What In The World Is The Trinity?

Sun Lakes United Methodist Church

9248 E. Riggs Road, Sun Lakes, Arizona 85248

(480) 895-8766

 

Sermon Notes, Longer Version

Trinity Sunday emphasis

June 3, 2007

Rev. Jim O’Neal, Senior Pastor

 

John 14:15-27 NRSV

15“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

18“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.  19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.  20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.  21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”  22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”  23Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.  24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

25“I have said these things to you while I am still with you.  26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.  27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

 

A.  Introduction

                    1.  “The Father, the Son, and the Whole East Coast!

                                        a.  Little Megan, from California, was visiting with her Grandmother who lived in New England.  Grandma took Megan to Church with her.  Grandma’s Church was much more traditional than the one Megan attended with her parents out west.  They came to the “Gloria Patri” in the service.  Megan tugged on Grandma’s coat.  “Why don’t they include the West Coast?” Megan asked.  “What do you mean?” Grandmother replied.  Megan said, “Why do we sing:  ‘Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Whole East Coast?’”

                                        b.  Sometimes it’s easy to get confused at Church.  And that’s true for adults and children.  Some parts of the faith are hard to understand and difficult to explain.  The doctrine of the Trinity is one of these.

                    2.  Augustine

                                        a.  Augustine was one of the deepest thinkers in Church history, and he pondered over this doctrine of the Trinity.  One day he walked along the seashore trying to postulate an understanding of this belief that God is “Three in One.”  The voice of God’s Spirit spoke in his heart: “Pick up one of the large sea shells there by the shore.”  So he picked it up.  Then the voice within spoke again, ”Now pour the ocean into the shell.”  Augustine said, “Lord, I can’t do that!”  The Spirit answered, “Of course not.  In the same way, how can your small finite mind ever hold and understand the mystery of the eternal, infinite, Triune God?”

                                        b.  Today is Trinity Sunday.  God in Three Persons:  What does that mean?  The word Trinity does not appear in the New Testament.  Why then did the Church fathers formulate such a difficult doctrine?  It leads to all sorts of difficult questions.

                                        c. Yet clearly the concept is in the New Testament.  God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are mentioned throughout the sacred pages.  Several times the formula is stated: “God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” (See Matthew 28:19 & II Corinthians 13:14)  This morning I won’t pretend that I can explain it all.  But I will lift up three important truths that the Trinity teaches us:

 

B.  God is beyond our understanding.

                    1.  J. B. Phillips

                                        a.  Bible scholar J. B. Phillips challenged us to expand our thinking with a book he wrote entitled:  “Your God Is Too Small.” 

                                        b.  Phillips was right.  Our understanding of God is too small!  Look around you.  Truly the heavens are telling the glory of the Almighty.  And that glory takes your breath away.

                    2.  Counting Stars

                                        a.  In 150 B.C. a man named Hipparchus declared that there were 1,026 stars in the universe.  Fifteen hundred years later Galileo, using the newly invented telescope counted over 10,000 stars.  Today we know that there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy alone, and that there are billions of such galaxies in the universe!  Can you and I deal with that?  It is mind-boggling. 

                                        b.  So how big is the universe?  Back on February 23, 1987 many people viewed with just their eyes the explosion of a distant supernova.  It was a blast so powerful that it released as much energy in one second as our sun will release in ten billion years.  The truly startling fact is that this star exploded 170,000 years earlier.  It took that long for the light generated by this event, traveling at the rate of almost 6 trillion miles a year, to reach us! 

                                        c.  And God is far bigger than all of this.  God is beyond our comprehension.  For God time does not exist.  We talk about “forever” and say, “That’s a long time!”  It’s more than that.  Where God is there is no time.  God created time just as God created space.  There is no tomorrow or yesterday in Heaven.  It is always now!  Can you get your mind around that?

                    3.  La Brea Tar Pits

                                        a.  In the Las Angeles area there is a fossil museum next to the La Brea Tap Pits.  At the entrance of the museum there is a painted ribbon, eighty-five feet long, representing the five billion years of earth’s history.  One inch equals five million years.  So do you know how much space on that ribbon belongs to the history of the human race, from cave men to astronauts?  Less than one-half inch!  But God was around and God was busy doing things for those other 84 feet and 11 and ˝ inches!

                                        b.  Time is a creation and gift from God given to us as a convenience by which we can measure things, but not God.  Too many of us have a God who is too small.  We want to create God as did the Greeks, in our own image, but God is a divine Spirit.  God is beyond our imagining.  When we say, “God in three persons,” we are affirming that God is beyond our understanding.  God is beyond our categories by which we classify human reality.

 

C.  God visited this planet in the person of Jesus!

                    1.  John 1:1 & 14

                                        a.  God visited this planet in the person of Jesus!  I know that I am going way beyond what many people can accept, but this is the heart of the Christian message.  We are not Deists.  We do not believe that God set the world in motion and then “walked off” and left it.  We believe that God visited our world in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.  The Bible is clear on this.  John 1:1 & 14 say:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” (John 1:1 & 14 RSV)

                                        b.  God in Jesus was not a masquerade.  God emptied Himself into Jesus.  Jesus was truly a human being.  He cried real tears and shed real blood.  Jesus was and is also divine.  He lived a sinless life, and took upon Himself the sufferings and sins of us all.

