John 16:12-15 and Romans 5:1-5
June 3, 2007
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
When I teach my Inquirers Class, we cover the topic of the Trinity. It’s such a difficult concept to understand that a variety of illustrations are often used. How do you describe God as Father, Son and the Holy Spirit as one God when we know God in three persons? Last Sunday, we celebrated Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. It’s already a challenge to understand what Jesus was saying, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” Now we have to figure out how to make sense of the Holy Spirit too! With all three revelations of God, how do we understand the meaning of Trinity?
A bad illustration of the Trinity is like that of three links of a chain. The problem with this is that these are three separate parts and God is not something you can separate into three parts. Some have said the Trinity is like an actor who plays three different parts in a movie. But God is simultaneously three persons; not one person playing three successive roles in different make-up. One familiar illustration is the way water appears to us in three different forms: snow, rain, and fog. Not a bad illustration for the San Francisco fog that we’ve been having but the problem with this is that water is not in all three states at once. God is three persons at the very same time.
From my math class, I often use the Venn diagram model of three intersecting circles to represent the Trinity. Each circle is distinct but overlapping with the center shared by all three circles. Maybe the best illustration that we might have comes from the mathematical equation of 1 x 1 x 1 = 1; not 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 but 1 x 1 x 1 = 1. Both are good illustrations, but both still lack the full meaning of the Trinity.
A pastor once shared that he had one man who attended church only once a year. Not on Easter or Christmas, but on Trinity Sunday. He said he loved to see the preacher get so confused.
Jesus and the apostles spoke of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although the term “trinity” describes this threefold role of God, it’s not found in the Bible. In the early church, there was a major conflict over the understanding of God. Some people believed in modalism that means that the one God is revealed in three different ways like snow, rain, and fog. Others believed in tritheism that thought God the Father, Son and Spirit are actually three gods.
Since Christianity grew out of Judaism that believe in one God, the early church needed to reconcile the fact that God’s revelation was disclosed uniquely in the person of Jesus and that the Holy Spirit was given to the church. The first ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 was convened to settle this issue. To avoid modalism and tritheism, theologians concluded that God is “one in essence, distinguished in three persons.”
All three are God, and there is only one God. Still can’t understand this? Don’t worry about it. The Trinity is not a theoretical problem to solve but a reality to worship. When God comes to us as “Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit,” just the word, “God” is insufficient. God is more than the Creator above us in primeval time. God is Jesus with us throughout history. And God is the Spirit in us in daily life—one God in three persons.
God’s Surprises
Now I am seeing some dazed faces out there. If I had a hard time trying to get you excited about Pentecost last Sunday, I have an even harder challenge to help you to understand who the Trinity is! No matter how good the illustrations I can come up with, it’s a challenge. Over the years, I realized that the Trinity is not an intellectual doctrine to understand but rather in the simplest of terms, the Trinity is the ways that God comes to us.
The Trinity is a great reminder that we cannot be stuck in a rut thinking about God, but that God will surprise us and come to us in different ways in our lives. For you golfers, it’s a little bit like this.
Moses, Jesus and a young man went golfing. Moses teed off, and his ball went down a waterway, the water parted, and the ball rolled across within four inches of the cup. Jesus teed off, and the ball hit near the water, skipped across the top of it and came within two inches of the cup. Since Jesus always promises us a second chance in life, he still has another stroke to make a birdie.
The young man teed off next, and the ball went crooked, hit a tree and bounced. A squirrel picked it up and ran it across the green. An eagle swooped down, caught the squirrel, flew high up into a thunderstorm that made him drop the squirrel. The squirrel dropped the ball, which hit a terrapin and rolled into the cup.
The God of the Old Testament, the God who was among us in Jesus Christ, and the God who we believe is a very much part of our daily lives, the Holy Spirit can surprise us to hit a golf ball in the hole.
The most surprising way that God comes to us is in Jesus Christ. After all, who really expected God to give up all powers and come be with us? In the John passage for this morning, we see how Jesus taught his disciples the different ways God will come to us and help us.
Jesus has warned his disciples on how the world will not welcome them because they are following him. And while Jesus is about to leave them, he knew that his disciples were not able to understand everything that he was teaching them. Because of that, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth will come and will speak as God. Just when Jesus told the disciples that he is in God the Father and the Father is in him, Jesus introduces to them the Holy Spirit!
Spirit of Truth
We live in a world that is filled with misinformation and contradictory testimony. In nearly every arena of life the truth is difficult to determine. This car is better than that one, the ads declare. This politician is right and the opponent is wrong. This economic policy will work and the other will bring disaster. President Truman once asked his advisors what results could be expected by following a certain economic plan. They told him that on one hand, the plan might do this; on the other hand, it might do the opposite. Truman then remarked that he wished he could consult a one-armed economist!
