THE HOLY TRINITY
Year A
June 15, 2014
Genesis 1:1—2:4a
Psalm 8
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 28:16-20
Pastor David Tryggestad
Concordia Evangelical
Lutheran Church
Duluth, Minnesota
I was in a conversation
on Friday night with a man I had met for the first time. He had come from out
of town for the wedding reception for his daughter. He started the
conversation, knowing I am a pastor. “I was baptized Presbyterian, then
re-baptized Catholic, and now I’m a Lutheran.” I responded, “You’re truly
ecumenical.” Then I quoted one of my favorite mentors in the faith, Gerhard
Frost, who wisely said, “It takes the whole
Church to say the name ‘Jesus.’” I then said, “We are enriched as Christians by
hearing how others experience God, as God comes to us in many and various
ways.”
God is
revealed in many and various ways throughout Scripture.
Today is
Holy Trinity Sunday, when we consider God as Three Persons, as we sang in our
beloved opening hymn: “God in three persons, blessed Trinity!”
God as three
Persons is revealed throughout Scripture. In our First Reading, God creates the
heavens and the earth (Genesis 1). The second verse reads, “. . . the earth was
a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from
God swept over the face of the waters.” The “wind from God” is the Spirit of God, as “wind,” “breath,” and
“Spirit” are all the same word in Hebrew, as they are in New Testament Greek. Another
rendition of the Hebrew reads, “. . . the Spirit brooded over” the waters. The verb indicates continuous, ongoing
action: “. . . the Spirit continued—and continues—to brood over.” Those who are
parents and grandparents know that we never, never, never stop brooding over our loved ones.
The writer
of the Gospel of John contributes to the Holy Trinity in Creation in his
Prologue to the Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word—that is Christ—and the
Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All
things came into being in him and without him not one thing came into being” (John
1:1-3a).
Thus we
have God in three Persons, “Blessed Trinity,” present and active in Creation.
In our
Second Reading, the Apostle Paul concludes his Second Letter to the
Corinthians, with these words: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of
God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
Here Paul
is explicit about naming the three Persons of the Trinity. In this blessing
that has come to be used in our liturgy, we are reminded that our Triune God is
not static, but rather active. The three words Paul uses as
descriptors of God—grace, love, and communion—really only work when the nouns
become verbs. Imagine beginning and
ending each day with Paul’s blessing, living and acting grace, living and
acting love, and living and acting communion, with God and with one another!
Moving to
our Gospel for today, we hear Jesus’ last words to his disciples according to
Matthew:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit . . .” (Matthew 28:18-19)
Here,
again, we see the three Persons of the Trinity explicitly named.
What do we
do with all of this? How does it matter? What difference does it make in our
lives?
The Apostle
Paul, perhaps the greatest theologian of all the biblical writes, sometimes
comes to an end in his deep and sophisticated theological treatises and breaks
into praise of God:
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his
ways! . . .
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33, 36)
The last stanza of “Holy, Holy, Holy” sings
praise of God:
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name
in earth and sky and sea.
The Bible
insists that all of Creation praises God. The heavens declare the glory of God
(Psalm 19) and the mountains and the hills break forth into singing and the trees
clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12).
Have you
seen some of the photos of the spectacular beauty of the universe as revealed
by the Hubble space telescope? How can it be there is such glorious beauty when
there is none to see it but God alone? Have you ever walked through a dense and
secluded forest and seen beautiful wildflowers that no one else has seen? How
can it be there is such glorious beauty when there is none to see it but God
alone?
The Bible
insists that all of Creation praises God.
The
catechism of the Presbyterian Church, the Westminster
Catechism, opens with these words: “The chief aim of humanity is to worship
God and to enjoy God forever.” On this Holy Trinity Sunday, we might flesh that
out: “The chief aim of humanity is to worship God the Holy Trinity and to enjoy
God the Holy Trinity forever.”
How do we
praise God whom we cannot see? How do we praise God when there seems to be so
much evidence to the contrary? The third stanza of our hymn sings:
Holy, holy, holy!
Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinfulness
thy glory may not see . . .
Another
translation sings:
though the eye made blind by sin
thy glory may not see . . .
Last week was a difficult one here at Concordia. On Wednesday morning we held a memorial service for a 57-year-old woman, a wife and mother, who died after struggling with a debilitating and degenerative illness for 13 years. The sanctuary was almost filled in the middle of the week, while most of her friends are still working.
That same
evening others gathered at the grave site of a young man, 27 years old, who was
shot and killed exactly one year earlier. The emotions and the tears were
almost as raw as they were one year ago.
How do we
praise God whom we cannot see? How do we praise God when there seems to be so
much evidence to the contrary?
One of the
Scripture readings that was read at that young man’s wedding and again at his
funeral only three years later, and again at his grave site this past Wednesday,
is 1 Corinthians 13, the so-called “Love Chapter.” In it, the Apostle Paul
insists,
For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part;
but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an
end. . . .
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, then we will see face to
face.
Now I know only in part; then I will know fully,
even as I have been fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:9-10, 12)
Let’s go
back to our First Reading, the first Creation account from Genesis: the Spirit
of God is brooding over the face of
the waters. The Spirit continues to brood over Creation.
The Apostle
Paul says the same thing in different words:
Likewise the Spirit helps us—picks us up and carries us—in
our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for
words.
And God who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of
the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to
the will of God.
(Romans 8:26-27).
Paul also
insists, in the same chapter of Romans: “There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).
Listen to
God in three Persons at work: “The Spirit helps us . . . God who searches the
heart . . . no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The Holy
Trinity at work. The Holy Trinity as a verb,
not a noun.
Let’s go
back to Paul’s conclusion to his Second Letter to the Corinthians: “The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all.”
Our Triune
God is not static, but rather active. The three words Paul uses as
descriptors of God—grace, love, and communion—really only work when the nouns
become verbs. Imagine beginning and
ending each day with Paul’s blessing, living and acting grace, living and
acting love, and living and acting communion, with God and with one another!
Thanks be
to our Triune God in three Persons, “Blessed Trinity!”
Amen.
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