SPECIAL DAYS: Trinity Sunday

May 22, 2005, Lesson: Genesis 1.26-2.4a

Sermon Title: In the Image of God

(Back to Study Home Page)    (Back to Sermons for 2004-2005)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

INTRODUCTION:

  1. What in the world is the Trinity?

Madeleine L'Engle, Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons & Idols (1)

"The Trinity, like any other concept about God,...is a groping attempt to explain wholeness to a fragmented race of mortals...."We worship one God in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity," reads the creed which ends with..."As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible." Dorothy Sayers adds, "The whole thing incomprehensible," to which I add, "Thank God!" If it were comprehensible, nobody would have struggled to make it comprehensible in the various creeds of the church(es). Nobody has yet succeeded, and perhaps the very incomprehensibility is why we no longer pay more than lip service to Trinity Sunday, but slide over it and immediately forget it."

    1. But then on the same page Madeleine L'Engle writes: (2)

The Trinity proclaims a unity that in this fragmented world we desperately need. We are mortals who are male and female, and we need to know each other, love each other. The world gets daily more perilous. Our cities spawn crime. Terrorists are around every corner. Random acts of violence increase.

Less understandable and less advertised is the sad fact that Christians are suspicious of other Christians. Don't we have all the central things-God, making; Christ, awaking; the Holy Spirit, blessing-in common?

    1. We have some comprehension of God the Father.

    2. We have some comprehension of Jesus as the divine--human representative of God.

(Top)    (Back to Study Home Page)    (Back to Sermons for 2004-2005)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

MAIN BODY

  1. We believe in one God

    1. Yet we say that this one God is three

    2. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

  2. Does this mean that there are three Gods?

    1. In the early 1800s the Congregational Churches were racked with controversy.

      1. Split in 1825 over the nature of God.

      2. The Church that was organized is called Unitarian.

      3. One God three manifestations.

        1. Harry Emerson Fosdick illustrated the revelation of the Trinity by pointing to various portrayals of Theodore Roosevelt.

        2. His Autobiography portrays Roosevelt as a statesman, politician, president and public figure.

        3. His Winning of the West portrays Roosevelt as a sportsman, hunter, explorer and soldier.

        4. His Letters to His Children shows him as a winsome, lovable, gentle father, husband and family man.

        5. Each one of these portraits was true to who Roosevelt was.

        6. We know enough from each one of them to know something.

      4. But even when we put them all together, we still don't know everything there is to know about who he was.

      5. You still have only one with three manifestations.

    2. Congregationalists held to the doctrine of the Trinity.

      1. One God in three persons.

        1. In the lesson for today there is a significant statement.

          1. 26Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."

          2. 27So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

          3. Some have said that this is one person speaking, using the royal we.

          4. This is not the case.

          5. Jesus is declared to be co-creator.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being," (John 1:1-3, NRSVA).

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him," (Colossians 1:15-16, NRSVA).

          1. The Holy Spirit is also involved in creation.

"In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God (Or while the spirit of God or while a mighty wind) swept over the face of the waters," (Genesis 1:1-2, NRSVA).

(Top)    (Back to Study Home Page)    (Back to Sermons for 2004-2005)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

      1. The numbers of ways in which I have attempted to help people understand the Trinity.

        1. Some have used a piece of rope.

        2. Some have used a child's braids.

        3. I peached a sermon on the trinity and used the illustration of identical triplets to illustrate the trinity.

          1. John came to me after the service, John who was an early genetic engineer, and told me that there was not, nor ever could be, identical triplets.

          2. The following Thursday I received a phone call from John. He was reading the newspaper and there was an article of identical triplets that had been born in Minnesota.

