The Feast of the Holy Trinity
May 26th, A + D 2024
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer
Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, SD
The Good News of the Holy
Trinity
Sermon Audio available HERE.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Sometime in the late nineties, a friend of mine invited me to join him at a couple of “Promise Keepers” events. Promise Keepers was a Christian men’s group, a big deal for a little while.
One of those events was a big rally on the Mall in Washington D.C. I don’t know how big it was, but many tens of thousands, probably the biggest gathering I’ve ever attended. Which is probably why I ended up out toward the edge; I’m not a big fan of such large groups of people, even if they are all Christian men, mostly singing hymns. I naturally drifted out toward the fringe, out where dozens of contrary voices set up shop, not protesters really, but rather other religious groups who took issue with some aspect of Promise Keepers. A bit like parasites hovering around a big, healthy host, these groups sought to engage some of the men, to maybe draw them away to their way of seeing things.
Keepers was fairly mainstream; they certainly confessed that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as revealed by Jesus Christ, most notably at the end of Matthew, as He commissioned the Eleven Disciples to go and build His Church by baptizing and teaching in the Three in One Name. One of the men in this anti-Trinitarian group asked me if I knew that the word Trinity is not in the Bible. He handed me a pamphlet and told me that the Trinity is a creation of the imagination of men, that the Bible doesn’t teach it. “Look it up,” he said, “nowhere in the Bible will you find the word Trinity.” He implied everybody who professed the Trinity was mistaken, was actually lying about God. This man and his group promised to show me a better way, a truer way.
It is one thing to say that the word Trinity is not in the Bible. It is quite another to say that it is false to teach that the One True God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that this is a misrepresentation of God. If this were the case, it would mean that billions of Christians through 2,000 years went to their deaths with a false faith, and so are lost. It’s a big deal, an important question.
I didn’t immediately believe that guy’s story. But I was troubled. I didn’t really know how to respond, didn’t know the history of the term Trinity, didn’t know the Bible well enough to discern whether his claims were credible, or should be dismissed out of hand. Perhaps you assume that men go to seminary because their faith is so strong, so fervent. This certainly happens. But it is at least as common that the Lord pushes men into seminary and the ministry to keep them in the faith. I used to fall into both camps, depending on the day. I still do. Lord have mercy. And He does.
The Lord has mercy, and so now I know much better how to respond to doubts that still arise and claims that are still made against the teaching of the Holy Trinity. I have a tremendous amount to learn, but I know the Bible better now, and I rejoice in the Holy Trinity. So should you.
That man was correct, of course, about the narrow point that the word Trinity isn’t in the Bible. Trinity is a word that was invented, likely by a 3rd century teacher named Tertullian. Trinity is a conjunction of Tri, meaning three, and Unity, meaning one. Tri-Unity, Trinity, is a technical theological term that developed as the early Church responded to a whole variety of teachers who taught differently about who God is. Some taught that God only appears to be Father, Son or Holy Spirit, shifting faces from moment to moment. Others said Jesus was merely a man sent to speak for God. Still others recognized all three persons as God, but said the Father was superior, that there was a hierarchy between them, and so effectively, there were three different Gods.
That there is only one true God, who is also three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who are co-eternal and co-equal; this is clearly taught in Scripture. Tertullian coined and the Church eventually adopted the term Trinity as shorthand for the many long sentences required to correctly describe the nature of the God revealed in and by Jesus Christ. And the reason they did is two-fold. First, the doctrine of the Trinity is faithful to Scripture. Second, without it, the Gospel, the Good News of free salvation given to sinners in Jesus, falls apart.
The Three-in-Oneness of the One True God starts being taught in Genesis: In the beginning, God created, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters, and God spoke things into existence. God, the Spirit and the Word, as John would later note in His Gospel, are present from the start. Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, in Our likeness.” This first recorded conversation is between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
To be sure, the full revelation of the mystery takes the whole rest of the Bible – it is the highest of all mysteries, after all. Surely if the man and the woman had not sinned, they and we would have understood the nature of God much more easily. A big part of the Fall is the perversion and degradation of our reason. Our fallen nature makes God inscrutable to us. So, revealing the mystery of who and how God is would take time, and our learning takes even more time.
That God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit is hinted at all over the Bible, and directly attested many times. Paul’s final benediction at the end of 2nd Corinthians for example: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Or from last week’s Gospel, where Jesus, teaching the Eleven on the night He was betrayed, declared: “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you,” (John 14:24-26).
