Trinity Sunday—June 3,
2007
Games, Creeds,
and Parables
The Rev. Robert B. Wood. St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, Alpharetta,
Georgia
It’s the summer. Let’s lighten things up just a bit, shall we?
Remember that game, “Who am I?” I’ll give you three clues, and you
give the answer. I am a native of Atlanta. The father of three. And a
recent grad of Candler Seminary and newest member of St. Aidan’s
staff. Yes, I am Keith Oglesby!
Another one: I just turned ten years old. I’m about to have an organ
transplant—beginning tomorrow. Every Sunday, some three hundred people
enter my doors to give thanks and pray. I’m St. Aidan’s worship space,
and yes, the new organ is coming soon.
Installed on June 19th and being played on June 24.
Okay. One more time. You speak of me each and every week, and this
morning, I am even in your songs. Today is my “special day” in the
church calendar. I am three in one, and one in three. Yes, I am God.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three in one and one in three. And today
is Trinity Sunday.
Since Keith is right out of seminary, I should have let him preach
today. He could probably give you a more official, up-to-date,
churchly sermon about the Trinity. Nonetheless, you have me, and I
shall do my best to set the whole matter straight…. Or at least make
headway on a topic that has had people scratching their heads for
nearly 2,000 years. It would seem that this idea of Trinity—which is
on our lips each week as we say the Nicene Creed after the sermon—it
would seem that “Trinity” should be the clearest, simplest belief to
confess. But it’s not quite that easy.
Before I share some thoughts on the content of the Creed, I want to
compare it to something: a mosaic. A mosaic much like the one of Jesus
that we recently created as part of our Lift High the Cross campaign.
It’s in the narthex now, as most of you know. Hundreds of pictures of
us—individual parishioners—we’re put together to make it. When you
look closely, you can see the faces--the small parts—that when added
together create the whole.
As you take a step or two back, the faces become harder to see, but
the whole picture comes into focus then: a picture of Jesus. Ten steps
back, and all you really see is Jesus. The small pictures, the details
are there—but their job is to reveal the whole. It’s seeing the forest
rather than the trees.
Would that our minds, our eyes, our hearts could take 10 paces back
from the totality of God and get the whole divine picture. But that’s
impossible. One or two steps back is also impossible. It’s like our
nose is pressed up against that which we are trying to see and
understand—and we can never get the whole picture at once. Instead, we
have this one picture or window into God—but to see another, we have
to shift left or right. Memory helps. The collective eyes of believers
help, but with more than a trillion, trillion windows to see at once,
we are at a loss.
That’s where something like the Bible helps—where story, prophecy,
letter and psalm combine to give us another mosaic or sorts. But any
one passage does not define the whole. Or even take the parables of
Jesus. Forty of us have just finished a class on the parables. We
discovered how they are meant to give us a glimpse of the kingdom as
Jesus says things like, “The Kingdom of God may be compared to a
mustard seed,” or “There was a man who had two sons.” Each parable is
a helpful picture, a part of the mosaic, but not a complete picture of
the Kingdom—or of God himself. Even if we put all the parables
together, our picture of God would be incomplete.
Now, the Trinity. To say God is Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
is what Christians have done as we put together the individual
understandings of God and describe what the whole mosaic would look
like if we could step back and see the whole thing. The Creed we say
on Sundays is one attempt to do just that. The Creed is a verbal and
theological mosaic—presenting in words our understanding of God—as we
believe God has revealed God’s self to us.
Certainly, the first part of the Creed is clear: “We believe in God,
the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” Many people believe
in God—see God as “father,” and believe God created everything. That
is not even a particularly Christian statement. A Jew could say that.
A Muslim, a Hindu, a Unitarian. It is the next section of the Creed
that begins to separate God-believers one from another. “I believe in
Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.” The statements that
follow--about Jesus’ conception, his crucifixion, his resurrection,
and coming again—all describe the Messiah who gives us our name:
Christians.
We are not just deists—believing in the Father alone. We are believers
in, followers of Jesus Christ. And believing, we worship. We worship
Jesus Christ…just like we worship God. And we have not broken the
second commandment (Thou shalt not worship false idols) if we do
so—because as Jesus taught us (John 10:30), “the Father and I are
one.” Or from last week’s lesson, John 14: “Believe me that I am in
the Father and the Father is in me.”
That makes two: Father and Son. Third is the Holy Spirit. We confess
in the Creed that, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver
of life,” and that “with the Father and Son he is worshiped and
glorified.” That confession elevates and equates the Holy Spirit
with the Father and the Son in three ways.
One, we don’t use the term “Lord” lightly. To call the Holy Spirit
“Lord” just as we do the Father and the Son defines the Spirit’s equal
divinity. Second, to confess the Holy Spirit as “the giver of life”
names the Spirit as an equal participant in creation. And third,
worship: for what we worship is God and God alone. Again, no second
commandment infraction.
As we search the Scriptures, we find confirmation of the Holy Spirit’s
place and participation. Again, see these parts working to form the
mosaic. From Genesis 1: the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters
of creation. From the Gospel of Luke 1:35, Mary asks how she will
conceive, and, “the angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy
one to be born will be called the Son of God.” Or even from today’s
lessons, from Romans: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Or, from John.
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the
truth.”
So there is Holy Spirit, Son, and Father. Three-in-one and
one-in-three. Yes, it’s not the easiest part of the Christian faith to
understand. Nonetheless, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in the
same exclusive, holy group—and everything else is in group that I
would label “the created.” The divine---The created. That second
group, the worshippers—focusing its devotion on Son, Holy Spirit, and
Father.
The Creed, our theological mosaic, is part of that worship every
Sunday, although are many churches that don’t say the Creed anymore.
Maybe it’s outdated to them because it came from 4th Century AD. Or
since the word “trinity” is not in Scripture—just like the Creed
itself—in its entirety—is not. For some, therefore, it doesn’t seem
Biblically accurate. But let me say this, every phrase of the Creed is
biblically based.
And if we are to confess our faith in God as best we can—in our
limited words— and with the limited perspective on the mosaic of God
given to us, then the Creed is one of the best ways to make that
confession.
I do have one final hint—one final bit of insight this morning about
the Trinity. It’s a parable. In our class on Jesus’ parables, we ended
by writing a few of our own, and I wondered, is there a parable that
could be written about the Trinity? This is that attempt.
When asked to describe the three-in-one and one-in-three nature of
God, the priest thought for a moment and said, “The nature of God may
be compared to a person, a doctor, overseeing the care of souls in a
hospital. This person had built the hospital and cared for each. And
everyone gets care, regardless of insurance. But besides offering
care, like heart transplants, physical therapies, and Lasik surgery,
this person also taught others to do the same. It was a teaching and a
caring hospital.
One day, a patient was admitted, and, as this doctor arrived at the
bedside with medicines to offer care—and students to teach, the doctor
was shocked and gasped, “This is my child, my biological child.” So at
that moment, this one person was parent, doctor, and teacher—three
things all at once—giving directions, giving care, supporting the
hospital. At one point, it even seemed to the doctor as he stood over
the bed, that he had six hands to offer help. Three pairs of eyes.
Three voices.”
That parable is limited, as all are, but I hope it is a glimpse at one
piece of the ever-growing mosaic of snapshots of our God—the holy and
blessed three, life-giving Trinity. To Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—be
worship, praise, dominion, and power, forever, and forever more.
© The Rev. Robert B. Wood. All Rights
reserved.
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