          3. I since have used the internet to discover whether there are more than just this original sample. There are.

    1. What difference does it make if we have one God in three manifestations or one God in three persons?

  1. Our concept of God affects the way we visualize God?

    1. When we visualize God do we think in vertical terms?

      1. Father on the top

      2. Followed by the Son and Holy Spirit.

    2. Or do we visualize God on a horizontal plane?

      1. Father - Son - Holy Spirit.

  2. Is the Holy Spirit a ghost or spirit?

    1. Neither

    2. The biblical material recognizes the Holy Spirit as a separate individual.

      1. Own personality.

      2. Equal in every way with that person we call the Father or the Son.

        1. Jesus says I and the Father are ONE.

        2. Jesus says that receive the Holy Spirit is to receive him.

  3. Why, if it is so confusing and hard to understand, speak about it?

    1. The acquiring of Knowledge

      1. Ignorance is not bliss.

      2. We really need to have as much knowledge about God as we can comprehend.

    2. The creation of Understanding

      1. Misunderstanding God is the source of most of the troubles in Christianity.

      2. We need an understanding of God that is as high, and wide and deep as can be.

    3. The development of Faith

      1. We need a trusting faith.

      2. We need a trusting faith that can handle the tough questions and the doubts without melting away in the heat.

  4. Why is the teaching of the Trinity is important?

    1. I once had a conversation about the Trinity with Arthur Rouner, Jr. who at that time was the Senior Pastor of Colonial Church, Edina, MN.

      1. He said it is important because it teaches community.

      2. God demonstrates community.

    2. The attributes and aspects of God.

      1. Three beings of equal power

        1. There is no attempt to seek one's own way at the expense of the other.

        2. They are not irritated because they are equal.

        3. Use their power, not in an antagonistic, but in a cooperative way.

We have a two party system: Republicans and Democrats.

Look at the difficulty that these parts have in developing and maintaining programs that benefit the citizens of this country.

The rancor over the appointment of judges to the various branches of the Federal Court.

The threatened use of the Nuclear Option to eliminate a long used method to give some weight to the minority party.

      1. Three beings of equal authority.

        1. There is no jealousy.

        2. There is no envy.

THREE SEPARATE BUT EQUAL PARTS OF OUR GOVERNMENT: Legislative, Executive, Judicial.

Look at the difficulty they have in working together for the common good.

It is my way or else

      1. Three beings of equal ability.

        1. There is no boasting of accomplishments.

        2. There is no resentment.

        3. The capacity to create to restore.

        4. They do not challenge each other's ability in any way.

      1. Three beings of equal presence.

        1. The absence of one does not threaten the other.

        2. There is complete and absolute trust.

          1. Jesus notes that he is leaving.

          2. The Holy Spirit is coming.

          3. Jesus is not guarded in his discussion of the Holy Spirit.

          4. He welcomes the one who is to speak on behalf of God.

    1. What a marvelous example of community.

      1. The spirit which animates a community.

      2. The spirit of cooperation which perpetuates a community.

(Top)    (Back to Study Home Page)    (Back to Sermons for 2004-2005)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

CONCLUSION:

Rublev's Icon of the Trinity shows three figures--three divine messengers--who are visiting the Old Testament patriarch Abraham. They sit at a small table, each figure representing a person of the Holy Trinity, and as they sit, they point to a chalice on the table, a symbol of God's overflowing love.

The three faces are identical...

All the figures wear a blue garment - the color of the heavens...but each wears something that speaks of their own identity

David Miller, "Sermon for Trinity Sunday," The Protestant Hour, said:

"But they sit only on three sides of the table. There's an open side, and one of the figures points to the vacant space, inviting the viewer--inviting you--to sit down with the three persons and share fellowship. The icon invites us to share the overwhelming divine love that exists among the three figures at the table and to become participants in sharing the mystery of divine life and love. It pictures God's great desire to draw us in and to share the divine life with us." (3)

  1. It pictures God's great desire to draw us in and share life with one another.

  2. The Trinity is enlisting our cooperation so that life may be cleaned up and restored as it should be.

    1. Does it make sense to observe Trinity Sunday?

    2. You bet it does!!!

1. Madeleine L'Engle, Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons & Idols (Wheaton, Ill.: H. Shaw, 1996), 151.

2. Madeleine L'Engle, Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons & Idols (Wheaton, Ill.: H. Shaw, 1996), 151.

3. David Miller, "Sermon for Trinity Sunday," The Protestant Hour, June 10, 2001, Protestanthour.com. Used by permission of day1.net.