Sermon Title: "The Mystery of the Holy Trinity"
Date: May 30, 2010
Minister:  The Rev. Charles Ensley

Lesson:  John 16:12-15

I was so impressed by the opening sentences of one of last week’s confirmands, I asked if I might use it for the beginning of this sermon.  Here it is:

“I believe that the nature of God is too massive and complicated for our human minds to grasp.  Because of this, I believe God sent his incarnate, his son, Jesus Christ to spread his will and save us from our sins.  We may not know what God looks like, or his plan for us, but we do have the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, which is the next best thing.”

This confirmand is indeed correct “that the nature of God is too massive and complicated for our human minds to grasp.”  Every world religion has its own creation story in an attempt to understand and explain the unexplainable.  How did God come to be?  What is the nature of God?  And for us Christians, how do you comprehend one God expressed in three natures:  Father/Creator, Son and Holy Spirit—three concepts of the one and same God?

In today’s passage from John’s Gospel, in an effort to comfort the disciples, Jesus emphasizes the coming of the Holy Spirit as Comforter and the continuity between the Father, Jesus and that Comforter.  This conversation takes place near the end of a long speech by Jesus in which he shared a meal with his disciples, predicted that one of them would betray him, and told them that he would soon be leaving them.  They asked questions, but either the discourse was too lengthy—taking up four-and-a-half chapters in John—or they simply did not have the capacity to understand what Jesus was saying.  Peter misunderstands where Jesus is going and overestimates his own ability to follow.  Thomas misunderstands the way to follow Jesus.  Philip misses the fact that in seeing Jesus, they have seen the Father.  Judas does not perceive the difference between those who keep the commandments of Jesus and those who do not.

Instead of trying to add new information to disciples already on overload or not understanding any of it in the first place, Jesus reiterates what he has said previously.  Jesus had told them of his coming departure, and also the appearance of another helper.  He noted that the Spirit would be sent by the Father upon the request of Jesus.  This helper will be sent by the Father in Jesus’ name and will teach the disciples and refresh their memories.

Evidence of this coming to pass occurred in the events we heard of last Sunday.  On Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection, the disciples and faithful Jews from throughout the region were gathered together in Jerusalem.  The Holy Spirit came upon them with the rush of a mighty wind, and rested upon them as if tongues of fire.  Peter preached a powerful sermon, and 3,000 persons were baptized that day.  That event was the catalyst for the growth of the Christian Church and its eventual spread to every far corner of the Earth.

Last Sunday I told the confirmands that at whatever age a person is baptized—either with the parents speaking for an infant or child, or a teen or adult speaking for oneself—we express our belief in the Trinity.  I place water on ones forehead three times using the ancient baptismal formula—“in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  And their confirmation is really a reaffirmation of their baptismal vows, for you may recall I asked them if they believed in each of the three expressions of God we call the Trinity.

Some years ago, I was meeting with an adult in my study to discuss plans for her upcoming baptism.  She was not raised in the Christian faith, so her baptism and eventual membership here was a notable event as she began her faith journey.  I talked about God as Father or Creator, about Jesus as God’s Son.  Then I continued, “Finally, the hardest part of the Trinity to understand is the Holy Spirit.”  She smiled and immediately replied, “Oh, no; for me that’s the easiest part.  I see evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit all around me.”  That was a pleasant surprise for me to hear.

Whether you realize it or not, you are looking directly at symbols of the Trinity.  Both the trefoil and the triangle, interwined just below me on the altar parament, are symbols of the Trinity.  Each third of the trefoil and each side of the equilateral triangle are equal, signifying the equal manifestations of God in the Trinity.  No one part is larger or of more importance than the other.

William Willimon has written:  “The Trinity is the greatest intellectual achievement of the church, an attempt to come to terms with the reality of the Incarnation, that is, God with us, as one of us, in the flesh, incarnate in Jesus.  God Almighty created the earth and all that is, hung the moon and stars and brought forth life where there had been nothing but chaos.  (Genesis 1)

“. . . and yet this God was born among us, walked where we walked and suffered as we must suffer and died as we shall die.

“. . . and yet, in his resurrection Christ, though he was not with us as he had been in his earthly ministry, was undeniably present in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, in the preached word from Scripture, and in the life of the church, prodding us relentlessly into the world of preaching and enacting the good news as the Holy Spirit.  The earliest Christians came to the unanimous assertion that ‘God raised [Jesus Christ] from the dead’  (Acts 13:30).  Thus was Jesus—who taught us, walked among us, welcomed sinners and partied with outcasts—vindicated as no less than God with us.”

Ask me how I can so readily believe in the Trinity—in God expressed in three elements—and I will tell you that I need go no further than the teachings of Jesus.  As last Sunday’s confirmand wrote in his statement I used as an introduction for this sermon: “We may not know what God looks like, or his plan for us, but we do have the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, which is the next best thing.”

Jesus had such a close, intimate, ongoing and conversational relationship with God as his Father.  Because I believe in Jesus as God’s Son, I can no less believe in the Holy Spirit.  The fourteenth chapter of John is a testament to the interrelatedness of the three.  Countless times I have read its opening verses at memorial services, but here is what convinces me of the Holy Spirit.  Beginning with verse 25, Jesus says:  “I have said these things to you while I am still with you.  But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”  Then to assure us that all will be well, even after he is no longer among us in the flesh, Jesus concludes:  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”  (14:27)

We are in good hands.  God the Father as Creator created us.  God in Jesus Christ as Savior and Redeemer came to experience life in human form to fully understand what our lives are like.  God the Holy Spirit as Sustainer works in and among us to inspire and guide us in God’s way.  As we sang in our opening hymn:  “Holy, Holy, Holy!  Merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity.  (Holy, Holy, Holy!  Lord God Almighty, verse 1)