Trinity Sunday
Dear friends in Christ. The most basic question to any religion is: who/ what is the God that you worship? That applies not only to the followers of Islam, Hinduism, Judaism or even “Mother Earth”, but it also applies to those claiming to worship no god. Whether or not people admit it they worship a god—put their trust or confidence in something—be it materialism, trying to find happiness in the amount or quality of stuff, always trying to get more; be it pleasure, always trying to serve self and get a new “high” from the senses; be it the trust/ reliance in reason and science and thinking that will provide the answer for the happiness the person or society seeks; be it in political thought/ philosophies, thinking we can create a perfect society if only we do certain things.
For the Christian, the answer is very clear and simple. We don’t just worship a generic god, some generic supreme being. Instead, we worship the holy Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That’s what makes a Christian a Christian. No other religion worships the one true God, the triune God. People will try to get us to think that the so-called monotheistic religions—Christianity, Judaism, Islam—all worship the same God. That’s false! Judaism and Islam, at best, may recognize hold Jesus in high regard and as a great teacher or prophet—but not as the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. They do not recognize that within the Godhead there are Persons. Christians recognize that although there is one God, there are 3 distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All three are equal and yet there are not three gods—but One. This is not something theologians over the centuries came up with, but is revealed by that same God Himself in the Bible. Some parts of Scripture—both Old and New Testament-- are abundantly clear on the doctrine of the Trinity—one God, yet three Persons; other parts are a little more subtle.
Don’t think that Trinity Sunday is the only time we think of and confess this doctrine of God—that He is one divine being but yet three distinct Persons. Instead, our liturgy is full of this recognition and confession of the Triune God. First thing in the liturgy, we invoke the holy Triune God—in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; there is no doubt from the get-go who the God is we are worshipping. We have the Gloria Patri—Glory be to the Father…. We have the Gloria in Excelsis which addresses and praises each of the 3 Persons. Of course there are the creeds of the Church that we confess. In the communion liturgy, with the Sanctus, we join our praise with the praise of the angels and saints in heaven as we sing Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth—one God almighty but three times holy: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Of course, the service ends with a recognition and confession of the Trinity in the Benediction: there, again, is three times “Lord”—the Lord bless you and keep you…
Far from relegating this difficult to understand doctrine—that there is one God but three Persons—to a one time a year observance, it is always giving form and focus to our worship because as Christians we worship the Triune God!
There’s a lot of “squishy” notions of God and people are happy just to settle for a generic god. But this ultimately leads away from the true God because it leads people toward a god that they can “understand”/ makes sense to them. Rather, it is always good that we remember that who God is, is something that we will never fully understand with our finite minds. As we ponder God, the mystery of Him, and all that Scripture says of Him, may we exclaim as St. Paul does in our text: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! This is a good thing. Because as we think on the Trinity, we are led into humility and into trust of Him.
1. When we think just on a very basic level about God, just the simple fact that there is a God, we are really doing a very human thing. God created us as spiritual beings who desire fellowship with Him. Adam and Eve at first enjoyed that fellowship with God. But the fall into sin destroyed that. After the fall into sin, they still knew God existed but they hid from Him. That perfect relationship with Him and right knowledge of Him had been broken.
As we/ all people come into the world, we know that there is a God—that’s part of the Law of God written on our hearts—but because of sin, we don’t know Who that God is. We know because of the creation that there is a God. After all, the world and everything in it and around it screams to us that there has to be a Maker/ Creator who made it. The creation has God’s fingerprints all over it. St. Paul writes [Ro 1.20]: For [God’s] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. That’s why people from all over the globe of every age have some notion of a God. That’s why you’ll find religion of some sort wherever you go. Why? Because people instinctively know that there is a God from the law that God has written on every person’s heart; and because the creation is continually preaching it to them.
Why is this so humbling? Because left to ourselves and our own devices we would know nothing about God; we couldn’t have come up with the idea of God. He has to reveal Himself to us—by having our consciences tell us He exists and by having nature preach it. This is simply the very notion that there is a God.
So deeply are we corrupted by sin that God has to reveal His very existence to us in the creation and by our consciences/ the law written on our hearts. But not even that is enough because what happens with that? People, so corrupted by sin, yes, know there is a God but not who He is, so they invent gods—be it Allah, Zeus or Vishnu, etc. or even themselves. That’s why pondering the doctrine of the Trinity is so humbling for us: because it is a constant reminder to us that left to ourselves we would never know God rightly; it’s a constant reminder to us of our sinful condition and how sin has truly wreaked havoc in our spiritual lives.
