The Trinity, The Creeds And Our Hymns
Father Dale Matson
St. Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians (14:3) that the prophets should speak to people for their edification, exhortation and comfort. Today it will be primarily edification. Today is Trinity Sunday. The Christian Church is Trinitarian. The doctrine of the Trinity was established early in the history of the Christian Church and we confess our belief every Sunday in the Nicene Creed. I am sure that you are all familiar with the fact that we worship one God in three persons. This is both a fact and a mystery of Christ’s Church. Good doctrine is God centered. Good doctrine will not save us but bad doctrine can lead us down the wrong path,
“In terms of number of adherents, nontrinitarian denominations comprise a small minority of modern Christians. The largest nontrinitarian Christian denominations are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Oneness Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, La Luz del Mundo and the Iglesia ni Cristo, though there are a number of other smaller groups, including Christadelphians, Church of the Blessed Hope, Christian Scientists, Dawn Bible Students, Living Church of God, Assemblies of Yahweh, Israelite Church of God in Jesus Christ, Members Church of God International, Unitarian Christians, Unitarian Universalist Christians, The Way International, The Church of God International, and the United Church of God” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontrinitarianism
The hymns we sing each week are designed to fit with each Sunday, so it is no accident that all of our hymns today deal with the TRINITY.
In our processional hymn we sung in part, “I bind unto myself today the strong Name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same, the Three in One, and One in Three.”
In our gradual hymn we sang in part, “There is a Redeemer Jesus, God's own Son; Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One. Thank You, O my Father, for giving us Your Son, and leaving Your Spirit 'til the work on earth is done.”
In our offertory hymn, we sing in part,
“Father, we love You, we worship and adore You
Jesus, we love You, we worship and adore You,
Spirit, we love You, we worship and adore You,
And in our dismissal hymn, we sing in part,
“Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee:
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty,
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.
Each person of the Godhead is usually associated with particular actions and we say as we do in the Nicene Creed that God the Father is the Creator of Heaven and Earth and all things seen and unseen. We also say that God the Son, Jesus Christ also participated in creation. Christ is one person with two natures. He is both God and Man. He is also associated with our redemption and salvation through this perfect life, death, resurrection and ascension. When He ascended to Heaven, the Holy Spirit was sent to give spiritual life to those who believe in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is here to live in us, to guide us into truth and to sanctify us as we live out our Christian lives. As we stated in our Gospel lesson last Sunday on Pentecost, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. Sanctification is the process of becoming Holy. In this process we take on the life of our Savior Christ. God the Holy Spirit empowers us to live the Christian life and to boldly proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. What I have expressed are the basics of our faith.
While we think of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit acting independently from one another, what makes us a truly Christian Church is our embracing each of the Persons of the Godhead equally and understanding how all the Persons of the Godhead are working together for our sake. Let me give you an example in the account of the resurrection of Christ. Who raised Christ from the dead?
1. There are a number of passages that say it was God the Father. Here is an example from Acts 5:30. “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.”
2. In the verse immediately prior to our reading from Romans Chapter 8, we hear in verse 11, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Here it is God the Holy Spirit who raised Christ from the dead.
3. How about this? “Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. “The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body” (John 2:19-20). The Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses try and explain this verse away because it clearly shows the deity of Christ. They will say He was simply speaking in a metaphor and this should not be taken literally. OK, how about these verses from John Chapter 10 (17-18a). “Therefore, My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” So, who raised Christ from the dead? One God acting as three Persons raised Christ from the dead.
We have three creeds in the Anglican Church. We have the Apostles Creed which we say at baptisms, the Nicene Creed which we say every Sunday and ….What is the other creed? How many here have heard of the Athanasian Creed before? How many have said the Athanasian Creed before? The creed is the summary of our belief about the Trinity (The Creed of St. Athanasius is on 769 of your prayer book). It is fitting that on Trinity Sunday we should confess the Creed of St. Athanasius. This creed actually addresses the Trinity and includes a Christology. The Athanasian Creed is usually divided into two sections: lines 1–28 address the doctrine of the Trinity, and lines 29–44 address the doctrine of Christology. The Christology of the second section is more detailed than that of the Nicene Creed and reflects the teaching of the First Council of Ephesus (431) and the definition of the Council of Chalcedon. This may be why the ACNA prayer book did not include the Christology of the Council of Chalcedon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasian_Creed#CITEREFSchaff1877a
There is a filioque clause in the Westernized version of the creed which means it is rejected in this form by the Greek Orthodox Church just as the filioque is rejected in the Nicene Creed. Is doctrine important? Yes, the great schism (1053) of the church occurred over whether the Holy Spirit came only from the Father or from both the Father and the Son.
Now, I want to offer my understanding of the Gospel lesson for today. As you follow along, note how God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are all involved in the narrative between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus.
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him". Here we have a powerful ruler of Israel Nicodemus sneaking away from his associates to ask questions of Mary’s Son the carpenter. Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God". What does Jesus mean by this statement? You must be reborn spiritually to understand and inhabit the Kingdom of God. In fact, if you are reborn spiritually, the Kingdom of God will inhabit you. Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Who do you think Nicodemus was referring to here? He was referring to himself. He was asking Jesus how he could be born again. Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, 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. Many commenters say that Jesus is referring to baptism here but I do not, based on the context of the statement that followed. In other words there is a natural birth accompanied by water and there is a second birth which is spiritual. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again' the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit" Here I believe Jesus is referring to those who are born again or as some translations have it “born from above”. They are led by God the Holy Spirit but God is sovereign and comes and goes as He pleases. He is not some genie we can summon and command to grant us a wish.
Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. Notice Jesus uses the term “We”. I believe Jesus is referring to the witness of all three of the persons of the Trinity. It was God the Father that revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It is God the Holy Spirit that prepares our hearts to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” Here Jesus is referring to His Omnipresence as God. He is in Heaven and He is on earth. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. This is a prophesy by Jesus about His own sacrificial death on the cross using the example of Moses in the Old Testament book of Numbers. “The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.”
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Here is my understanding of this. I simply want to put an additional word in the statement to clarify things. “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes THIS, will be born again into Christ and will never perish but have eternal life. If you do believe this, that God Loved the World so much that He gave His Son Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for us that we could be freed from our sins and live eternally, then you already have eternal life. If you don’t believe it but want to believe it, as you receive communion, ask Christ into your life as you receive His life. Amen
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