The Eternal Trinity
Sermon
Today is Trinity Sunday, the day when we think about and celebrate God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three in one, and one in three. Yet there's only one place in the entire Bible where the Trinity as such is even mentioned. That's right at the end of St Matthew's gospel. It was the last time Jesus was seen on earth, his final appearance after his resurrection. He meets with his friends on a mountain side and tells them to: "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
But most NT scholars believe this verse to have been added to the finished gospel at a much later date. Because elsewhere in the NT baptism is described as being performed "in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 2:38, 8:16). The NT really knows nothing of the Trinity!
So how and when did this difficult idea of the Trinity emerge?
St John's gospel is thought to be the last of the four gospels to have been written. It's thought to date from the end of the first century, or even as late as the beginning of the second century. That's sixty or seventy years after Jesus' death. That's like writing now, in 1998, of the period between the two World wars in English history. So John's gospel is quite different to the other three. There'd been plenty of time during those sixty or seventy years, to reflect about the events of Jesus' life and death. And this gospel is very much a reflection, a meditation on all that had happened.
Without question Jesus had been a miracle worker during his lifetime. He had healed the sick, changed water into wine, even raised the dead, and so on. But in that first century world of magic and superstition, there were many miracle workers. In John's gospel (14:9), Jesus says to Philip: "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?" And he goes on to talk about the great works he has performed. But Philip, who'd been so close to him, apparently hadn't thought to recognise God in him.
According to St. Mark, Jesus was regarded as a prophet, perhaps even as Elijah or John the Baptist come back from the dead. But he doesn't seem to have been regarded as God. Peter called him the Christ, the expected Messiah who would therefore save the Jewish race, but even Peter didn't refer to him as God.
The worship of Jesus as God himself, as God become human, seems to have come later, after the crucifixion and resurrection. God's glory shone forth from that figure hanging there on the cross. Suffering so much, yet still able to pour love and forgiveness onto those who had caused his execution. And when, only thirty-six hours later, he was seen again alive and well by many eye-witnesses, then people began to worship him.
What a problem for a religion whose first commandment was: "You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3) !
John's gospel is beginning to identify and address this problem. So in that wonderful passage in John 14, Jesus tries to explain something about the relationship between himself and God the father, God the creator.
"I am in the Father," he says, "and the Father is in me. I am going to the Father. Ask anything you like in my name and I'll do it for you. If you keep my commandments, you'll do even greater things than me. Because I'm going to ask the Father to send you another advocate, another supporter, the Spirit of Truth." And this is echoed in today's passage from John 16, where Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to declare to his friends everything about both himself and the Father.
So here already some early idea of a three-in-one God is beginning to emerge. Father and Son somehow in each other, and Spirit, to come later. But as the idea emerged, so the difficulties multiplied. How can you worship two, or even three Beings in a religion which acknowledges only one God?
It was a problem which was to exercise the Church for over three hundred years. And those three hundred years might well be termed the Age of Heresy. For in the struggle to understand how God could be three distinct and separate "persons" yet still one complete being, a great many unorthodox beliefs arose, beliefs which became known as "heresies".
There were those who decided Jesus wasn't really human, but was God in disguise (Docetists). So that Jesus didn't really suffer on the cross, because God, the Almighty, the Creator, couldn't possibly suffer like any ordinary human being.
Then there were those who believed Jesus' sufferings and crucifixion were necessary for salvation, but thought Jesus didn't really die, but only appeared to die (Marcionites). And believed therefore, there was no resurrection of the body.
Another group believed God existed in different modes (Modalists). Sometimes he would be in the Son mode as Jesus, sometimes in the Spirit mode, sometimes in the Father mode. But he couldn't therefore be all three at the same time.
And there were those who believed only the Father was really God. Jesus was created by God, but didn't share either God's divine nature, or his essence, his Spirit (Arians). So Jesus was a bit like Superman, but wasn't actually God.
And yet another lot believed Jesus had a divine nature as well as a human nature, but that the two natures were completely separate (Nestorians). So that sometimes Jesus would be acting in divine mode, at other times he'd be in human mode.
And there were all shades of opinion in between. At one time one idea caught on, at another a completely different idea. There were huge splits in the Church. Massive quarrels and dissension, beside which disagreements in the Church of England over recent years pale into insignificance!
The arguments became such a scandal in the Church, in this body of Christians supposed to love each other, that all the bishops finally got together in the year 325 at the great council of Nicea. At this council, a statement of belief was agreed and signed by all but two of the bishops. And so the Nicene creed was born. And we still repeat this statement of belief, the Nicene creed, every Sunday at every service. If you've ever wondered about the words of the creed, you can perhaps begin to see it's very much a statement refuting those heresies current in the 4th century. But it became accepted as a statement of contemporary belief, and so it's continued ever since. The original statement of Christian belief, the original creed, found in the pages of the NT was much shorter and much simpler. It just said "Jesus is Lord" (Romans 10:9; 1 Corinthians 12:3). Perhaps it was too simple for tortuous human minds.
