Sunday Message
June 6, 2004
Richard L Sheffield
Text: Romans 5:1-5; Matthew 28:16-20

In addition to Elder/Deacon Recognition Sunday, it's Trinity Sunday. Contrary to what many believe, the Trinity is not a problem to understand. In case you think you didn't hear me right, let me repeat that. The Trinity is not a problem to understand. You may be saying about now, "Who cares?" But in case you do, and you should, let me explain. Not explain the "Trinity," but explain what I said.

What I said was that, "The Trinity is not a problem to understand." That's the third time I've said that. What I suspect most of you, if not all of you, heard was something like: "When it comes to understanding the Trinity – no problem! I'm going to explain it so you can understand it." Or, perhaps, you heard me say: "The problem of understanding the Trinity is easily solved."

But what you may have thought I said, is not what I meant. What I said was – and by now you could almost repeat after me – what I said was: "The Trinity is not a problem to understand." By that I mean two things.
1. The Trinity is not a "problem."
2. The Trinity is not something to "understand."

Treating the Trinity as a "problem," to be solved with "understanding" is how we get into trouble in the first place with this central doctrine of Christian faith. When I was a child we did math "problems." The "answer" to a math "problem" was called a "solution." You got from "problem" to "solution," hopefully, by "understanding" something about math. By the time I got to college calculus all hope of "understanding" was gone. I got from "problem" to "solution" in something called "a differential equation" by memorizing the steps required. I didn't have a clue. I didn't understand. But I did pass!

And all these years, since 1968, I have kept my copy of "Calculus With Analytic Geometry," on my bookshelf as a trophy. I looked at it this past week. I wish it said "Calculus and the Doctrine of the Trinity," but it doesn't. Inside I found an old test from April 2, 1968. I hadn't seen it since. It was run off on a "ditto" machine for those of you old enough to remember those. I got a 92. Problem 1.c (for example) says: y = sin x / cos2x; dy/dx = (what?). I don't really know what I just said. I don't have a clue what my answer on April 2, 1968 meant. I don't even know how to say the answer. But I got it right!

Unfortunately, we treat the Doctrine of the Trinity the same way – as a "problem" we need to get "right." That's wrong. The Doctrine of the Trinity is not "a problem," like a math problem. Something for us to figure out or solve. The Doctrine of the Trinity has in fact, over many centuries, been intended to solve "problems" in the church. It's not supposed to be a "problem." It's supposed to be "solution." An answer to a question.

The term "Trinity" does not in fact appear anywhere in the Bible. So what's the problem, you say? The "problem" to which the Doctrine of the Trinity is supposed to be the solution is misunderstandings in the church and out about "the diverse references to God, Jesus, and the Spirit found in the New Testament." ¹ Count'em. God, Jesus, Spirit. One, two three = Trinity.

If you read the New Testament you will find many references to "God," whom Jesus called "Father." ² In John's Gospel the disciple Thomas calls Jesus "My Lord and my God!" ³ Just last week we celebrated the coming of the "Holy Spirit," at Pentecost, ⁴ as recorded in the Book of Acts. And just a few minutes ago I read from Matthew's Gospel these words of Jesus: "Go ... and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." ⁵

The Doctrine of the Trinity, at its heart, tries to address the question, (or problem!) of how we Christians can claim with our Jewish forebears, or for that matter our Jewish friends, to worship the one true God, and worship Jesus Christ, (who also worshiped "God,") at the same time. Add in the Holy Spirit, and you get 1 + 1 + 1 = 1. My math skills may be weak, but even I know better than that. It doesn't require calculus to know that's wrong. That's simple arithmetic. That doesn't add up. Does it?

Know why? Not because we can't add! But because it isn't supposed to!! The Doctrine of the Trinity is not a problem.

The Doctrine of the Trinity, which is supposed to help solve our problem, our question, about the New Testament's frequent references to God, to Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit; and in particular, the church's worship of Jesus as Emmanuel, "God with us," when cast as a math problem becomes a problem to which there is no solution. Back to my earlier statement: "The Trinity is not a problem ..." It's a "solution."