And of course, in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches Nicodemus about the Spirit, and then of God loving the world by giving His only-begotten Son. That is to say, God the Father gave the Son, Jesus, and in Him, God gives salvation to all who believe.
The nature of God is beyond our complete comprehension. Even more, the salvation God has revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus leaves us entirely dependent on Him. Which is true, and good. But, in our human pride, we may not like either of these truths. We can rail against God being Father, Son and Holy Spirit, say it isn’t logical, that it is impossible. Or we may protest that there is so much good in mankind, certainly we must contribute something to our own salvation. But such protest is to kick against the goads, which more or less is like impaling yourself on a cattle prod. Denying the Trinity is like pretending gravity isn’t real or that we don’t need air and water to live. We can refuse to believe, and argue all day long that we know better. But that doesn’t change reality.
Sadly, horribly, to reject the Holy Trinity is to cut oneself off from the true God, to cut oneself off from grace and mercy and the free gift of salvation. If God has not won our salvation through the sending of the Son by the Father to be the once-for-all sacrifice, then we are left to make right all the injustice we have done. We are left to conquer death on our own.
Without the Trinity, the only option left for us is to pursue communion with God by our efforts, by our good works, by our wisdom, by our strength. Now, maybe we can even make it sound good: “All you have to do is follow Jesus and His example faithfully, and you will gain God’s favor.” But in the end this is not different from submitting to Allah, and earning eternal salvation by following the 5 Pillars of Islam. The way of human works ends up not really being that different from sacrificing virgins or children to your sky god, in the vain hope that he or she will give rain and a good harvest, or a good investment portfolio and a comfortable retirement. In each of these schemes, the burden of achieving salvation rests on your shoulders.
Can we be humbled to imagine that perhaps not all the universe must bend to our understanding? If by God’s grace, our hearts and minds are opened to mystery, then the Good News begins to flow. Indeed, Good News for sinners is impossible if God is not Triune. But God is the three-in-one and the one-in-three, who has claimed you, forgiven you, loves you.
It is good to know the Biblical basis and the history of the teaching of the Holy Trinity. It is even better to see the Holy Trinity in action, in our day. Like He was, on Friday, for the sake of Bud Ehrle.
Once God claims a sinner in the Baptismal Name, He does not give up, despite how often we scorn the gifts of Baptism. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are seen to be at work in John chapter 3, teaching Nicodemus, and us, about the mystery of God’s saving love. Friday, the same Triune God was at work, to bring one of His baptized children back into the fold, even as physical death drew near.
We have been praying for Bud Ehrle, a friend of Neal and Brenda Larson, for some months now, as he fought a losing battle against mesothelioma. Spurred by the Holy Spirit and the love of Jesus, Neal has been talking with me for some time, and with Bud, seeking to help reconnect Bud with the Gospel. You see, Bud is baptized, and used to be an active Lutheran, but had drifted away from the church, for many years. But the Holy Spirit’s spark of faith does not go cold easily. And cancer preached the law so that Bud remembered his need for a Savior.
And why were Neal and I, and who knows how many other people, trying to help Bud trust in Jesus again? Because having put on the righteousness of Jesus in our Baptisms, we have the mind of Christ, however imperfectly. And the intention of Christ is always to reach out, always to forgive, always to rescue lost sheep who have wandered away.
As death drew near, Bud had let Neal know he was open to a visit by a pastor. Through a series of texts and calls and Google searches, Neal made contact with a local LCMS pastor in Minnesota near where Bud was hospitalized. God’s minister in that place, Pastor Baker, set aside whatever else he was doing on a Friday afternoon, and went to see Bud. Conversation ensued. God’s Word was spoken. Forgiveness was delivered in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Bud received a strengthening and peace-giving foretaste of the heavenly banquet in the Body and Blood of Christ.
Yesterday morning, Bud passed away, reunited with His Savior in this life, and forever and ever.
For God has loved the world in this way,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life. Bud
missed out on decades of peace and fellowship and joy in the Church of
Christ. But the Triune God determined
not to miss out on having Bud with Him in perfect peace and glory, forever and
ever. This is the Good News of the
Trinity, the Good News of the God who works, who pursues, who forgives, you and
me, and all who hear the promise of Jesus, and believe, in the Name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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