The Shepherd’s Voice

Readings for Sunday, May 30^th
Prov 8:1-4, 22-31
Rom 5:1-5
Jn 16:12-15

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday. It’s a day when we not only talk about the concept of the trinity, but we try to reach back into the recesses of our mind to grasp, to grapple with the full understanding of God; is the Holy Spirit God, and is the Son also God. We wrestle with these questions with the help of the Holy Spirit, and we do it by looking at the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the teacher, the one we can relate to, fully human, fully God.

Let’s Pray…
“May the Spirit of truth blend the elements of the Word and the hunger of our hearts together, and lead us ever more deeply into the heart of the Triune God.” Amen

This has been for me one of the hardest sermons I have ever written. Not because of the topic, yes it is complex; not because of the audience/listeners, I know they are astute, but it’s hard because I feel like I have to stuff ten pounds of material into a five pound bag, while being dressed in tight leotards, all the time while walking on a tightrope. Ugh! What an image….

This is likely why some Christian denominations ignore the trinity; some think it’s doctrine that’s too hard to talk about, therefore they don’t, and some diminish the doctrine by saying it’s unimportant and it can’t be understood by the average church member anyway, so why bother.

How do you understand the trinity? Is the doctrine of the trinity dead to you, meaning lifeless, uninspiring, unhelpful with regards to your faith or your life?

It reminds me a little of that old Wendy’s commercial. There are three old ladies looking at a big bun. One of them takes the top off the bun where a very small burger sits. The lady on one side, who’s wearing thick glasses says, “Where’s the beef?”

When we look at our gospel text today we might be asking the same question; “Where’s the beef?”

When you first read the text it’s a little hard to get your arms around it, but in these few verses we see an example of the trinity. Look at the text with me:

Jesus is talking, the second person of the trinity saying, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth;” The Spirit is the third person of the trinity.

Look at verse 15, Jesus again says, “All that the Father has is mine.” The second person of the trinity talking about the first person of the trinity the Father.

“Where’s the beef?” There’s lots of beef right here and it’s about the trinity. Full one pound Angus beef, tasty, flavorful, aromatic, and when your done trying to eat it you’re full; open the belt one more notch full. The essence of the trinity is packed in here.

Now some people use models to describe the trinity. Some talk about an egg, you have the shell, the yoke, and the white, but it’s still one egg. This fails to work because the yoke, the shell and the white are all parts of the egg and not the egg themselves.

Some try to use the concept of water, sighting water exists in liquid, solid and vapor forms, but again these are separate forms and are not one entity.
As Lutheran’s let’s look at Luther’s Small Catechism Page 107 where it asks the question, “How are the three divine persons distinguished from each other?” Probably most of you know this or remember this from your confirmation class:

The Father has begotten the Son from eternity; the Son is begotten of the Father from eternity; the Holy Spirit from eternity proceeds from the Father and the Son. To the Father especially is ascribed the work of creation; to the Son, the work of redemption; to the Holy Spirit, the work of sanctification. I think we’ve found the beef!

In my written sermon I have a little diagram, which may be helpful if you are reading the sermon, but most of you are not so I’ll describe it here. (Ask for volunteers to act it out.)

This is a little triangle with the word God at the center. The three corners are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There are paths, flow channels so to speak that connect each of the 3 corners and three additional flow channels that connect the center to each corner.

The Father has begotten the Son, an act of procreation so
the essence of the Son is the same as the essence of the
Father. My son Josh looks a little like me, although he’s a lot
smarter than me, but he’s of the same human race. The Son,
Jesus was begotten from eternity, that’s from the beginning.

Now the Holy Spirit is NOT begotten, but proceeds from the Father and the Son from eternity. So is there ever a time when there was no Son or Holy Spirit, NO! But what does it mean to proceed from the Father and the Son? I’m glad you asked!

‘Proceeds from the Father and the Son, is from a simple term’ in Latin the term is filioque. It was added to the creed in 589 CE at the Third Council of Toledo. It’s where we get the term, ‘Holy Toledo,’ – just kidding.

The term filioque, from the Father somehow became a point of major controversy and in 1054 CE, it actually split the church into the church in Rome, the western church, and the church at Constantinople, the eastern church, now referred to as the Orthodox Church. It was called the East-West Schism.

Anyway, proceeding from the Father and the Son means “sent by” the Father and the Son, proceeding from both of them. We talk about the Spirit of the Father (Mt 10:20, 1 Cor 2:11) or Spirit of the Son (Gal 4:6) or Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7). The Eastern church professes the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son by way of love. Let’s not get lost in the weeds……

Sidenote – This terminology is used only in the Nicene Creed. P 104 in ELW – 3rd paragraph

Getting back to our text for today, Jesus said, “13When 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.”

Many people today question objective truth. Sometimes truth is hard to find, hard to know.

As Lutherans we use scripture as the source and font of all knowledge and along with the Holy Spirit we expect to be guided into all truth. Although the word trinity is NOT found in scripture the concept is on display in a number of areas. (a few – Matt 3:16-17, Matt 28:19, John 14:16-17)

Scripture is pretty clear about the works we ascribe to each person of the trinity, the Father, the work of creation. (Gen 1,2) The Son provides the work of redemption, which we see portrayed clearly in all the gospels, and the Holy Spirit the work of sanctification which we see explained in Romans 6, 1 Cor 1, 1 Thess 4, 2 Thess 2:13. Still, we have only one God.

If you’re struggling with this sermon I can understand why, understanding the trinity is hard work, but allow me to break it down, at the risk of oversimplification. This is part of the tight rope I mentioned in the beginning.

Remember the models we explored to describe the trinity, well they did not work; the egg, the water, all too elemental to describe the complexity of God.

When we try to explain the trinity in earthly, tangential forms we often fail. The way we often see the world is in a binary fashion – it is composed of pairs, pairs that go together, define each other, and ultimately are defined by or are over and under each other. Just about everything we know we learned in contrasting pairs; yes and no, up and down, hot and cold, circle and square.

The doctrine of the Trinity is, as we all know, three sides therefore it can’t be defined simply in a binary fashion. The trinity is about relationship. David Lose (Luther Seminary Professor) said this makes the trinity “routinely mundane and potentially catalytic. It can feel mundane because we all know relationships; after all, we’re all in relationships.

Accepting as mystery the confusing elements of the Trinity can be helpful – how can God be three persons in relationship, yet one God? If all we can do is talk about the triune God as being in relationship, maybe that’s a bit of a let down or is it?

Talking about the triune God as relationship shouldn’t stifle us or our enthusiasm regarding the trinity, formulas or doctrine do not save us. God’s love saves. The Son, the very spirit of the Father’s love saves through the work of redemption, the love that was shown us through his life, death and resurrection, that’s what saves! Relationship is important in the triune God.

God’s power, at the heart of the universe is love. God is love. Christ is the most complete form of love who ever walked the earth, and the Holy Spirit, the advocate, the Spirit of truth is Christ’s love among us as we live out the Easter message. Don’t get hung up on theory’s or formulas, or doctrines, the essence of the Trinity is love – relational, community love.

We know God by the love poured out for us, in baptism, in bread and wine. The Spirit of truth has shown us Jesus was glorified by the love of the Father. People should know us by our love, not our ability to sight or know or understand doctrine.

Amen