                    2.  Knute Rockne

                                        a.  Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne once dreamed up a play where both guards and the center pull to one side to block for the running back.  This left a huge hole in the center of the line, and it was the quarterback’s job to hit any big lineman who came through that hole.  Rockne once explained this play to another coach.  The other coach asked him how effective the play had been.  Rockne said, “I don’t know.  None of my quarterbacks have been stupid enough to call the play!” 

                                        b.  People just cannot comprehend that the God of billions of galaxies would humble Himself to become one of us and to take upon Himself our weaknesses and our shame.  But God is God.  And as First John says, “God is love.”  (I John 4: 8 & 16 NRSV, RSV, NIV, etc.)  The Almighty defies our logic, because He loves us, and wants to bring us back to Himself.

                    3.  Black Like Me.

                                        a.  Remember the book, “BLACK LIKE ME”?  The author John Howard Griffin, who died in 1980, was a white man.  He realized that he could never understand the experience of blacks as a Euro-American.  So he dyed his skin and went around the country posing as a black man.  This experience made him better understand the harshness and the subtleties of racism.  It, also, helped him to understand and connect emotionally with black America.

                                        b.  God became a human not because God needed to better understand us, but because we need to better understand God.  The incarnation was the only way for God to reach us on a level that we could understand.  It was the only way for God to show us just how much He does love us.  It was the only way for God to take upon Himself our suffering and sins.

 

D.  God is present here and now in the form of the Holy Spirit!

                    1.  John 14:16, 17 & 26 

                                        a.  In today’s Scripture lesson Jesus says, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.  You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:16, 17 & 26 NIV)

                                        b.  Jesus in the Scriptures gives us the promise of the Holy Spirit.  Wow!  God is present, God is available, and God is our Counselor, Comforter, Sustainer, Advocate and Friend!

                    2.  White House Phones

                                        a.  The Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, came to America to visit with President Bush.  They met in the Oval Office.  The Prime Minister noted three phones: a red one, a white one and a blue one.  He asked, “Tell me what are they for?”  Bush replied, “The blue one is a direct line to the Secret Service agent who keeps watch over my “fun loving” daughters.  The red one is a holdover from the Cold War and is a direct line to the Kremlin.  And that pure white one is my direct line to God.”  “How much does it cost to call God?” the Prime Minister of Israel asked.  Bush replied, “Twenty thousand dollars a minute, and it’s worth every penny.”  President Bush then asked, “Do you have any special phones in your office?”  “Yes,” replied the Prime Minister, “I have one to my Parliament, one to the Palestinian Authority, and I, also, have a phone to God.”  Bush queried, “How much does it cost you to call God?”  “Ten cents, but then it’s a local call,” replied the Prime Minister.

                                        b.  This confusing doctrine of the Trinity tells us that this God who created the vast universe, who emptied Himself into Jesus, is a local call.  God is here, and is available.  His Spirit is with us and within us.

                    3.  Admiral Sir Thomas Williams and Ascension Island

                                        a.  The Holy Spirit is there to help you, if you are open to listening to God’s Spirit.  Admiral Sir Thomas Williams was a man open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Many years ago he was in command of a ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean.  His course brought him into sight of Ascension Island, which at that time was an uninhabited island.  The Admiral felt an unexplained desire to steer toward the island.  He fought the feeling and then prayed.  The “nudge” was still there so he ordered his lieutenant to steer the ship toward the island.  The man reminded him that they were already behind in their schedule and that this would further delay them.  But the command was given and the ship sailed toward the speck of land.  As they neared they could see a signal flag on the beach.  A small boat was sent to the island, and they discovered and rescued sixteen men, who had been shipwrecked and were in desperate need of food.

                              b.  Sir Thomas Williams knew that God’s Spirit was with him.  He listened to the leading of the Spirit and became a blessing for others.  The Holy Spirit is there to help you and bless you.  The Holy Spirit is there to guide you in the right path, and to be a blessing for others.

 

E.  Conclusion

                    1.  Lining up the three lights

                                        a.  F. B. Meyer was a passenger on a ship crossing the Irish Channel on a dark and starless night.  He stood on the deck beside the captain and asked him, ”How do you know the way to Holyhead Harbor on so dark a night as this?”  The captain said, “You see those three lights?  All of them must line up together as one, and when we see them so united, we know the exact position of the harbor’s mouth.”

                                        b.  There are three persons of the Trinity.  There are three attributes by which God has revealed God’s self to us.  All three line up together as characteristics of the One True God.  On this Sunday in which we celebrate the Trinity we acknowledge:

                    2.  Recap

                                        a.  God is beyond our understanding.

                                        b.  God visited this planet in the person of Jesus!

                                        c.  God is present here and now in the form of the Holy Spirit!

 

John 14:15-27 NRSV

15“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

18“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.  19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.  20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.  21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”  22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”  23Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.  24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

25“I have said these things to you while I am still with you.  26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.  27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.