Trinity Sunday 6/11/2006 Title: Importance of the Trinity Text: Deuteronomy 6:4

Trinity Sunday
6/11/2006
Title: Importance of the Trinity
Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:4, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." Deut. 6:4

Please join me in prayer. Almighty God, we give thanks to you for the love and grace you have always shown though your faithfulness toward us, as undeserving as we are. In a short time we will confess our faith in the work of the Holy Trinity, even though we cannot understand it. We humbly ask you through the Holy Spirit to help us to understand the importance of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity for our salvation. Amen.
On this Sunday, Holy Trinity Sunday, we Christians take a deep breath to confess the paradox that God is three Divine Persons, and yet "the Lord our God, the Lord is One." as we dust off the 1500 year old Athanasian Creed. When you finally make it to the end, you feel like you said something, but it is a bit incomprehensible, for you are not exactly sure what you said.
This side of the Resurrection, we never will get any closer to wrapping our minds around it all. In Paradise, we will know God fully, even as He fully knows us today. For now, we know only in part the paradox of God in three persons - and yet not three Lords – or three parts of the Lord, but only one Lord. Thanks be to God that He calls us to believe in Him and praise His name. He does not expect us to understand Him by the end of today. That is a great mystery beyond our ability to understand.
In our Gospel reading this morning, we see that Nicodemus did not understand it either as he asked Jesus, “How can this be?” after Jesus explained how, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”
He did not get it and no one since has understood it either. While it is true that no one this side of heaven can truly understand the doctrine of the Trinity, it is equally true that the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is the foundation on which Christianity stands. With out the doctrine of the Trinity there is no saving doctrine of Jesus and his free gift of salvation.
That is right. There is no saving doctrine of salvation without the doctrine of the Trinity. That might not sound right to you, because just like Nicodemus, we all have our preconceived notions of God which does not let the Trinity shine forth in all its glory.
In the limitation of our human reasoning, we simply cannot grasp the concept of there being be three persons in one that are equal, have always existed, and will always exist. I think that a majority of Christians, if pushed into really having to describe their believe in the Holy Trinity, would end up saying that God first appeared as the Father in the Old Testament, then as Jesus in the New Testament, and finally as the Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended into heaven. Logically that makes sense.
But, unfortunately, that way of thinking will get you into serious spiritual trouble, for it is the same false teaching that caused the church fathers to get together and hammer out the Athanasian Creed that we will confess to believe in just a few minutes.
It was a heresy that needed to be dealt with in the 5th Century, just as it has to be dealt today. The doctrine of the Trinity is not, I repeat not, something that you can choose to believe in or not to believe in if you are going to be a true Christian. The Trinity is something that you have to believe in as being a true statement. If you do not you are not saved.
That sounds harsh, but it is the truth, for the Trinity is the center of the Gospel. When God becomes just the object behind the modes or ways, of interacting with his creation, such as first being the creator, second being the redeemer, and thirdly being the Holy Spirit, why could not Buddha, the Muslims Allah, or Vishnu the head Hindu god be just another mode or way that God interacts with us?
That does not even take into account all the thousands of other ways that people think God comes to them. I firmly believe that many who consider themselves to be Christians don’t truly believe what the Athanasian Creed states and that is why they can profess that only Jesus Christ saves them, but in the next breath state that God has other ways of salvation for those who do not know of Jesus saving work.
The Athanasian Creed clearly distinguishes Christians from all other people on earth. Jews, Muslims, unbelievers, and those who claim to be Christians, but do not believe in the Trinity, do not know the true God, for without the Trinity they can never be confident of God’s love and blessing. They are therefore damned, for they do not have what Jesus Christ won for them on the cross.
The Athanasian Creed really just states in much more detail what Jesus said about himself and the Father in John 14: verses 9 and 10 where Jesus answered Philips statement, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” with, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me
The full meaning of Jesus’ words “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.” even though a mystery are still a comfort for all of us sinners, for in that statement we know that not only is Jesus’ love a declaration of the Father’s love, but that his words declare his oneness with the Father in terms of the love God has shown the world; Jesus and the Father are one God. Therefore, we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.
We only confess the Athanasian Creed once a year, and most people moan and groan about it, but for us to properly understand God, we need to maintain our understanding of the Trinity as inadequate as that understanding might be, for without it, we will fall prey to some other god.
Please join me as we confess our faith in the Holy Trinity, the only true God, the only way one is saved. (Recite Athanasian Creed)