The Trinity is also not something "to understand." A solution we can "prove" as in math. That's the rest of what I said. A hymn I almost had us sing this morning, No. 137 in The Presbyterian Hymnal, begins:
"We all believe in one true God,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
Ever present help in need,
Praised by all the heavenly host,
By whose mighty power alone
All is made and wrought and done." ⁶

That is not an "explanation" born of "understanding." That is an affirmation born of revelation. Not something we can figure out, as though we were preparing for an exam, but something we have been told to prepare us for life. And what that tells us is that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, known only through God's revealing of himself as we read in the Old Testament, is most truly seen for who he is in the life, death and resurrection of his "Son" Jesus of Nazareth, and He is present with us now as "Holy Spirit." The same God who was with us at the beginning, at creation itself, and with us in the flesh in Jesus, is still with us. That's what that says. The God who was there at the beginning, was here in Jesus Christ, is here in the Holy Spirit.

There are lots of theories about how that "explains" the inner life of God. We'd be better served to say it gives us "glimpses" of the inner life of God insofar as he chooses to let us see him. The Trinity is not an explanation of anything; it is a description of some one. And those words of Jesus that I read from Matthew suggest to me, at least, that that is true. That the Trinity is not something to be solved, but someone to be known. Someone whose name was unspoken by the Jews, but is familiar to us as "Jehovah" or "Yahweh," God as revealed and named in the Hebrew scriptures. If you want a formula: Jehovah = Yaweh = Trinity.

It's suggestive, if not definitive, that the phrase we use when we baptize someone, "Father, Son & Holy Spirit," is referred to by Jesus in that text from Matthew as a name. Not "names," plural, but "name," singular. Jesus was most certainly not naming three Gods. He was born, died, and rose again a Jew who believed in accord with the faith of his people expressed in the Shema: "Hear, O Israel, [Shema, O Israel]: 'The Lord our God, the Lord is one." ⁷

He was declaring the name of the one God, one Lord, to be "Father, Son & Holy Spirit." He may even have been giving us a glimpse of God. "God [who] is one but not solitary." ⁸ Who even within his own self is a God in relationship.

Some would have it that what we have here is the later church, justifying its worship of Jesus, by putting words in Jesus' mouth that made him God. Reason often raises questions like that about revelation. The Presbyterian Catechism answers that this way: "Question 61. Doesn't modern critical scholarship undermine your belief that Holy Scripture is a form of God's Word? No. The methods of modern scholarship are a good servant but a bad master ... The methods of modern scholarship remain a useful tool, while Holy Scripture remains reliable in all essential matters of faith and practice." ⁹

As a matter of practice, most Presbyterians hear the Trinity invoked in three circumstances (I had to get 3 points in here somewhere!) One, is in the singing of the Gloria Patri. Originally written to "Christianize" the reading or singing of the Psalms of the Old Testament, with a Christian, "Trinitarian" ending:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, Amen.

What was "In the beginning, is now, and ever shall be?" We sang it earlier: "God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!" ¹⁰ The Christian understanding of the Psalmist's God.

Secondly, you will hear the Trinity invoked as a blessing. You'll hear it about 20 minutes from now. Christians in Corinth Greece heard it about 2,000 years ago from Saint Paul: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you." ¹¹

And, third, you'll hear the Trinity invoked at baptism: Question 75. [In the Presbyterian Catechism] In what name are you baptized? In the name of the Trinity. After he was raised from the dead, our Lord appeared to his disciples and said to them, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19).

Question 76. What is the meaning of this name? It is the name of the Holy Trinity. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet they are not three gods, but one God in three persons. We worship God in this mystery.

Not in this mathematical proof, not in this explanation, not in this solution to a problem, but "in this mystery."

Some of you would say you've heard the Trinity invoked indirectly in more than a few three point sermons! Maybe, maybe not. But there is one more before this sermon is done. My last point is one we make together. Please stand and join me in affirming our belief in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in the words of the Apostles' Creed:

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
he descended into hell;
the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.
AMEN

1. "Trinity," The Oxford Companion to the Bible, 782.
2. Matthew 26:39.
3. John 20:28.
4. Acts 2.
5. Matthew 28:19.
6. The Presbyterian Hymnal, 137.
7. Deuteronomy 6:4 NIV.
8. "Catechism of the Catholic Church," 254.
9. "The Study Catechism," Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
10. The Presbyterian Hymnal, 138.
11. 2 Corinthians 13:13 NRSV.