Trinity Sunday

John 3:1-15 - Trinity - May 22, 2016
Confronting God

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Today is Trinity Sunday.  The word Trinity is not found in the Bible.  It’s a word that was created by Christians in order to express what the Bible teaches about God.  The Bible teaches clearly that God is three distinct Persons in one divine Essence: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  That’s what Trinity means: tri + unity = Trinity.  The only true God is the Triune God.  All true Christians believe this.  Every true Church confesses this.  The Christian Church has learned to articulate her faith in the three ecumenical creeds – the Apostles, the Nicene, and the Athanasian – not by thinking really hard about God – not by sitting down and figuring out his mind – no, but by learning from Holy Scripture who God is and what God does, and by defending the doctrine they learned when controversy arose.  Our creeds are not extra words that we impose upon the word of God.  They are concise expressions of the holy Faith that God’s word teaches us. 

Trinity Sunday

John 3:1-15 - Trinity Sunday - May 26, 2013 

We Speak of What We Know

“You shall have no other gods before Me.”  By this commandment, it is obvious enough that there is only one God. There is none beside Him.  Of course, even natural man is able to figure this much out by thinking about it.  But that isn’t what makes Him our God.  By using our mind, we can conclude that God exists.  Sure.  But it is not by thinking hard that we come to fear, love, and trust Him. 

Jesus was once asked by a Scribe, as recorded in Mark 12, “Which is the first commandment of all?”  Jesus answered by quoting from Deuteronomy 6: “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.”   Jesus almost quoted from Deuteronomy word for word.  But He added something – not like He added to Scripture – No, but He clarified the meaning of Scripture.  He who Himself fulfills all of Scripture summed up what it means to love God with your heart, and soul, and strength by including the phrase, “and with all your mind.”  

See, it’s perfectly accessible to human reason that there is one God. 

Trinity Sunday

John 3:1-15 - Trinity - June 3, 2012

Where The Spirit Blows

Today is Trinity Sunday.  The word Trinity is not found in the Bible.  It’s a word that was created by Christians in order to express what the Bible teaches about God.  The Bible teaches clearly that God is three distinct Persons in one divine Essence: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  That’s what Trinity means: tri + unity = Trinity.  The only true God is the Triune God.  All true Christians believe this.  Every true Church confesses this.  The Christian Church has learned to articulate her faith in the three ecumenical creeds – the Apostles, the Nicene, and the Athanasian – not by thinking really hard about God – not by sitting down and figuring out his mind – no, but by learning from Holy Scripture who God is and what God does, and by defending the doctrine they learned when controversy arose.  Our creeds are not extra words that we impose upon the word of God.  They are concise expressions of the holy Faith that God’s word teaches us. 

We are saved by faith.  St. Paul writes, “With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”  The word creed simply means I believe.  When we confess what we believe, we are confessing two things: First, we confess the content of our faith – that is, who God is, what he has done, who we are, and how we are saved.  Second, we confess that this is what we ourselves personally believe as the body of Christ and as individual members of it.  The two always go together: the objective truth, and our subjective commitment to it.