When Jesus was with us, he was a guide to the truth. He told the truth of the Samaritan woman at the well. He knew immediately how many husbands she had had and that the one she lived with was not really her husband. When Jesus spotted Nathanial coming toward him, he sized up his character in an instant: “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” (John 1:47-48) When Jesus met Zacchaeus (Luke 19:2-9), Jesus knew precisely what his sins were and what his potential for transformation was. He spotted another tax collector named Levi (Luke 5:27-28) and knew right away that he would make a good disciple. No matter what situation, Jesus knew the truth about people.
How easy it would be, then to know the truth if Jesus were here among us still. He could answer the difficult questions of the day and give us guidance. But since Jesus was returning to the Father, Jesus sent another person, a third part of the personality of God, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth.
The Spirit is promised as a guide to assist the disciples in handling that which is to come. Jesus seems to desire to tell them what may come, but sees that they cannot bear the knowledge of such things. He assures them that they will not bear the future alone. The Spirit will be with them, will have his authority, and will continue to teach what the Father has indicated through Jesus.
It’s like a GPS—global navigation system. I just got one for my birthday because I was getting lost in the East Bay! The system connected to a satellite knows where your car is. So once you decide where you want to go, the system tells you when to turn, how far to drive, and how long it will take to get there. As long as Jesus was alive on earth, the disciples didn’t need a navigation system, but once Jesus went to heaven, they started to get lost. Jesus didn’t give the disciples a GPS. He gave them the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth that will guide them into all the truth.
We feel the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit when we are doing the right thing. The Spirit is at work in the church guiding us and helping us to go in the direction that Jesus wants us to travel. The Holy Spirit helps us move closer to having a relationship with God.
Relationship with God
In the epistle lesson for today, we read Romans 5:1-5 that the peace that we have with God has come through our Lord Jesus Christ. If it weren’t for Jesus Christ and his relationship with God, we would not be in peace with God.
The result of our discipleship will lead us “in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Inasmuch as God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one in three, we as disciples are justified by our faith in the Trinity. We know God in three different ways so that we may participate in his kingdom work. Just as God is “one in essence distinguished in three persons,” we find that we are in relationship with one another in the suffering that produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. As there is a relationship in the Trinity, we also have a relationship with each other because of the Trinity. We all suffer together that produces endurance. When we endure together, we develop character. With character and integrity, there is hope for a tomorrow. And we know that this hope will not disappoint us because it’s God’s love that has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. While the three ways God is known to us work together, we work together in relationship with one another too.
The best way to understand the Trinity is not through a doctrine but by living out our faith fully that we are able to experience God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in our daily living. Living out our faith is to do the right thing—be truthful. Living out our faith is to be in loving relationship with each other as Jesus’ disciples.
Dogwoods
To think of the Trinity just as a doctrine keeps us from seeing the multilayered ways that God is connecting directly to us.
When we replanted trees around our house in Sausalito almost 9 years ago, we planted three dogwoods. We had dogwoods in Pennsylvania where we lived and remembered how beautiful the white flowers are. They usually bloom in the spring soon after Easter.
The dogwood has a fascinating history. In legend, it has always been associated with the crucifixion of Christ, its wood supposed to have been used in the building of the cross. To add to this legend, the four white bracts surrounding the cluster of tiny true flowers are distinctly cross-shaped, the brown blotches at the top of each bract said to be symbolic of blood and shame. Some think the brown tips are the rust from the nails in the cross. Another aspect of the legend is that the tree only grows to 20 feet because it is ashamed that it is the wood used for the cross.
For me, when I walk out of my front door on a glorious spring morning and come face to face with the dogwoods, I experience at once the beauty and creation of God’s work. I see God’s wonderful power in time and space. At that moment I often feel within me a sense of wonder and remember the dogwoods in Pennsylvania and those up in Yosemite every April.
When I see the dogwood, I see Jesus connecting us to God. I see the dogwood flowers and am reminded of the wonderful forgiveness given to me by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. I see our dogwoods are unlike the redwoods or the evergreens that shoot up high into the sky but stand short like it was ashamed.
When I see the dogwood flower petals eventually fall from their branches, they are blown all over the place. This reminds me of the Holy Spirit as it blows among us to strive for truth and righteousness and unifies us as God’s faithful people.
This is not a Trinitarian formula or creed but how a familiar dogwood tree can offer us a wonderful multilayered way God comes into our lives which brings us life and joy.
When we offer baptism to people and right before we immerse them in the baptismal waters, we say, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” We do this because the Trinity surprises us and comes to us in different ways in our lives. When we can’t say all we mean by the word “God,” we need to add “Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.” 1 x 1 x 1 = 1.
Let us pray.
Gracious God, blessed Trinity, we praise you and give you thanks for your never ceasing love in making yourself known to us as God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Help us to strive for living out our lives in faithfulness to your truth and to be in loving relationships with each other in the name of Jesus Christ. We pray in the name of God in three persons, Amen.