Trinity Sunday

+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

On this first Sunday after Pentecost, the Church observes what is called Trinity Sunday. It is right that we do this, because we worship a God of three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is a great mystery, something that we cannot fully comprehend.

Nevertheless, over the centuries, men have tried to illustrate the Holy Trinity in ways that we can better understand. St. Patrick is said to have used the shamrock to illustrate the Trinity--each of the leaves of the shamrock representing Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the entire shamrock being one God. Or there is the analogy of water: water comes as a liquid, a vapor, or as a solid, yet all three are water. But all that really does is get you mocked by Lutheran Satire for using bad analogies!

Fundamentally, if we look at the Athanasian Creed, we confess that God is a God of three Persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each Person is co-equal and co-ternal with the others. There are not three Gods, but one God.
While the Scriptures reveal this to us, the Trinity is not explicit. The word trinity never appears in the Bible. But over the centuries, as the Church has reflected on the Scriptures and on God's saving acts through history, it came to understand that God has revealed Himself as a Trinity of Persons. St. Athanasius said that the Son of God was fully God. St. Basil and St. Gregory declared that the Holy Spirit was also God.

And when we then read the Scriptures through the lens of this understanding, we can see all three Persons of the Godhead at work in the economy of salvation. In Exodus, we see God the Father speaking to Moses from the burning bush, commissioning Moses to go in His name to deliver the people of Israel from bondage in Egypt, and then leading the people through the wilderness with the pillar of flame.

In Romans, St. Paul talks about God the Holy Spirit works in us to transform us from the inside out. Through the power of God the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to cast aside our sinful nature (the flesh) and walk in the power of the Spirit; to live a life of holiness and righteousness. St. Paul says, For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"

Then in today's Gospel lesson from St. John, we read about Jesus' famous encounter with Nicodemus, where Jesus declares to him, "You must be born again!" To be born again is to be spiritually transformed by the saving power of God, the saving power revealed in the mighty works of God the Son Jesus Christ through His death, resurrection, and ascension, and through the power of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus then declares those famous words, "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 again we see the Persons of the Godhead at work: God the Father sends the Son who dies on the Cross for the salvation of the world. God the Father also sends the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the empower the Church to carry out its mission of proclaiming the Gospel, to draw people into God's fellowship, and to transform them so that they die to their sinful nature and live according to the divine nature of God Himself.
To believe that God is a Trinity of Persons is to believe in the God of the Bible and to recognize His saving acts on behalf of the human race.

The evidence for this is to observe the claims of the counterfeit religions of the world. They deny the Trinity. Whoever they are; Moslems, Mormons, or Moonies, they all deny the holy Trinity. And to deny the Holy Trinity is to not only reject God, but to reject the salvation that God the Holy Trinity brings us. Because without each Person of the Trinity, salvation is not possible.

Rather than exhaust ourselves by trying to fully understand this sacred mystery, it is better for us to simply worship and adore the Unity. As we spend time in His presence, and we experience His love and power, we recognize that He is God and we are not. And when we fully rest in that truth, then we begin to understand who we are and what we were created for. We begin to live in the reality that our God is holy and mighty, and that we are to love Him, serve Him, and give all the glory to Him.

​+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.