So how can we understand the Trinity today? Or is it just an outmoded belief which ought to be ditched by a Church which wants to remain credible in the 20th century?
Pandit Nehru once said: "God is in all men, but all men are not in God - and that is why they suffer."
I believe that to be true. I believe God is in all human beings, and was in the human being Jesus of Nazareth. But Jesus was also in God. He was totally in God. He was in God to such an extent that he and God were one. That his thoughts were God's thoughts, his ways were God's ways. "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me."
Jesus showed the heights human beings could reach, if and when they were perfectly in tune with God. Jesus said: "You must believe me when I say I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Believe it on the evidence of this (my) work, if for no other reason." (John 14:11) But I guess the God within each human being is actually God's Spirit. Or perhaps the Spirit of Jesus. Although maybe that's one and the same thing, if the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. Jesus said: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will ...l take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine." (John 16:13-15)
This Spirit of Truth, Spirit of Jesus, Spirit of God, however you prefer to think of it, is not just a little piece of God, but is God himself. Has all the characteristics of God, the knowledge of God, the wisdom of God, the nature of God.
Every tiny cell within a human being, whether a cell of skin or of liver or of bone or whatever, has all the DNA and all the chromosomes and therefore all the individual characteristics of that human being. And therefore is that human being and no other. We can be identified by our cells. Because every cell I possess carries a blueprint of me, of the human being I am.
And maybe it's similar with the Spirit of God within. Maybe it's a bit like having one cell or a clump of cells with the blueprint of God. And maybe that's how it was for Jesus too, except that all his cells carried the blueprint of God.
So do we still need the idea of the Trinity today? I think perhaps we need it more than ever. Because in a world of quadrophonic sound and three dimensional viewing and movment, we need a God of colour, a God who moves within the relationship of Father, Son and Spirit, not a God who is simply monochrome or monophonic or static.
God is over us and around us and above us and below us and within us. He knows from experience what it is to be human, yet he has the whole world in his hands. I want to finish with a quotation from Mother Julian of Norwich, the 12th. century mystic:
As truly as God is our father, so just as truly is he our mother.
In our father, God Almighty, we have our being; in our merciful mother we are remade and restored. Our fragmented lives are knit together and made perfect man. And by giving and yielding ourselves, through grace, to the Holy Spirit we are made whole.
It is I, the strength and goodness of fatherhood. It is I, the wisdom of motherhood. It is I, the light and grace of holy love. It is I, the Trinity, it is I, the unity. I am the sovreign goodness in all things. It is I who teach you to love. It is I who teach you to desire. It is I who am the reward of all true desiring.
(From "Enfolded in Love" - Daily Readings with Julian of Norwich, pg. 35. )
But most NT scholars believe this verse to have been added to the finished gospel at a much later date. Because elsewhere in the NT baptism is described as being performed "in the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 2:38, 8:16). The NT really knows nothing of the Trinity!
So how and when did this difficult idea of the Trinity emerge?
St John's gospel is thought to be the last of the four gospels to have been written. It's thought to date from the end of the first century, or even as late as the beginning of the second century. That's sixty or seventy years after Jesus' death. That's like writing now, in 1998, of the period between the two World wars in English history. So John's gospel is quite different to the other three. There'd been plenty of time during those sixty or seventy years, to reflect about the events of Jesus' life and death. And this gospel is very much a reflection, a meditation on all that had happened.
Without question Jesus had been a miracle worker during his lifetime. He had healed the sick, changed water into wine, even raised the dead, and so on. But in that first century world of magic and superstition, there were many miracle workers. In John's gospel (14:9), Jesus says to Philip: "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me?" And he goes on to talk about the great works he has performed. But Philip, who'd been so close to him, apparently hadn't thought to recognise God in him.
According to St. Mark, Jesus was regarded as a prophet, perhaps even as Elijah or John the Baptist come back from the dead. But he doesn't seem to have been regarded as God. Peter called him the Christ, the expected Messiah who would therefore save the Jewish race, but even Peter didn't refer to him as God.
The worship of Jesus as God himself, as God become human, seems to have come later, after the crucifixion and resurrection. God's glory shone forth from that figure hanging there on the cross. Suffering so much, yet still able to pour love and forgiveness onto those who had caused his execution. And when, only thirty-six hours later, he was seen again alive and well by many eye-witnesses, then people began to worship him.
What a problem for a religion whose first commandment was: "You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3) !
John's gospel is beginning to identify and address this problem. So in that wonderful passage in John 14, Jesus tries to explain something about the relationship between himself and God the father, God the creator.
"I am in the Father," he says, "and the Father is in me. I am going to the Father. Ask anything you like in my name and I'll do it for you. If you keep my commandments, you'll do even greater things than me. Because I'm going to ask the Father to send you another advocate, another supporter, the Spirit of Truth." And this is echoed in today's passage from John 16, where Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to declare to his friends everything about both himself and the Father.
