• "Trinity Sunday, the Peak of the Mountain"
• Sermon for Trinity Sunday
• May 22, 2005
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

Since the Christian year began in Advent we have been ascending the mountain of the Christian revelation. We looked for Christ to come in Advent. Christ was born at Christmas and revealed as the Son of God in Epiphany. Christ suffered and died for our sins in Lent, rose from the dead on Easter and returned to heaven on Ascension. Then the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost.

On Trinity Sunday, we reach the peak of the mountain. We see the Father on his throne in radiant glory. We see the Son of God, the Lamb as though it had been slain (Rev. 5:6), exalted to heaven to share the glory of the Father. We see the Holy Spirit, through whom the love of Father and Son is poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5). We see three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit united in one divine being.

The Trinity is a mystery in the biblical sense of the word, which is different than the ordinary use. When we say of something, "It is a mystery," we usually mean that we are befuddled by it. I once lost a watch while doing yard work and what happened to it is still a mystery to me.

A biblical mystery is something that was once hidden but has now been revealed in Christ. The Trinity is a mystery in that it was hidden in the Old Testament revelation. It was present, but not fully perceivable. It has been revealed in the Incarnation of the Son of God and in the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

The creed of the Old Testament was Deuteronomy 6, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." The New Testament brings the unity of God into clearer light. God's oneness is not a numerical singleness. It is a unity of will, purpose and essence. Within the unity there are three. There is the Father who begets and loves the Son. There is the Son, the beloved, who is the image of the Father. And there is a Spirit, through whom the love and power of the Father and the Son are made manifest in the world.

When we look back into the Old Testament from the New, we can see the shadows of that which is made clear in Jesus Christ. We can see the second person of the Trinity. God created the world by speaking. As Psalm 33 says, By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made." When St. John tells us that, "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," it is revealed to us that the Word is a distinct, divine person.

In Genesis "the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters." The Spirit of the Lord also inspired the prophets and rested upon the kings and priests. On Pentecost, as the Spirit was poured out on the church, the Spirit was revealed to be another distinct, divine person.

Thus, we believe in one God who exists from eternity in three persons who are united in one substance, or essence, of being.

Biblical mysteries are a bit of a paradox. Even as they are revealed in Christ, there remains much about them that we do not know. We know God as Trinity, but we do not fully grasp all there is to know about God as Trinity. We get the sense of this in a verse from Ephesians. St. Paul prays that we "may know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge" (3:19). When we come to know the biblical mysteries, we come to know things that are beyond human knowing. We do not know them in the sense that we know how to solve an equation. We know them, perhaps, as one might know the table of elements-as building blocks for greater and more complex things.

In our practice of the faith, we must retain a balance between what is knowable and what is beyond human knowledge. Our theology is necessary to the knowledge of God. We must accept and submit to the revelation contained in the Bible and the creeds. Yet, we must also know that our theology only introduces us to God, the magnitude of whose being cannot be fully captured by our words.

People fall into errors on the two ends of the spectrum. Some Christians think that the faith is primarily a series of propositional truths to be grasped with the mind. Others think that God is beyond all theology so that even what has been revealed in Scripture and Tradition is rejected.

The liturgy captures the right balance. We have a liturgy of the Word, in which the truth of God is communicated to us through the Scriptures, summarized in the Creed and expounded upon in the sermon. The liturgy of the Word is about the mystery revealed.

But that is not the end of the matter. The revelation that comes to us through the word leads us to offer ourselves to God. In Christ and through Christ, we ascend to heaven to see God. The high point of worship is not when the preacher is explaining truth from the pulpit; the high point of worship is when we are on our knees, contemplating the mystery of God and entering into communion with the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.

The gospel from Revelation is apt for Trinity Sunday because it describes the worship of heaven, which we participate in through the liturgy. John is given a vision of heaven. It is a bit exotic-as well we should expect the very presence of God to be. John sees the glory of the divine presence, the mysterious cherubim and the liturgy of heaven.

John sees twenty-four elders who represent us, the people of God. As Ephesians says, we "sit in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 2:6). The Sanctus of the gospel is the Sanctus of the liturgy. We lift up our hearts to join "with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven," in the eternal praise of God... "Holy, Holy, Holy"-one Holy for each person of the Holy Trinity.

Jesus came down to us in the Incarnation to reveal the Father to us and die for our sins. The Holy Spirit was sent to us to cleanse us of sin and write the law in our hearts. We have been saved by the revelation of God as Trinity. Now, in worship, we ascend back to heaven with Jesus in the Holy Spirit to see the fullness of the glory of God; to know more and more of the love of God which passes knowledge.

Addendum.

The Creed of St. Athanasius:

Whosoever will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith...And the Catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons: nor dividing the Substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son: and another of the Holy Ghost...The Father eternal, the Son eternal: and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet there are not three eternals: but one eternal...So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty: and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties: but one Almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God: and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods: but one God....