Trinity Sunday A 2017

Trinity Sunday
1. Today we are celebrating the Holy Trinity, one of the main mysteries of Christianity
A mystery is something beyond human understanding. So any attempt to explain a mystery is an
oxymoron: It is not understandable by humans, and so there is no way I can explain it to you, no matter
how hard I might try. So, maybe I should just stop here and simply say, God is a mystery
Judaism and Islam are also monotheistic religions, but they do not have the concept of God as Trinity. In
fact, they are very puzzled by the fact that Christians claim to be monotheistic, and yet believe that there
3 persons in God. The Jews think that Christians believe that there are 2 powers in heaven. The Muslims
think that Christians give partners to Allah.
When we recite the Creed, the first statement is, we believe in one God, but then we proceed to list 3
persons called God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
Where do we get this notion that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Take a look at todays Gospel:
Baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit In the Bible God is often called
Father, the creator of heaven and earth. Jesus, said of himself, The Father and I are one. Thomas called
Jesus My Lord and my God, and finally Paul, in Rom. 8:11: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the
dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his
Spirit that dwells in you.
So, from the Bible we learn that there is complexity in God that human beings will never be able to
understand. God is an overflow of love and energy that touches us in the creative activity of God the
Father, in the redemptive activity of God the Son, and in the guiding and supporting activity of God the
Holy Spirit.
When we discuss the Trinity we tend to see it as a mathematical problem problem to be solved: how can
3 be 1 and 1 be 3? God is not a puzzle to be solved but a mystery life and love given and and shared.
2. God the Father. The Bible proclaims that God is the Father of all his creatures. God,
Listen to how the prophet Hosea describes God:When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I
called my son it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know
that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love, I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.
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In the New Testament, Father is the main way to describe God. 1) Jesus would call God
Abba, an endearing term meaning daddy. 2) God is not only Jesuss father but also the
father of all human beings, and 3) In baptism Christians become adopted children of God.
3. God the Son. Jesus was fully Divine and fully human.
During Jesus life, his disciples and his enemies saw him as a man Even though he performed miracles,
he was rejected and scorned by his enemies and also by those who sincerely believed that anyone who
was righteous would follow the 613 laws of Torah.
The Gospels writers candidly admit that even the Apostles understood who Jesus was only in the light of
the resurrection and only they had received the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who enlightened them
and enabled them to proclaim that Jesus was Lord and God.
The Church gradually came to understand that Jesus was divine before his birth, during his life on earth
(when he was both human and divine), and that, after his human life on earth ended, Jesus continues to
live as God sitting at the right hand of the Father
4. The Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is mentioned in the opening line of Genesis as hovering over
the emptiness before creation. The Spirit of God is both a Power and a Person.
The term Holy tells us that the source of the spiritual power comes from God
The term Spirit tells us the kind of power: it was not military, economic, or political power, but a power
that transforms our spirit = that is to say, our capacities for knowing and loving.
Early Christian writings speak of this transforming Power in language that suggests that the Holy Spirit a
Person. The Spirit was sent to guide, enlighten and support the disciples of Jesus after his resurrection.
With the Holy Spirit, the Church is a sacrament of Gods presence in the world. Without the Holy Spirit,
the Church is simply another human organization among many.
Last week we read in the Pauls letter to the Corinthians that No one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by
[or in] the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:3)
5. It took the Church more than 3 centuries to work out the theological language we read every
Sunday in the Creed, and to come up with a formula that all the church fathers could live with:
God, the Holy Trinity is one Divine nature in 3 Persons.
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We need to understand the basics of Greek Philosophy to understand the words we use in the creed to
describe God. In Greek philosophical language, Nature describes who we are, Person describes what we do
All of us here are human beings, we share the same human nature. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share
the same Divine nature. Person is the principle of activity. There are 3 activities that humans recognize in
God: the creative activity we attribute to the Father, the redeeming activity we attribute to the Son, and the
inspiring/guiding/supporting activity we attribute to the Holy Spirit.
We cant see God, nor come up with precise descriptions of God. We can only experience how God touches
us. If we believe and follow Jesus commandment to love, when our life will end and when our spirit will no
longer be encumbered by the limitations of our body, we will see God face to face
6. God is a mystery: we do not know what God is like, but we know what God wants from us
because God has revealed and continues to reveal his will to us. We are called to witness our
faith: to live by what we believe.
There are people who do not believe in God. Some of them are atheists or agnostics and only believe in
what they perceive with their senses. They claim to reject the existence of God on scientific grounds: if you
cant see him, touch him or measure him with any instrument, God does not exist.
The great majority of people in this country claim to believe in God. We even write in God we trust on
our money, and we are fond of reciting prayers before ball games. Is that faith? I think that most people are
practical atheists we live selfish lives, unconcerned about others, we are practical atheists and behave as
though God does not exist and never revealed his will, and live selfish lives, unconcerned about anyone else.
This practical atheism in our society is expressed in radical individualism. Our culture declares that
competition is the supreme value of life; our system rewards greed, emphasizes the acquisition of
meaningless things.
Our way of life keeps families enslaves to an insatiable drive for higher productivity and work, without time
for rest and spiritual growth. That is a denial that God exists and that God reveals his will to us.
We sing God bless America in our churches, but Western and American cultural values are not the same as
Christian values. As Christians we are called to love one another. Remember that at the end of our lives,
the only thing that we will be judged on will be whether or not we helped our brothers and sisters in need.