So here already some early idea of a three-in-one God is beginning to emerge. Father and Son somehow in each other, and Spirit, to come later. But as the idea emerged, so the difficulties multiplied. How can you worship two, or even three Beings in a religion which acknowledges only one God?
It was a problem which was to exercise the Church for over three hundred years. And those three hundred years might well be termed the Age of Heresy. For in the struggle to understand how God could be three distinct and separate "persons" yet still one complete being, a great many unorthodox beliefs arose, beliefs which became known as "heresies".
There were those who decided Jesus wasn't really human, but was God in disguise (Docetists). So that Jesus didn't really suffer on the cross, because God, the Almighty, the Creator, couldn't possibly suffer like any ordinary human being.
Then there were those who believed Jesus' sufferings and crucifixion were necessary for salvation, but thought Jesus didn't really die, but only appeared to die (Marcionites). And believed therefore, there was no resurrection of the body.
Another group believed God existed in different modes (Modalists). Sometimes he would be in the Son mode as Jesus, sometimes in the Spirit mode, sometimes in the Father mode. But he couldn't therefore be all three at the same time.
And there were those who believed only the Father was really God. Jesus was created by God, but didn't share either God's divine nature, or his essence, his Spirit (Arians). So Jesus was a bit like Superman, but wasn't actually God.
And yet another lot believed Jesus had a divine nature as well as a human nature, but that the two natures were completely separate (Nestorians). So that sometimes Jesus would be acting in divine mode, at other times he'd be in human mode.
And there were all shades of opinion in between. At one time one idea caught on, at another a completely different idea. There were huge splits in the Church. Massive quarrels and dissension, beside which disagreements in the Church of England over recent years pale into insignificance!
The arguments became such a scandal in the Church, in this body of Christians supposed to love each other, that all the bishops finally got together in the year 325 at the great council of Nicea. At this council, a statement of belief was agreed and signed by all but two of the bishops. And so the Nicene creed was born. And we still repeat this statement of belief, the Nicene creed, every Sunday at every service. If you've ever wondered about the words of the creed, you can perhaps begin to see it's very much a statement refuting those heresies current in the 4th century. But it became accepted as a statement of contemporary belief, and so it's continued ever since. The original statement of Christian belief, the original creed, found in the pages of the NT was much shorter and much simpler. It just said "Jesus is Lord" (Romans 10:9; 1 Corinthians 12:3). Perhaps it was too simple for tortuous human minds.
So how can we understand the Trinity today? Or is it just an outmoded belief which ought to be ditched by a Church which wants to remain credible in the 20th century?
Pandit Nehru once said: "God is in all men, but all men are not in God - and that is why they suffer."
I believe that to be true. I believe God is in all human beings, and was in the human being Jesus of Nazareth. But Jesus was also in God. He was totally in God. He was in God to such an extent that he and God were one. That his thoughts were God's thoughts, his ways were God's ways. "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me."
Jesus showed the heights human beings could reach, if and when they were perfectly in tune with God. Jesus said: "You must believe me when I say I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Believe it on the evidence of this (my) work, if for no other reason." (John 14:11) But I guess the God within each human being is actually God's Spirit. Or perhaps the Spirit of Jesus. Although maybe that's one and the same thing, if the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son. Jesus said: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will ...l take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine." (John 16:13-15)
This Spirit of Truth, Spirit of Jesus, Spirit of God, however you prefer to think of it, is not just a little piece of God, but is God himself. Has all the characteristics of God, the knowledge of God, the wisdom of God, the nature of God.
Every tiny cell within a human being, whether a cell of skin or of liver or of bone or whatever, has all the DNA and all the chromosomes and therefore all the individual characteristics of that human being. And therefore is that human being and no other. We can be identified by our cells. Because every cell I possess carries a blueprint of me, of the human being I am.
And maybe it's similar with the Spirit of God within. Maybe it's a bit like having one cell or a clump of cells with the blueprint of God. And maybe that's how it was for Jesus too, except that all his cells carried the blueprint of God.
So do we still need the idea of the Trinity today? I think perhaps we need it more than ever. Because in a world of quadrophonic sound and three dimensional viewing and movment, we need a God of colour, a God who moves within the relationship of Father, Son and Spirit, not a God who is simply monochrome or monophonic or static.
God is over us and around us and above us and below us and within us. He knows from experience what it is to be human, yet he has the whole world in his hands. I want to finish with a quotation from Mother Julian of Norwich, the 12th. century mystic:
As truly as God is our father, so just as truly is he our mother.
In our father, God Almighty, we have our being; in our merciful mother we are remade and restored. Our fragmented lives are knit together and made perfect man. And by giving and yielding ourselves, through grace, to the Holy Spirit we are made whole.
It is I, the strength and goodness of fatherhood. It is I, the wisdom of motherhood. It is I, the light and grace of holy love. It is I, the Trinity, it is I, the unity. I am the sovreign goodness in all things. It is I who teach you to love. It is I who teach you to desire. It is I who am the reward of all true desiring.
(From "Enfolded in Love" - Daily Readings with Julian of Norwich, pg. 35. )