And at the same time pondering the doctrine of the Trinity is very humbling to us in a good sense because it teaches us the grace of God to us sinners. Not only did He reveal Himself to us—as He does all people—in the Law written in our hearts and in the creation, but He came to us by the Holy Spirit in His word and revealed to us who He really is—the Triune God, one God and yet three distinct Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Not only did He come and tell us who He really is but via Holy Baptism—in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—He connected Himself to us, as Jesus says in last Sunday’s Gospel [Jn. 14.23]: If by the work of the Holy Spirit in the word and baptism anyone loves Me, He will keep My word; and We [the Holy Triune God] will come to him and make Our home with him. In the new birth of Holy Baptism we are given new, heavenly, spiritual life so that we now know the true God aright. Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel: Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The very fact that you are a Christian and know and believe rightly of God—that He is one God, yet 3 distinct persons—means that He Himself has come to you and revealed this to you and by His word and sacrament worked this faith and confession in you and keeps you in that faith and confession. How gracious is that! How humbling is that! Pondering the mystery of the Trinity, we just accept it in simple faith and exclaim with St. Paul: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
2. As thinking on the Trinity leads us to humility—first, of our own sinfulness and inability to know God rightly on our own; and secondly, that God in mercy toward us sinners revealed Himself to us in His word—it also then leads us to trust Him. After all, if we, left to ourselves, cannot understand God rightly—why do we think we know as much as or better than God? Isn’t absurd to think that we know better than God or that we can teach Him something? That’s why St. Paul writes in our text: “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
Yet, that’s often how we are—we think we know better than God; we don’t like the way He is dealing with us; we complain about the way God’s doing things. Really? We who cannot know God rightly unless He reveals Himself to us, expect to enlighten/ teach Him? When the devil or your own sinful nature tempts you in this way to make you think you know better than God and complain about what He’s doing—ponder the mystery of the holy Trinity. Yes, by Spirit worked faith we know God rightly as one God yet three distinct Persons—but can we fully comprehend/ understand it? Hardly! It makes no sense to our frail human reason. So if we cannot even understand the Person of God, the great 3 in 1—how can we understand the way He is working? When we find ourselves questioning/ complaining, may we repent, recognizing who we are and who He is.
Thinking on the Trinity—since we can’t understand Him, let alone His workings toward us, shouldn’t we weak, feeble creatures instead simply trust Him and with the apostle say: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!? Also here, the Lord is not calling on us for a blind leap but simply calling us to cling to what He has revealed to us. In His holy word God has revealed His will toward us—that although we are sinners worthy only of eternal death and damnation, He has, in Christ Jesus the God-Man, saved us from our sins. It is precisely in/ by Jesus that we come to know God and all His thoughts and actions toward us. If you want to know God rightly, don’t look to Him in all His holiness, majesty and splendor—you will never come to know Him rightly. It’s like trying to figure out the sun by staring at it. Instead, look to Christ—true God, the Son, the 2nd Person of the holy Trinity—and there you will see come to know and trust God rightly. Look to Christ on the cross—there you see the seriousness of your sin and what your sin earns you and what you deserve; but keep looking to Christ on the cross and there you will see the love and mercy of God for you and His desire for your salvation. There you will see the Father’s love for you in sending His Son; there you will see the Son’s love for you enduring your sin and punishment; there you will see the Spirit’s love as He brought you to faith and trust. Look to Christ as He comes to you today with His body and blood in the simple bread and wine of the Sacrament: He wants to give you every grace and blessing of forgiveness of sin and eternal life. He says to you [Mt. 11.28]: Come to Me…and I will give you rest. When tempted to doubt and criticize the way the holy Triune God is working/ acting, instead, know and cling in simple, humble, trusting faith to what the holy Triune God has revealed in Christ.
Yes, dear Christian, the doctrine of the Trinity—that there is one God yet 3 Persons—is one God has revealed to us but it is also one we will never fully understand. But as we ponder it we are led into humility before Him and into simple trust of Him so that with St. Paul we say: To him be glory forever. Amen. INJ