts and guides us. Seminary professor David Gushee writes: “There is one God, and the unity of this one God is absolute; yet this God is described in Scripture as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Scripture speaks primarily of the roles that each person [of the Trinity] plays in relation to human salvation: the Father sends the Son to redeem the God-created world, the Son lives and dies for the world, the Spirit draws people to salvation and into community.”
The Trinity also expresses the idea that God is relational and desires to be in relationship with us. Theology professor David Trickett explains: “In the Trinity we discover the model of perfect love. God as Trinity is an eternal exchange of love…What we celebrate and believe is a communion of love enabling us to become the community of God’s love…God is one, …[yet] God is present with us in many ways, and…these ways are never susceptible to our complete intellectual encompassment…”
Henri Nouwen, the well-known twentieth-century Dutch theologian and author put it this way: The Trinity is “a Community of Love, a House of Love. In that household there [is] no fear, no greed, no anger, no violence, no anxieties, no pain, and deepening trust. It [is] a house, he said, in which he could dwell forever.”
If you have read the book or seen the movie, The Shack, you will recall that the Holy Trinity is depicted as living together in one house, eating together, even dancing together – although they each have their own separate tasks. I recommend this book, or the movie, if you don’t have time to read. I think it will help you understand who God is and why God acts in ways we don’t always understand.
The Trinity is a mystery. No matter how hard we try, we will not comprehend it completely in this lifetime. Sometimes poetry is the only way to express the inexpressible. The German mystic, Meister Eckhart, wrote, back in the 13th century:
When the Father laughs at the Son
and the Son laughs back at the Father,
that laughter gives pleasure,
that pleasures gives joy,
that joy gives love,
and the love is the Holy Spirit.
May you experience the love of God the Creator, God the Redeemer, and God the Holy Spirit today and always. Amen.
© Deborah Troester, 2023