|
Readings (click here for full text of the readings):
Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; Revelation 4:1-11; John 16:5-15
I. Today is Trinity Sunday
A. Kallistos Ware story
1. The Doctrine of the Trinity After Nicea
2. “Are you one person?”
II. Don’t tell that story very often
A. Most people don’t get it
B. Most people also don’t get the Trinity
1. Most of the time we don’t think about it
2. Sometimes we play favorites, like a kid asking Mom for something Dad already said he couldn’t have
a) Father
(1) Big stuff
(2) Don’t have to worry about the everyday stuff
b) Jesus: personal stuff
(1) Focus on personal salvation
(a) “Honk if you love Jesus”
(2) May not have to worry too much about social justice
c) Spirit: spiritual stuff
(1) Emotional high, sense of belonging
(2) May not leave much room for doing God’s work in the world
3. Sometimes we try to explain it, like when people accuse us of polytheism
a) I’m a husband, father, and son
b) God must be like that, too: one person
(1) We call him Father when He’s creating
(2) We call him Christ when He’s redeeming
(3) We call him Spirit when He’s sustaining
c) Some people try to avoid all the “male” language by talking about Creator, Christ, and Sustainer
4. That’s all well and good, except those are heresies
a) First one is “Unitarianism”
(1) Usually think of “Unitarianism” as something different from Christianity that incorporates the teachings of many religions
(2) Christianity can also be Unitarian when one person of the Trinity is focused on, to the exclusion of the other two
b) Second is called Sabellianism – named for 2nd century
(1) Also “modalism” – God acts in three modes
III. So what is the Trinity? (in orthodox theology)
A. God is not one person with three jobs – he’s three persons, but one essence
B. That means that God is not only in relationship with us – the three persons of the Godhead are in relationship with each other
C. That may sound high and mighty
1. Moltmann: “a kind of higher theological mathematics for the initiated”
D. But it’s actually very relevant, because we’re supposed to imitate God
1. And if God was one person who had three jobs and did everything, then that would tell us we’d have to be that way, too
a) We’d have to do everything
b) We couldn’t leave anything up to anybody else
c) Responsibility would be everything, and relationships would come second
d) And we wouldn’t be all that important, and certainly not necessary, because God was doing just fine all by Himself before we ever showed up
E. But that’s not the way God is
1. God is inherently in relationship
a) Since the beginning of time, before human beings were around, God was in relationship
b) Because relationship is the very nature of God, that’s also what should be most important to us
c) One feminist theologian put it this way
(1) “The Trinitarian God is God for us, whereas the Unitarian God is for himself alone.”
IV.This emphasis on relationship shows up time and time again in the Bible
A. In Genesis Abraham causes God to change his mind
B. In the New Testament Jesus weeps at the death of Lazarus
1. This isn’t a God who’s doing just fine on His own, thank you very much
2. This is a God who engages us, who literally lives and dies with us, so much does He love us
3. And God isn’t all “big picture”
a) He’s not only concerned about “humanity”
b) He’s concerned for each of us individually
Moltmann: the story of the gospels is “the great love story of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, a divine love story in which we are all involved together with heaven and earth.”
V. Part of being in relationship is accepting people who are different than we are
A. Just like God wasn’t content to be off by Himself, and so He created a fallen, sinful, messed up people whom He loved to no end – so we also need to embrace people who are different
1. We don’t have all the answers
2. We can’t control what other people say or do
3. All we can do is love them, as God loves us
B. Buber: I and Thou
1. Not I and it
2. Risk being changed, affected
C. And we’re taking a big step in that direction this morning, by talking about the Trinity
1. “the lack of consideration given the Trinity in modern theology [is evidence of our] resistance to diversity”
VI.Finally, if we take a good hard look at the Trinity, we realize that we’re much more than the roles we play
A. That heretical view of the Trinity was all about roles
1. Now I’m creating
2. Now I’m redeeming
3. Now I’m sustaining
B. It seemed to say that “I am what I do”
C. But orthodox Trinitarian theology says “I am who I am”
1. I’m more than the person who fixes your plumbing or delivers the mail or answers the phone
2. I’m a person, and I have feelings, and I’m not okay all by myself
3. I need you, because I’m not everything
VII. Conclusion
A. In the end, the Trinity is way more than “higher theological mathematics for the initiated”
B. It’s a model for how we should live
C. And it’s a miraculous window into the heart of God
|
